It's Par for the Corpse

The Greenskeeper

2002 | Color | 99 Min | 1:85:1 | R | Horror| 2.0 | Ghostman on third productions

Source: VHS

Directors:
Kevin Greene

Writers:
Kevin Greene

Stars:

Allelon Ruggiero

Bruce Taylor

Ron Lester

Johnny Rocker

Melissa Ponzio

When someone starts using the business end of a pair of hedge clippers on the more snobbish patrons of a posh country club, rumors fly the slice-n'-dice handiwork is the signature of The Greenskeeper, a serial killer long thought dead from an explosion years ago.

 Allen, whose mother owns the country club, begins having nightmare visions where he is haunted by The Greenskeeper. Allen begins to suspect he may have a connection to The Greenskeeper he never dared imagine. Meanwhile, the beautiful jet setters of the club decide to sneak in after hours for some skinny-dipping, partying, and sex-on-the-green. Unfortunately for the teens, The Greenskeeper decides to crash the party, and armed with golf equipment and landscaping tools, begins picking off Izod's one by one. Joining forces with his new love interest Elena, Allen races to the club to try to save his friends. He and Elena must play a deadly game of cat and mouse to survive because when you have a tee time with The Greenskeeper, it's par for the corpse.

Johnny Rocker

So every Halloween I try to scratch a few tiles of my bucket list The Greenskeeper is one of those titles. Here is why. I picked this up on VHS over the summer for .25 cents for two reasons. One never heard of it and the cover art was classic stuff so why not. Then when I flipped it over to read about the movie there it was a little bubble that read Soundtrack by Kip Winger. Wait what? I'm in! Plus a Greenskeeper as a killer is new to me I and liked that idea.

There is nothing groundbreaking here a young cast that will give you the stereotypical baseline playboy playmates, sex, drugs, party's, and, of course, a washed-up baseball player. Not sure how they talked Johnny Rocker to be in this movie but they did. And it's just a name all he does it looks at the camera with that come get me ladies look. Blah.

Christi Taylor

I will say this being a fan of low to no budget films this one really does a great job of getting you into the story. The cast is likable the death scenes are new and fresh. Despite being a B-film filmed mostly in the Atlanta area, it did receive much mainstream press coverage. The film received publicity in sports media because of the involvement of Rocker, who was an All-Star Major League Baseball pitcher that had made inflammatory political comments. It also featured music by platinum hair band artist Kip Winger and a former Playboy model Christi Taylor.

So let us get back to that soundtrack. At first all I could focus on was the bad attempt to bring back 80's style synthesizer music. This totally missed its mark. I was getting upset with it just based on this crap coming from my speakers. But when the killing started so did the fine work of Winger. For all the dark scenes, he dug into the world of horror that we know. You can tell he did his homework to set the mood and tone. I would pick up the score if it was out there. Very hit miss for the soundtrack.

I would like to point out that one of the main charters has set the horror world on fire, as well as the small screen. All though not her first role Melissa Ponzio but one that I'm sure helped her get noticed. Ponzio stole the show the second she hit the screen. A very strong charter and easy to fall in love with. Now we all know her as Karen from The Walking Dead, Melissa McCall on Teen Wolf and of course Donna Robbins this year on Chicago Fire.

So in the end is The Greenskeeper worth the time and effort. I would have to say yes. Once the story gets going and the soundtrack kicks in the pace pick's up and this becomes a fun movie to watch. Is it a Halloween movie? Well yes and no it takes place in the fall has a killer but it is golf and to me that's a spring summer kind of sport. You can find this on DVD with 19 other movies from Echo Bridge making it a bargain bin must.

3 Bloody Brains out of 5

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