my Movie

Movie Details

Title:   Impulse
Director:   William Grefe
Year:   1974
Genre:   Horror
Times Seen:   2
Last Seen:   06.25.07

Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)

Notes History
Date Viewed Venue Note
06.25.07Alamo DowntownThis Screening is part of event: Half-Ass-A-Thon
For the fourth (and originally last) movie of the night, Harry relinquished control to the Alamo who used the spot to justify paying the rental fee to show this film again. Personally, I would've paid $25 to see this film alone so it single-handedly made the night a success for me. Lars got up on stage and started talking about "our greatest living actor today": William Shatner. He described this film as incredibly erotic if you're into Shatner. Originally titled "Want a Ride, Little Girl?" the film we're all about to watch is none other than IMPULSE.

Although I can't say I've seen all of Shatner's ouvre, I can say that what exploitation stuff I've seen him do is amazing. Kingdom of the Spiders, Big Bad Mama, and his tour de force phenomena in this movie are all great. Besides that, they showed a trailer for White Commanche which looked incredible and Sleazoid Express had nothing but good things to say about him in Roger Corman's The Intruder (AKA I Hate Your Guts) (a film I'm dying to see) so... Shatner's Shatner for a reason.

I think my first note when I watched this a while ago gushed enough about this movie. It was an absolute joy to see at the Alamo... It got the best crowd reactions by far and the scene where he runs into the lady with the balloons is just so crazy... love it! although this time the scene that really stood out for me was when he was in his car trying to convince the little girl who'd just seen him kill a man (named Karate Pete) by hanging him and treating him like a punching bag then chasing him through a car wash and running him over two or three times that he deserved to die because he could break her little neck like that if he wanted so she should get in the car because he's really a nice guy. After she says no (can't imagine why!) and tells him that she's not afraid of him anymore, SHanter unleashed a three-act play in like 30 seconds. First it's a fist out the window with anger, then it's a pointed finger in the air with menace, and finally it's a glimpse of frightened little boy as he puts his car in gear and drives off. After that scene I looked over at Micah who was already saying "man, he's SO good."
01.28.07Borrowed Holy Shit.

William Shatner.

Man...


That poor unfortunate woman with the baloons. Nobody deserves to be ground up into dog food. To say such a thing is just... just... classic.

I loved every frame of Shatner in this movie. Since I never watched Star Trek, I was slow to come around to the church of Shatner... I thought he was great in Kingdom of the Spiders and Big Bad Mama and generally like his goofiness now but after this, color me converted. Man oh man oh man oh manoman.... Shatner takes every conceivable second to be a bastard in this movie. I loved LOVED when he hustles his woman out of her shop so she can get him her money then a guy walks in and immediately he's "we're closed" and not even looking at the guy!

Normally I complain in mystery books/movies/tv shows whenever they have this big reveal that someone on the good guy side is actually a psychopath. Like, the cop's boss turns out to be the homicidal maniac serial killer or the president turned out to be behind the terrorist activity that morning... because how are they gonna spend so much time acting completely normal and passing the tests and putting in the years of paying your dues and having a wife and kids and all that, then as soon as its revealed that they're secretly the bad guy they let loose this crazy-man laugh and their eyes go all shifty. No amount of TV criminal psychologists telling me "they could appear completely normal in everyday life, just like your boss or the president" makes me believe that if you hung out with him long enough, you'd see something.

Well, all that said, I COMPLETELY believe that William Shatner's character in this movie is a complete nutjob. Looney bin material right from the start. Sure he acts normal and has a good front but you see it... it's so great.

Oh man, after he hits the dog and justifies it by saying "they're real good at licking their wounds. He'll clean himself up and be alright" HAH!

I really hope Lars decides to run this again as a Weird Wednesday sometime because, as much fun as I had with it tonight alone, I bet it KILLS with a theater full of Shatner-ites. Until then, time to make a copy before I return this to Micah.