Death Spa Review (1988) Worth Watching?

It's about a hip health club that could be haunted, making the lives of all the gym rats hell.

Death Spa was directed by Michael Fischa (who also directed My Mom's A Werewolf) and stars Brenda Bakke (from Trucks and Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight), Shari Shattuck (from Scream At The Devil and Immortal Sins) and Ken Foree (from The Rift and Cut/Print).

The evil of the past has found its place in the present

Death Spa takes place in the Starbody Health Spa, or shall I say starboDy hEAlTH SPA, at closing time. A woman settles into the steam room, after slowly getting naked while the camera pans her every inch (it's an 80's b-movie after all). Problem is, this is no ordinary steam bath. Right as she starts to slowly rub her perfectly tanned thighs for no reason the steam room starts to fill up with chlorine gas. This sends her to the hospital and kicks off a police investigation.

As detectives investigate the chemical attack people start getting hurt left and right. One woman falls off a broken diving board, one guy gets ripped in half by a rogue weight machine and a bunch of naked chicks get chased out of their sexy group shower by boiling water and flying wall tiles. Yeah, flying wall tiles. Someone, or something, is trying to kill off the gym goers, but who?

Death Spa starts off fast and fun with a few over the top kills and a lot of 80's music and dancing. But it starts to drag as it works through all the backstory. The movie takes a half an hour to tell you that the gym owner's wife is dead, that her brother blames him for her death and she maybe definitely could have come back from the dead to get even. Luckily, there's enough cheesy characters and fake-ass looking kills to keep things entertaining once the long intro wraps up.

"What a great weight reduction program. People get so thin they disappear." - Smug cop.

Death Spa is 80's cheese from start to finish. The premise is unique but the set design looks like cardboard and the kills are comically bad. They didn't even try to make the blood look real, I'm pretty sure it's actually ketchup. Of course Suspiria did the ketchup thing too and that worked. And this is what gives the movie its retro charm. I also like that Ken Foree had a role. He plays cool charismatic roles in a few horrors including Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Halloween and The Devil's Rejects.

Worth Watching?

Honestly, yes and no. It's a lot like Chopping Mall in style, so if you liked that you'll definitely like this. Death Spa has become a guilty pleasure of mine. If you're looking for something actually scary or even halfway believable, no way.

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