I have to say that I loved Ray Dennis Steckler's "Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher," and was pretty excited to get my hands on this so-called sequel. Unfortunately, even with about four decades of poverty-row filmmaking under his belt, 'ol Ray hasn't gotten any better at wielding a fine-tuned script. "Las Vegas Serial Killer" marks the return of Jonathan Glick (played once again by Pierre Agostino), as some ridiculous circumstances release him from prison (funny, I thought he looked pretty dead at the end of "Hollywood Strangler"), only for him to wreak havoc on the homely females of Las Vegas (the 'dancers' in this flick are pretty frightening and out-of shape). Meanwhile, two dumb biker types are zipping around Vegas in their red car, commenting on women's legs in between bouts of purse-snatching & robbery; throughout this exercise in futility, I was hoping Glick and the bikers would somehow tie into each other, and they do, in one of the most preposterous endings I've ever seen. This standard-issue Steckler experience seems to have been shot, with a plot (if it can be called that) inserted in post-production, where a radio commentator tries to string a nonsensical chain of events together (in one lame scene, the music on the radio continues to play even as the narrator interrupts with a 'news flash'); characters don't speak unless their backs are to the camera or they're off-screen altogether (this gets very irritating very quickly), not that anything they say is relevant. Despite the stupid plot and ridiculous ending, there are some positive aspects to this low-budget mess: Steckler's Zapruder-esque cinematography is still raw and fascinating to watch (though the movie often threatens to turn into a LV travelogue), with a penchant for tourist attractions and parades; Agostino has a definite presence as the Glick, and to see him working in a pizza parlor is a laugh riot (though is it conceivable that every woman he meets would want to 'do' him?). But a major component of this film's failure is a lack of Carolyn Brandt, who played the "Skid Row Slasher" of the original and had a charisma and sex appeal that none of the characters in this film can even approach. As a fan of "Hollywood Strangler," this movie is a huge disappointment, and for non-fans, it's bound to be much worse.

4/10

For starters, you just can't film your actors and then dub all the dialogue during post-production. It looks and sounds absolutely ridiculous. Luckily, or unluckily, it doesn't affect the quality of this film.

Mr. Steckler has treated us to an utterly pointless and boring hunk of junk here. It all starts out with a very flimsy premise. A serial killer of seven women has just been released on parole after serving only six years. Ugh...those darn liberals!! It comes as little surprise when several women soon turn up being strangled to death. Our serial killer becomes the main suspect. Talk about hard-nosed detective work.

The viewer is treated to unbearably long scenes of a couple of guys standing around on a Vegas street corner making lewd comments about women walking by while occasionally photographing them. Who are these guys? We have to wait until late in the film to fully realize their (un)importance. There is also a scene showing a parade go by. That would be fine if, let's say, there is an assassin on one of the floats and he is plotting to kill the President or something. Alas...no. Not here. It exists only to pad the running time. Thanks Mr. Steckler!

You get to see multiple topless women and a couple of brain-numbingly long scenes of women dancing seductively in some dive bar. Notice a pattern? Such as way too many scenes of absolutely nothing that go on way too long? That doesn't make a fun movie. 1/10

You know for Ray Dennis Steckler to do a sequel, it has to be special. And special this film is. Picking up 7 years after THE Hollywood STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER (1979), THE LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER is one of the most inept yet alluring films I have ever seen.

Here is the set up: Pierre Agostino gets out of prison on a technicality ("We never found the bodies so he must have been lying.") and walks around Las Vegas for 90 minutes. Occasionally he stops to ogle a woman dancing before strangling random women while "Die! Garbage! Die!" is dubbed onto the soundtrack. Interspersed between the killings are the exploits of two small time hoods who randomly rob people. They seem to always show up where Agostino is whether it be a bar or a pizza parlor adorned with Steckler movie posters (yeah right!). That is all that happens in the film until the two robbers run into our titular killer again and shoot him. Fin.

It really amazes me how Steckler got progressively worse as his career went on. I mean something like THE CHOOPER at least has sync sound. Here he took a page out of Charles Nizet's directing and shot most of the scenes without sound. Only one scene appears to have been shot with sound on location. Everything else has dialogue looped in later over reaction shots from characters. In essence it is a silent film with a dialogue score as you never see lips matching dialogue. This produces a few funny bits like when they dub the voice of a lady passing out casino flyers and a random person responds, "Ah, get outta my face!" Agostino, a Nizet veteran, looks damn rough reprising his role as the killer. When you get a close up of those eyes, you can feel the pain.

If anything, this film serves as an amazing time capsule of mid-80s Las Vegas. You want to see sleazy? This is it. Nothing makes my skin crawl more than the backyard party for Cash Flagg that Agostino crashes. A bevy of young girls surround by the creepiest old men you will ever see. Did I mention the men were in speedos? Steckler didn't shoot with sound because he probably didn't want the audience to hear the number of "I'll make ya famous" lines being dropped in succession. The film also captures the 80s Las Vegas strip with all the glory of the short shorts and unisex feathered hairdos. Take that Martin Scorsese and your CASINO!