The rape scenes were a bit too graphic.But I thought the film had something about the sick world we inhabit.And the acting was suprisingly good,especially the scene where Deborah Shelton interviews the girls for a modeling job.They were all so natural.Even Miss Shelton!.I would definately recommend this movie.The tension was unbearable at times!
8 Reviews
Perfect garbage !
Phroggy22 March 1999
Few films have left me with such a feeling of unease, and this is not a compliment. Since I saw it in a theater (How it ended there I can only wonder) I was subjected to 90 mn of hateful, derivative garbage, the main impression being a bit like this other sick-o movie "Don't answer the phone" - but worse. The nastiness of it all, rape and all, is shown without any distance (unlike strong stuff like "Last house on the left") and utter contempt for the (perfect ?) victims and everybody involved, leaving the viewer to be treated as a sadistic voyeur. At the end I felt like taking a shower. No credits to the director
Demented Trash
angelsunchained8 August 2018
Sick film about an AIDs infected psychopath raping and infecting innocent woman. What is the point of this film? This is not entertaining or terrifying ; just terribly demented. Some passable acting, but the storyline is just too mentally disturbing. Bring a barf bag with you, if you decide to watch this toilet bowl waste of film making.
A passable thriller with highly misogynistic streak.
HumanoidOfFlesh2 June 2008
A psychotic man named Brandon Poole played by Tom Dugan,mad at the female race because he's contracted the AIDS virus,travels around in his pickup truck raping and infecting women with the disease.He works for a moving company,picks his next two victims,aspiring models Carrie and Melissa,when he moves their belongings into a new apartment in Los Angeles.When in the apartment during the moving phase,Brandon drugs the milk in the refrigerator and returns that night to find them passed out on the floor.He breaks into the apartment and he spits through a plastic tube directly into Carrie's nose and then cuts his wrist and bleeds into Melissa's mouth.He then rapes Carrie and when he hears her baby crying in the next room,he screams to Carrie, "I have news for you,slut.Your kid is an orphan!"..."Perfect Victims" is not an easy film to stomach.It's pretty sleazy and depraved.The idea of AIDS-infected misogynist is repulsive enough to make some viewers disturbed.Tom Dugan is particularly memorable in a truly demented performance.8 out of 10.
Obscure but ultimately misogynist 80's thriller.
Coventry8 March 2010
I can't believe I still keep discovering 80's horror/slasher movies I've never heard about before?!? I like to think of myself that I have built up a little bit of horror knowledge over the years, and yet I keep finding obscure and long-forgotten stuff left and right; mostly from the 80's. I guess this genre really is inexhaustible. But anyway, "Perfect Victims" is more than just an average 80's slasher and actually belongs more in the small cult category of misogynistic thrillers. It's similar to notorious titles like "Maniac", "Don't Answer the Phone", "Bloodrage" and "Don't Go in the House". Movies in which a perverted and sleazy male individual, who never bothers to keep his identity a secret, exclusively targets young girls and kills them in the most brutal and repulsive ways imaginable. The pervert in "Perfect Victims" is a frustrated carrier of the AIDS virus. He's really angry at women – ALL women – and intends to spread the disease that is slowly killing him around as much as possible. So basically, he's even worse than a killer; he's a really sick bastard! His modus operandi exists of drugging the girls with large animal tranquilizers, whether Hollywood fashion models or random girls in sleazy bars, before barbarically raping them. The head of a modeling agency, who's also an ex-model herself, is targeted as the next victim because she called him a sick person live on national TV. Tom Dugan, the actor playing the rapist is quite "good" (if you can call it that). He looks like a genuine creep and someone you really don't want to mess with if you accidentally step on his toe in a bar. The film isn't great, with a very uneven pacing and too few character developments, but it's definitely a lot more horrific than I expected. The story is plausible and unsettling and there are a handful of infuriating and shocking sequences featuring violence towards women. Heavy stuff.
