After serving six years in the state pen for murder, Johnathan Klick (kin of infamous Mort "Mad Dog " Klick, of course) is paroled and makes his way to Las Vegas - the City of Sin, and the perfect place to continue his deranged rampage of five-fingered mayhem and murder! Yes, it's true! Ray Dennis Steckler's homicidal psycho in the notorious cult classic "The Hollywood Strangler..." has found a new home, and new victims in a turgid sequel that could only be called THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER!

Flashback to Hollywood, six long years ago...young women are brutally strangled by psychotic photographer with some pretty serious woman issues. But as the film shifts to today, a radio announcer informs us the strangler, one Johnathan Klick, is being released on a technicality from the Nevada State Pen. Two no goodnick ruffians, Clarence and Jack, listen to this news with little interest; they're getting ready for their own criminal agenda in Las Vegas. Klick walks away from the prison, also heading towards Sin City. Inevitably, the trio winds up in the same seedy nightclub, ogling the wares of Miss World Burlesque. Soon Clarence and Jack hit the streets, looking for a quick pick up, while Klick makes his way to the fringes of a big pool party. There, he hides in the bushes until one nubile partygoer is left alone by her boorish boyfriend. Then Klick vents all his pent up angst with one brutal squeeze of his hands on the poor girls fragile neck.

The parallel paths of terror continue. Clarence and Jack cruise the streets of Vegas leering at the city's female populace with an occasional mugging to keep money in their pockets for broads and booze. Klick keeps finding himself in situations where he just can't control himself - even getting a job as a pizza man leads the poor fool into temptation. And with poor impulse control, Klick can only react as he always has - and so many beautiful Vegas girls are soon victims of the hands of Johnathan Klick. How many will die in Klick's relentless reign of terror? And what will happen when Klick's path crosses Clarence and Jack's again in an unavoidable confrontation of cagey madman and sociopathic thugs?

Unfortunately for all those Steckler fanatics out there, THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is just not one of his better films. The ironic thing is, the major component missing from this Steckler film is Steckler himself; he only works behind the camera this time. There is no real storyline; the film is really nothing more than two long parallel sequences interspliced until they intersect near the end, and the actual finale of THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is the most abrupt I've ever seen - the film doesn't end as much as it simply stops. What we need is an onscreen character - Cash Flagg preferably - to be involved in tracking down Klick and the muggers to tie the narrative together. The radio announcements, meant to do this very thing, are not strong enough to carry the film along. We need a hero to root for against the evil we're seeing. As it stands, THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is a menagerie of repetitious scenes that take us along to an unsatisfactory conclusion. Now that being said, the structure of the movie is a good study for students of film. Steckler shows his usual flair for getting the most out of everything he films. With his usual budgetary constrictions (i.e., he has no money), Ray stages all his shots for maximum effect, using lighting and locale like few other directors can. Since Ray had footage of a rodeo and a swimming pool party, he uses them as framing situations to add scenes with Klick or Clarence and Jack later. An interesting bit to this film is the fact most of the dialogue is looped during editing; there are only minimal amounts of actual synched sound. Actors who are 'speaking' are shot from the back or off-camera; we see other characters reacting to the spoken words. Therefore the audio quality is constant, although only adequate compared to today's films. Picture-wise, the movie hasn't aged well. There is graininess throughout the film that actually is kind of fitting since THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is intended as a 'grindhouse ' film. The musical soundtrack, usually so funky, is unremarkable this time. As a narrative 'commercial' film, THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is a long winding road to disappointment. As a primer for young filmmakers on how to maximize what you've got, Steckler shows us he is indeed a teacher from whom we can learn valuable lessons in the craft.

As if they needed to reinforce Steckler's ability to create a lot from a little, Media Blasters has included two 'lost' Steckler shorts on the DVD of THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER. These were found on some pretty old tapes, so the quality is pretty bad on both FACE OF EVIL and SLASHED. FACE is basically a shorter version of SERIAL KILLER with a different cast. It's a parallel story of a pervert strangling models and a lone biker robbing people whose stories meet in a dramatic climax. Of note is that Steckler included more explicit sex scenes, and Carolyn Brandt makes an appearance as well. SLASHED goes a step further - it is literally a re-editing of FACE and SERIAL KILLER, using scenes of Klick spliced with scenes of the biker. But the twist this time is that the killer is someone else. Imagine it campers...Steckler shoots rolls of film and edits together three unique films with the same basic footage. An amazing use of resources. Instead of dialogue, both FACE and SLASHED use only an eclectic (and at times, totally unrelated to what's on the screen) mix of music as the soundtrack. I swear, people get strangled to Enya-type music. The DVD also includes a great assortment of Steckler trailers for his better-known films as an extra bonus. For the real fans, the disc has a short interview with Steckler where he comments on the struggles to distribute his films, and yes, there is a full-length Ray Dennis Steckler commentary on THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER - the man forgets nothing. Again, while the actual film is no great shakes, Steckler imparts a lot of knowledge about all the aspects of production on a film, so it's worth it for would-be filmmakers to watch and listen.

THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is a sequel, and as with most sequels, is not nearly as good as the film that spawned it. For the mundane, it's one long home movie with the occasional splash of violence and nudity. For the MONSTERS-maniac, it's a long home movie with violence and nudity that we can learn from; staging shots, lighting, editing, and producing films with a budget of zero. Steckler teaches us by his example, and they're lessons we need to learn. So it may not be the most exciting 'class' for the would-be filmmaker - certainly in terms of story - but then again, it ain't Algebra II.