''Destroyer'' (also known as ''Shadow of Death'') is a 1988 American

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...

directed by Robert Kirk, and starring

Lyle Alzado Lyle Martin Alzado (April 3, 1949 – May 14, 1992) was an American professional All Pro football defensive end of the National Football League (NFL), famous for his intense and intimidating style of play. Alzado played 15 seasons, splitting hi ...

Clayton Rohner Clayton Montague Rohner (born August 5, 1957) is an American actor. He made his film debut in the comedy ''Just One of the Guys'' (1985), and had subsequent roles in the horror films ''April Fool's Day (1986 film), April Fool's Day'' (1986), ''B ...

Deborah Foreman Deborah Lynn Foreman (born October 12, 1962) is an American photographer and actress. She is perhaps best known for her starring role in the 1983 film ''Valley Girl'' opposite Nicolas Cage. She is also regarded as a scream queen and known for ...

, and

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor, director, and singer. Perkins is best remembered for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller '' Psycho'', which made him an influential ...

Plot

Ivan Moser (Lyle Alzado) is a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who has been convicted of the

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

, and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

of 23 people. Moser is given the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

electrocution Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death. The term "electrocution" was coined ...

. At his execution, he boasts of having killed 24 people. A power outage caused by a riot prevents the execution, but Moser receives a jolt of electricity before the power fails. The prison staff assumes that Moser is killed during the riot, but he manages to escape. The prison subsequently is abandoned. Moser lives within the abandoned prison with the assistance of his father, who had been employed as a guard. Eighteen months later, a film crew arrives at the prison to shoot an

exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...

entitled ''Death House Dollies''. They discover that Moser survived his electrocution due to an unusual genetic gift. The jolt of electrical energy made him "half-alive", leaving him in a

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

state and granting him spontaneous regeneration.

Cast

as Susan Malone *

as David Harris *

as Ivan Moser *

as Robert Edwards

Theatrical release and home media

The film was released theatrically in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by ''The Movie Store'' on September 28, 1988. It was also released on VHS and

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...

by ''Virgin Vision'' that same year.

Scream Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released the film on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

in a double feature with ''

Edge of Sanity Edge of Sanity was a Swedish death metal band that, alongside Opeth, is commonly regarded as being the first to fuse extreme metal styles like death and black metal with progressive rock. The group was founded by Dan Swanö in 1989 and ende ...

'' in 2016.

Reception

Although the cast was praised, particularly Alzado and Perkins, the film received mostly negative reviews. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews was disappointed by the film, gave it 2 out of 4 and wrote: "Rarely as much fun as one might've anticipated (and hoped)..."

References

External links

* * 1988 films 1988 horror films 1980s slasher films American serial killer films American action horror films American supernatural horror films American prison films American slasher films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{1980s-horror-film-stub