Tour de force
zippychimp2 February 2008
Tom Dugan as Brandon Poole gives a chilling tour-de-force performance. The scene of him surrounded by his childhood trophies when the newscaster enrages him is one of the all time best. There are also some great one-liners in this film that you'll remember long after the credits fade. What makes it so scary is the people who can seem so calm and harmless on the surface are the ones who behind closed doors can become the most frightening. I also believe Kelly from Cheers is in this movie in a notable footnote. Tom Dugan is terrific in this and would love to see him again in the same kind of role because he does play it so well.
Nerve-jangling low-budget rape film.
EyeAskance24 January 2008
Judging from the slipcase of this video, I was expecting another bra-and-panties thriller...this, however, is one unexpectedly mean-spirited little flick.
Filmed in Los Angeles environs, this poorly distributed film denotes girls from a distinguished modeling agency being stalked by an AIDS infected rapist who harbors a sick desire to infect his victims. The ensuing rape scenarios are graphic and highly unsettling, and will likely upset sensitive viewers(females, especially, should proceed with caution). MOD SQUAD veteran Clarence Williams III is on hand as the ironclad investigator, and he performs well(as do the other principal castmembers...a surprise for a film as minor as this).
Despite potent moments, however, the overall handling of PERFECT VICTIMS is fairly pedestrian...on the whole, it's a nothing-terribly-special film which might be of passing interest to enthusiasts of disturbing crime cinema.
5/10
Filmed in Los Angeles environs, this poorly distributed film denotes girls from a distinguished modeling agency being stalked by an AIDS infected rapist who harbors a sick desire to infect his victims. The ensuing rape scenarios are graphic and highly unsettling, and will likely upset sensitive viewers(females, especially, should proceed with caution). MOD SQUAD veteran Clarence Williams III is on hand as the ironclad investigator, and he performs well(as do the other principal castmembers...a surprise for a film as minor as this).
Despite potent moments, however, the overall handling of PERFECT VICTIMS is fairly pedestrian...on the whole, it's a nothing-terribly-special film which might be of passing interest to enthusiasts of disturbing crime cinema.
5/10
Standard thriller lacking in style
lor_27 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
My review was written in August 1988 after watching the movie on Academy video cassette.
"Perfect Victims", a/k/a "Hidden Rage", is a standard-issue thriller for video release that sports the dubious novelty of a maniacal killer on the loose who has AIDS.
Deborah Shelton, of Brian de Palma's "Body Double", topines for hubby/director Shuki Levy, cast here as a high-powered models' agent who becomes the target of violent nutcase Brandon (Tom Dugan). First Brandon uses his modus operandi of a veterinary drug to knock out two of Heltons's petty clients (Nikolette Scorsese and Jackie Swanson) before raping Swanson.
In the third reel, cop Clarence Williams III announces solemnly the result of a blood test: "the killer has AIDS". This topical touch certainly grabs one's attention, but proves to be irrelevant to the ction. Dugan plays the heinous murderer well, but character's lifelong resentment against women is ably and typically expressed in killings. As demonstrated in a clumsy voiceover ending, pic would play identically without the AIDS gimmick.
Shelton and the supporting cast are effective, with director Levy's self-penned orchestral music score a plus. What's lacking is the visual bravura of the master, Hitchcock, or his pupil, De Palma.
"Perfect Victims", a/k/a "Hidden Rage", is a standard-issue thriller for video release that sports the dubious novelty of a maniacal killer on the loose who has AIDS.
Deborah Shelton, of Brian de Palma's "Body Double", topines for hubby/director Shuki Levy, cast here as a high-powered models' agent who becomes the target of violent nutcase Brandon (Tom Dugan). First Brandon uses his modus operandi of a veterinary drug to knock out two of Heltons's petty clients (Nikolette Scorsese and Jackie Swanson) before raping Swanson.
In the third reel, cop Clarence Williams III announces solemnly the result of a blood test: "the killer has AIDS". This topical touch certainly grabs one's attention, but proves to be irrelevant to the ction. Dugan plays the heinous murderer well, but character's lifelong resentment against women is ably and typically expressed in killings. As demonstrated in a clumsy voiceover ending, pic would play identically without the AIDS gimmick.
Shelton and the supporting cast are effective, with director Levy's self-penned orchestral music score a plus. What's lacking is the visual bravura of the master, Hitchcock, or his pupil, De Palma.
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