Sometimes, Gary Graver was making movies with Orson Welles. Other times, he was making ultra low budget films that were originally about soldiers burning down a temple to a snake goddess and being hunted years later by a Vietnamese child all grown up. Instead, the producers wanted a slasher set on a yacht. And that’s kind of what we got.

But man, what a cast! John Phillip Law? William Smith? Britt Ekland? Robert Quarry? Jillian Kesner from Firecracker and Raw Force? Any one of these actors will get me to watch a movie. All of them at the same time? Come on!

Shout out to Justin Decloux, who revealed on Letterboxd that the budget for this came from Fred Olen Ray bringing Commando Squad in under budget and Graver saying that he could make another movie with what was left. After Grave shot the film and made his cut, the producers hated it and asked Ray to reshoot it for $5,000, adding in the crazy weapon and bloodier kills. That same camera equipment for the extra scenes got co-opted to make Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and the movie ended — and that one — ended up being a big success.

Hey look — Britt Ekland starts this movie off in a straightjacket and it gets goofier from there. I can absolutely respect that. I also love that some actors in this are really trying to act (underline and bold that and make it very large in font size) while others are just trying to make a slasher.

That’s me — I’d rather a movie be a mess with a troubled production history than good sometimes.