For the first two-thirds of this film I was like, “Meh, this is okay, I guess.” Then it hit the last act and went absolutely effing bonkers, and now I think “Death Spa” is one of the greats of American cinema.

So what happens in that last act? Let me put it this way: what doesn’t happen? A reanimated fish kills a guy. A girl gets killed by a blender! People catch fire. People are electrocuted. An eyeball explodes for no good reason.

It’s as if Hunter S. Thompson did his best drugs—the ones he saved for Christmas and birthdays—and then wrote a horror film.

I’ll try to summarize “Death Spa’s” plot. Similar to the movie “Killer Workout” which I reviewed a while back, the setting is a health club populated by hardbodied attractive twenty-somethings. In our first scene, a woman gets trapped in a steam room and suffers severe burns (though she survives). Soon, other people are being wounded or killed by the equipment.

What makes this spa unique is that everything is run by computer. So you might imagine we have a tale of technology gone rogue on our hands.

Except, wait—it also turns out that the owner’s wife killed herself a year ago, so it’s possible her spirit is exacting vengeance.

Several people investigate, including cops and a psychic specialist. Some characters fare better than others.

When you are running a spa and the equipment starts murdering people, the smart move would be to shut the whole operation down. Instead, the owner decides to go through with the planned Friday night Mardi Gras-style celebration. 

Suffice to say, it doesn’t go well for the attendees. But it goes very well for any viewers salivating for scenes of wanton violence and ridiculous spurts of gore.

I’m really kind of amazed this film doesn’t have more of a rep. I wouldn’t place it as high as “Re-Animator” on the 80s horror scale, but it gets close.

YOU MUST SEE THIS!