Director and writer Erick Santamaria only made one movie (or did he? Letterboxd also lists three Spanish-language movies, La masacre de Ponce, La Tormenta and Los hijos del vicio) and this is it. He wrote the script along with his star, William Kerwin, and Kerwin’s brother Harry. Of course, by this point people may have known the actor from being in Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs! But now, he wasn’t the hero. Now, he was the villain named Bill, an artist who loses his mind when his models move.

The Kerwins left the environs of Florida behind to come to Canada for this and oddly, this is the only acting role for Neil Sedaka. Why the singer of “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” would choose a scummy drive-in movie to be in is a mystery. Yet here he is as Bob, who is dating Betty (Linda Christopher) and ends up being seduced by her sister Arlene (Christopher’s real-life sister Jean) after a concert by JB & The Playboys. Maybe it was because Neil got up on stage and sang “Waterbug” with them.

One may also wonder why the movie has shifted from a murderous amateur artist killing women — with a speargun! — and suddenly has become a soap opera. I have learned that when it comes to movies of this ill repute to not ask these types of queries.

After this sisterly affair, Bob and Betty go back to their college and Arlene ends up hiring Bill. She wants him, after all, despite the fact that he instantly looks like a killer from a Canuxploitation horror movie set in Quebec because that’s exactly who he is. She keeps trying to get in his slacks and he keeps blowing her off. Finally, he consents to sketch her. She keeps moving and he tries to playfully strangle her. After she fights him off, he apologizes and explains why he’s how he is: he once helplessly watched as three girls drowned. Now, he has nightmares about watching them all over again as a fourth woman shoots a man with a bow and arrow. His psychologist told him to paint what was in that dream but he’s never been able to get it right because these women keep moving around. She’s dumb enough to allow him to stay in the house and even worse, to skinny dip around him. He loses it all over again, strangles her and leaves her in the very convenient walk-in cooler that her house has. Now, he can sketch and paint her dead body and achieve his need to paint that dream.

Now, Bill gets his plans really going. He places an ad for someone to care for his sister and Pat (Mary Lou Collier) applies and instantly is added to the meat locker. So is lounge singer Nikki (Andrée Champagne, who sings the song “Montage” and went on to be the casting director of Quest for Fire), who is also posed for Bill’s etchings. Finally, a friend of Arlene’s comes to check on her and ends up becoming the final woman in the painting, but then the power goes out and Bill’s plans melt, so to speak. It all comes together quite well.

Unreleased in the U.S. until 1970 — as  Decoy For Terror — Playgirl Killer promises nudity and mayhem and delivers jazzy music and saturated semi-violence. But who cares? You already paid for your ticket and you just get the chance to let it all play out. I’m a sucker for movies where artists go wild and destroy people in the pursuit of their aesthetic pursuits.

Bonus points: A theremin-heavy soundtrack.

You can watch this on YouTube.