''Rampage'' is a 1987 American
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
written, produced and directed by
William Friedkin
William "Billy" Friedkin (born August 29, 1935)Biskind, p. 200. is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the " New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in ...
. The film stars
Michael Biehn
Michael Connell Biehn ( ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in '' The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens'' (1986), and ...
,
Alex McArthur
Alex McArthur (born March 6, 1957) is an American actor.
Early life and education
He was born in Telford, Pennsylvania, the son of Bruce, a contractor, and Dolores McArthur. He studied acting at De Anza College and San Jose State University, ...
, and
Nicholas Campbell
Nicholas Campbell (born 24 March 1952) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor and filmmaker, who won three Gemini Awards for acting. He is known for such films as ''Naked Lunch'', '' Prozac Nation'', ''New Waterford Girl'' and the tel ...
.
Plot summary
Charles Reece 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 commits a number of brutal mutilation-slayings in order to drink
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...
as a result of
paranoid
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...
delusions. Reece is soon captured. Most of the film revolves around the trial and the prosecutor's attempts to have Reece found sane and given the
death penalty.
Defense lawyers, meanwhile, argue that the defendant is
not guilty by reason of insanity. The prosecutor, Anthony Fraser, was previously against capital punishment, but he seeks such a penalty in the face of Reece's brutal crimes after meeting one victim's grieving family.
In the end, Reece is found sane and given the death penalty, but Fraser's internal debate about capital punishment is rendered academic when Reece is found to be insane by a scanning of his brain for
mental illness. In the ending of the original version of the film, Reece is found dead in his cell, having overdosed himself on antipsychotics he had been stockpiling.
Alternative ending
In the ending of the revised version, Reece is sent to a state mental hospital, and in a chilling coda, he sends a letter to a person whose wife and child he has killed, asking the man to come and visit him. A final title card reveals that Reece is scheduled for a parole hearing in six months.
Cast
Influences
Charles Reece is loosely based on serial killer
Richard Chase
Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American serial killer, cannibal, and necrophile who killed six people in the span of a month in 1977 and 1978 in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed The Vampire of Sac ...
. The crimes that Reece commits are slightly different from Chase's, however; Reece kills three women, a man and a young boy, whereas Chase killed two men, two women (one of whom was pregnant), a young boy and a 22-month-old baby. Additionally, Reece escapes at one point—which Chase did not do—murdering two guards and later a
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
. However, Reece and Chase similarly had a history of mental illness and an obsession with drinking blood. Unlike Reece, Chase was sentenced to death, but he was found dead in his prison cell, an apparent
suicide, before the sentence could be carried out.
Soundtrack
The film's score was composed, orchestrated, arranged and conducted by
Ennio Morricone and was released on vinyl LP, cassette and compact disc by
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...
.
Release
''Rampage'' was filmed in 1986 in
Stockton, California. It played at the Boston Film Festival in September 1987, and ran theatrically in some European countries in the late 1980s. Plans for the film's theatrical release in America were shelved when production studio
DEG, the distributor of ''Rampage'', went bankrupt. The film was unreleased in North America for five years. During that time, director Friedkin reedited the film, and changed the ending (with Reece no longer committing suicide in jail) before its US release in October 1992. The European video versions usually feature the film's original ending.
In retrospect, William Friedkin said: "At the time we made ''Rampage'',
roducerDino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...
was running out of money. He finally went bankrupt, after a long career as a producer. He was doing just scores of films and was unable to give any of them his real support and effort. And so literally by the time it came to release ''Rampage'', he didn’t have the money to do it. And he was not only the financier, but the distributor. His company went bankrupt, and the film went to black for about five years. Eventually, the Weinsteins’ company Miramax took it out of bankruptcy and rereleased it. But this was among the lowest points in my career."
Reception
In his review, film critic
Roger Ebert gave ''Rampage'' three stars out of four saying, "This is not a movie about murder so much as a movie about insanity—as it applies to murder in modern American criminal courts...Friedkin
smessage is clear: Those who commit heinous crimes should pay for them, sane or insane. You kill somebody, you fry—unless the verdict is murky or there were extenuating circumstances."
In retrospect William Friedkin said: "There are a lot of people who love ''Rampage'', but I don’t think I hit my own mark with that".
Home media
As of 2010, the film has been released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
only in Poland, by SPI International.
The American edit of the film was released on
LaserDisc in 1994 by Paramount Home Video.
Friedkin's original cut featuring the alternate ending and some additional footage was released on
LaserDisc in Japan only by Shochiku Home Video in 1990.
References
* Friedkin, William, ''The Friedkin Connection'', Harper Collins, 2013
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampage (1987 Film)
1987 crime drama films
1980s crime thriller films
1987 films
American crime drama films
American crime thriller films
American films based on plays
American independent films
Films about cannibalism
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group films
1980s English-language films
Films based on American novels
Films directed by William Friedkin
Films scored by Ennio Morricone
Films shot in California
Films about mental health
American serial killer films
1987 independent films
1980s American films