Synopsis
Pray He Kills You Before You Scream
A detective investigates a series of killings committed by a serial killer known as "The Black Angel." He begins to suspect that it might not be just a random group of murders.
1984 Directed by Howard Heard
A detective investigates a series of killings committed by a serial killer known as "The Black Angel." He begins to suspect that it might not be just a random group of murders.
I feel like Shadows Run Black would have to be pretty high up on a list of slasher movies featuring the most nudity. Of the six people killed by the murderer, five are nude women. These aren't just quick glimpses before the kill either. There are extended scenes of fully nude women brushing their hair, making coffee and investigating their apartment when their roommate doesn't answer. It's absurd.
It's hard to talk about the movie without discussing the nudity because it's so prevalent but also because the other aspects aren't all that interesting (poor performances, bloodless or offscreen kills). Well, there is an early role for Kevin Costner but he's only in a couple scenes. I'm sure I will have forgotten most of this movie in a few weeks and will only remember it as the Kevin Costner slasher with excessive nudity.
For slasher and/or Costner completists only.
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100 Horror Movies in 92 Days
Film 39/100
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Mondo Cinema is your trusted guide to the weird wonderful world of slasher flicks. Today, we are examining Kevin Costner's second movie ever Shadows Run Black...1981 or is it 84, or 86?
What could have been an interesting meditation on how 80s society treated interracial and gay relationships, Shadows Run Black is a painfully dull, almost bloodless slasher movie, that uses the plot as an excuse to move from one nude scene to the next. Even with all the nudity, it's about as erotic as a dumpster fire.
Judy Cole, (Elizabeth Trosper, Malibu Hot Summer..1981) a "young" college co ed, is being stalked by a masked maniac, called the Black Angel or The co ed strangler. (The movie calles…
Being a slasher movie fan, I've sat through the good, the bad and the truly awful. Knowing this featured Kevin Costner, I wrongly assumed it would be reasonably good. Nope. It's bad. Like a dumpster diaper on the hottest day of the year kinda bad.
Even the producers must have known this was a hot mess too because it sat on the shelf for a few years, until Costner got famous, and then it was released. He should have used his wealth to buy the rights and have every copy destroyed. It's a miracle that anyone involved in this slop ever succeeded at all in the motion picture medium.
As for the story, it's the usual maniac on the loose…
There’s boobies and it is painfully boring even with the boobies. “Fuck me, he finished it” me with anything Kevin Costner appeared in before he lucked into The Untouchables.
I really hate to sound like a scuzz, but the gratuitous breasts are the only things keeping my attention as I pathetically rewatch this corny slasher flick. Not young Kevin Costner. Not "special guest star" George J. Engelson. The party hats.
The kills are mostly off screen or bloodless stranglings. The in-between scenes are dull police and family stuff. The killer is of the ski mask variety, which, to the film's credit, I've always found to be more threatening. Not recommended, unless... you know.
Shadows Run Black, is a kind of slasher/police procedural following the murderous antics of a dark, clothed entity called the Coed Killer. This is a jumbled, nonsensical movie, to the point that part way through it I convinced myself that it was an American, white bread Giallo film, so when weird scenes would appear and then are never spoken of again, I was like yeah...
The white bread, American version of a Goblin score is canned music from the generic film score library, which plays throughout. There is a long sequence where a magician's entire performance is featured with musical accompaniment by a guy playing a stand up bass. He does a card trick with tarot cards and a loaded…
Wow this is bad. Kevin Costner would agree (he’s actually in this lol) and let me get something straight. The only reason this isn’t 2/10 is because I enjoyed it. The acting, and pretty much every element of this film sucks. This has a laughable amount of nudity too. And the film overall is pretty bland but I still kinda liked it.
This has got a pretty low rating, and I understand that for some this isn’t a good movie.
I on the underhand did find some redeeming qualities.....Mostly when the racist older brother get his, and all the weird police stuff, the killer’s nick name is The Black Angel, the killer is actually just who the killer should be, and there is copious amounts of sleaze. To a point where you really should watch it at work.... I mean I did, but I’m not a good employee.
Watch it just so you can see a young Kevin Costner before he changes all of our live with his amazing groundbreaking film, Waterworld.... The movie where Kevin Costner uses himself as bait to kill a future whale, and he is actually the Gilman.
This movie finds an audacious middle ground between boring and horny. I present you… borny!
Despite being advertised on its VHS video front cover as a traditional slasher film,this relatively bloodless thriller actually plays out like a poor man's attempt at an American giallo as SHADOWS RUN BLACK has a masked killer in black clothing stalking a random group of young ladies whom he kills off as the local police are on the look for him,with (future superstar/Oscar winner)Kevin Costner(DANCES WITH WOLVES,MAN OF STEEL) becoming the prime suspect(in his two sole scenes) while the killer soon targets a young gal(Elizabeth Trosper) who is having a relationship with a black guy(Terry Congie) much to the anger of her overprotective brother(Shea Porter[LUST FOR FREEDOM]).
A nearly production of future Troma Films producer/director Eric Louzil(FORTRESS OF AMERIKKA,CLASS OF…
Being an 80’s slasher fan it’s always a treat to find one that I have yet to see. Unfortunately I am scraping the bottom of the barrel with stuff like this. Shadows Run Black is an odd flick, it was made during the slasher boom(but shelved from the early 80’s til the mid 80’s) but it only gives 1 out of the 2 slasher requirements (loads of gratuitous nudity but little to no gore which poses a huge problem for the slasher enthusiasts! )On top of that it looks and feels like a 70’s police procedural drama in parts. The absolute worst aspect of the film is the score which is probably why it seemed more like small screen fare.…