Impulse

Impulse (1974)

Before I even begin this review I need to make a confession. The director of this movie, William Grefe, made one of my favorite drive-in movies of all time. That would be the awesome killer snake movie Stanley. Not only that but I had the chance to interview Grefe for the Gutmunchers podcast (episode 16… cheap plug!) and he is one of the nicest guys that I’ve ever had a chance to talk to. So I might be just a bit biased here. With that out of the way lets talk a bit about Impulse.

The movie opens up with a kid seeing his mom getting slapped around. Trying to protect her he grabs a nearby sword and goes after the assailant. He ends up killing the man and then the action movies to the present, with the present being the early ‘70s that is. The boy, Matt, has grown up to be a con man with some issues. As the movie goes along we see in a series of audio flashbacks (don’t know how else to describe them) that he spent some time in an institution after the killing. Either he had issues before or being locked up caused some problems, but now Matt has impulse control issues. When he gets upset or is under stress he has a nasty habit of doing away with whomever is annoying him. The latest woman that Matt is conning has a young daughter that sees him kill someone, but since she is a pain in the keister to begin with no one believes her. Will Matt get away with murder and their money, or will he finally get caught?

I really dig this movie. I wasn’t sure at first because the movie starts off a bit slow in pacing. I also wasn’t terribly fond of the daughter character, Tina, as she is really annoying. She spends a good 20 minutes of the movie just whining and being a pain. Though this ends up being a good thing, because later on when no one believes her it makes sense to the audience. Where the movie really takes off is when the Matt character starts to loose it and take out some of his frustrations on the other characters. There is an early killing to sort of set the character up, but it isn’t until he gets involved in his latest scam that the fun really starts. This is the strongest part of the movie and by far the most entertaining as well.

Speaking of entertaining if I am to be honest I probably like this movie as much as I do because of the casting of William Shatner in the lead role of Matt. Impulse is a regional movie made for the drive-in circuit and because of that it has a certain enjoyable cheesiness to it. But I don’t know if it would work as well as it does without an actor like Shatner chewing up the scenery with such reckless abandon. He is clearly having fun with the role and that just makes it all the more enjoyable for the audience.

There is no doubt in my mind that my favorite Grefe movie is still going to be Stanley, but Impulse is another solid and entertaining movie from him as well. Toss in Mako Jaws of Death and you have a director that has an excellent track record. If you dig drive-in cinema then you have to check out Impulse.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer