The Killing Kind is an effective portrait of a young psycho, Terry Lambert, as played by John Savage. After two years in prison for a gang-rape he was forced to take part in, Terry returns home to the delight of his overprotective, doting mother Thelma (Ann Sothern). The young man quickly settles in, doing odd jobs around his mother's boarding house, but his true malevolent nature soon comes to light as he spies on pretty lodger Lori (Cindy Williams),kills his mother's cat, and takes revenge on those responsible for his incarceration: the girl who accused him of rape and the inept lawyer who failed to defend him.

Savage is suitably menacing as nut-job Terry, his murders utterly callous, but this is Sothern's movie, the actress putting in a wonderful performance, Thelma a strangely sympathetic character even if the terrible situation she finds herself in is of her own making: left to bring up Terry on her own, it is her loving but somewhat perverse relationship with her son that has created a monster - a manipulative young man who had way too many 'uncles' while growing up, has always had his own way (chocolate milk on tap),and who reacts to affection from the opposite sex with violence. Such is Thelma's devotion to her son, she even helps him to dispose of the body of one of his victims! In a touching final act, which sees the police called by repressed nosy neighbour Louise (Luana Anders),Thelma takes her own son's life rather than see him arrested once again.

Troubled and unstable Oedipal wreck sex offender Terry Lambert (an excellent and convincing performance by John Savage in an early lead role) gets released from prison after serving a two year sentence for gang rape he was forced to participate in and returns to the gloomy boarding house run by his doting and desperately lonely overbearing mother Thelma (superbly played with moving restraint and subtlety by Ann Southern). Terry develops an unhealthy fixation on comely, but naive aspiring model new boarder Lori Davis (a fine portrayal by Cindy Williams) and plots revenge on the folks responsible for sending him to jail. Director Curtis Harrington, working from a grimly compelling script by George Edwards and Tony Crechales, delivers an arrestingly stark, sad, and deeply creepy portrait of everyday madness, despair, denial, and the darker side of smothering motherhood that inevitably begets insanity and tragedy while doing his trademark expert job of creating and sustaining a bleak and seamy atmosphere that proves to be quite potent, intriguing, and ultimately heartbreaking as the depressing narrative unfolds towards a shattering bummer conclusion. Moreover, the uncomfortably incestuous and suffocating relationship between Terry and Thelma, a severely deviant and twisted sexuality, a few shocking moments of sudden brutal violence, and a dryly amusing sense of black humor further add to this picture's supremely unsettling edge. Savage and especially Southern do sterling work in their parts, with sturdy support from Luana Anders as snoopy and repressed librarian neighbor Louise, Ruth Roman as successful lawyer Rhea Benson, Sue Bernard as trampy rape victim Tina Moore, Marjorie Eaten as the doddery Mrs. Orland, and Peter Brocco as Louise's domineering crippled father. Mario Tosi's stylish cinematography makes neat occasional use of artful dissolves, slow motion, and freeze frames. Andrew Belling's haunting melancholy score does the moody trick. Highly recommended viewing for fans of Harrington's often offbeat and impressive work.

Angry, deranged kid is paroled after serving two years in prison for taking part in a gang-rape; he returns home to his mother's boarding house in a cheaper section of Los Angeles but, with no plans (and no prodding from his gimme-a-little-kiss mommy),he goes after the women who did him wrong. Grimy, ineffectual Curtis Harrington-directed shocker, with a lame-duck screenplay credited to Tony Crechales and co-producer George Edwards. The plot cobbles together various ideas and scenes from a myriad of other thrillers (with a failed overlay of Hitchcock, besides),and the stray cruelty and general bad taste are often excruciating to wade through. Veteran actress Ann Sothern and the newcomers in the cast can possibly be forgiven, but what was Harrington's excuse? After jump-starting his career behind the camera with interesting curios, Harrington got stuck in a kind of post-"Baby Jane" rut, concentrating primarily on stories of delusional bottom-feeders operating on little money or brains; his sense of squalid atmospherics are far stronger than his talent in handling actors. A young John Savage is blobby and unformed in the leading role, while his character goes after female acquaintances without a provocative plan--he just seems restless and trapped by mama. Harrington must have known this script was a loser, injecting arty accouterments into the stew (slow-motion takes, flashback edits, and a really silly dream sequence). It doesn't work at all, and the movie failed to find the proper distribution after Universal passed. *1/2 from ****