Aroused

The "title" of this user comment is obviously a reference/tribute towards the tagline of the legendary infamous early 80's exploitation classic "Maniac". Like another reviewer already righteously pointed out, this slick and surprisingly grim mid-60's grindhouse feature could be considered as a predecessor and definitely a source of inspiration for William Lustig's later film. Both movies revolve on a perverted New York serial killer, whose identity isn't exactly kept secret, who sadistically butchers women because all of them are whores. Moreover, both killers still hear their mommy's voice and both have an impressive yet uncanny collection of mannequin dolls in their living room. Last but not least "Maniac" is mostly famous for its disturbing atmosphere of nihilistic brutality and the extreme gore, and even though "Aroused" naturally isn't that engrossing, it's definitely ahead of its time in terms of sexual and violent explicitly.

Weird choice of title, actually, since "Aroused" basically centers on a freak with an aversion from sexual pleasure since he spent most of his childhood locked up in a closet whilst mommy received her sex customers. Thus he developed hatred towards prostitutes and prowls the streets at night looking for new preys. The movie opens with a powerful sequence, clearly inspired by Hitchcock's "Psycho", in which the maniac strangles a defenseless girl in the shower whilst experiences flashbacks of his dominant mother. A reckless rookie cop and the frank lesbian lover of a murdered prostitute combine forces to catch the killer, and particularly the woman plots a barbaric vengeance. "Aroused" is a pretty good movie for its kind. The script horribly drags in places and the jazzy soundtrack is extremely annoying, but those are typical and forgivable defaults in cheap & sleazy 60's sexploitation movies. At least the overlong and tedious parts always end with exciting moments, like when follow around a black prostitute for what seems to be hours only to witness her getting slaughtered nastily in the end. There's even suspense in certain parts and the dialogs as well as the performances are astoundingly above average. Heck, even the girls that go nude are all pretty attractive and that's a lot more than I anticipated. It's truly a shame Anton Holden didn't direct more of this type of raunchy horror/exploitation flicks (apparently he's more at home in the sound editing business), since most of them are worth bothering for.