USA. 1988.
Crew
Director – Michael Fischa, Screenplay – James Bartruff & Mitch Paradise, Producer – Jamie Beardsley-Jones, Photography – Arledge Armenaki, Music – Peter Kaye, Special Effects Supervisor – Robert E. McCarthy, Special Effects – Wizards, Inc., Makeup Effects – Mel Slavick, Production Design – Robert Schulenberg. Production Company – Maljack Productions.
Cast
William Bumiller (Michael Evans), Brenda Bakke (Laura Danvers), Merritt Butrick (David Avery), Robert Lipton (Tom), Alexa Hamilton (Priscilla Wayne), Ken Foree (Marvin), Frank McCarthy (Lieutenant Fletcher), Rosalind Cash (Sergeant Stone), Shari Shattuck (Catherine Evans), Joseph Whipp (Dr Lido Moray), Chelsea Field (Darla), Vanessa Bell (Marci), David James Shaughnessy (Freddie)
Plot
The Starbody Health Spa is plagued by a series of accidents and bizarre deaths. Laura Danvers, the girlfriend of owner Michael Evans, is hospitalised and nearly blinded after she is trapped in the sauna and chlorine pumped in. The police investigate, suspecting Michael’s former brother-in-law David Avery who maintains the spa’s computer systems. As the accidents and deaths continue, Michael believes the place is being haunted by his ex-wife Catherine who died in a strange fire.
Death Spa was a fairly average example of the 1980s horror film. Not exactly a Slasher Film but one premised around a series of novelty death set-pieces. Interestingly, it is also a film where the explanations for what are going on vie between a line-up of suspects and supernatural nemesis.
The film is largely founded around a series of cheesily entertaining gore and makeup effects, including full face meltdowns – even attack by the frozen fish in a walk-in freezer. The most ridiculous of these is one where director Michael Fischa gives us a shower full of naked girls and then has them attacked by flying bathroom tiles. Everything reaches a memorably mad Carrie (1976)-styled climax with the resurrected Shari Shattuck killing everybody as they are imprisoned inside the club amid mass meltdowns.
If nothing else, Death Spa is a film that is unapologetic about being exploitative. That said, there is never too much of it. The direction is adequate, a basic professionalism but nothing more than that. Michael Fischa strings the murders together with a nominal whodunnit plot, which is resolved in the far-fetched possession/Supernatural Retribution explanation at the end.
The film does have an interesting cast including Brenda Bakke, an actress who had a number of film and tv roles around this period and seemed almost on the verge of fame. Merritt Buttrick, Captain Kirk’s son in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), plays the hero’s brother-in-law, the tech guru who maintains the computers and is the chief suspect. Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead (1978) turns up as a trainer. Shari Shattuck, another actress who floated around in the 1990s and seemed almost on the verge of finding fame, is the avenging ghost wife. Rosalind Cash, an actress mainly from the 1970s and in particular the female lead in The Omega Man (1971), is one of the detectives. Chelsea Field, best known for Masters of the Universe (1987), NCIS: New Orleans (2014-21) and assorted other 1980s/90s roles, also has a minor role as one of the girls at the spa.
Director Michael Fischa has made a handful of other films, which fall either into the horror or action genres. His other genre films include My Mom’s a Werewolf (1988), Mascara Diablo (2005) and Deadtime Stories (2008).
Trailer here