Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Mark Honhorst This was actually a quaint and funny movie. Of course, the title doesn't make sense as the strangler isn't a teenager nor is he limited to the strangulation of teenagers, and Mike and the bots of MST3K give it that extra something, but I liked how it all took place in one small town with only a few settings, and the loud music that plays almost all the time. (Sorry for that run on sentence there.) I liked that it took place in a tiny town because it almost seems like the film takes place in another dimension or another planet, man. It seems like the kind of place you would go if you wanted to escape from the big city. Of course, you'd have to face the teenage strangler, but it would be no worse than city life. Oh, and whiny, girly Mikey was the best part, of course! "A..And he didn't steal no bike, neither! I...I did!"

Lee Eisenberg I wish to say that "Teen-Age Strangler" was slightly better than most of the movies shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000", just because of that song "Yipe Stripes"; you gotta admit, it was a cool song. But other than that, every scene with the sniveling younger brother drags the movie down; I mean, what was that guy's problem?! So, as a mildly different take on the leather jacket genre, it deserves to get seen on "MST3K" to get the optimal experience. Aside from Mamie Eisenhower, other famous people cited by Mike (or was it Joel?) and the 'bots are Vivian Vance and Danny Thomas. And I will say that some of those girls are quite hot!

summer1967lovechild This campy whodunit is an example of the fun that was the 1960s. There's a distinct "Manos: The Hands of Fate" flavor to the film as we have a shrill, overacting female lead, a creepy Torgo-esquire janitor, an authoritarian cop, a jaunty soundtrack that never fails to entertain, various shots of teens necking, and plenty of Southern accents to go around. Some of the scenes are superfluous (such as just about any scene with the character Curly), yet there is little denying that overall the film is quite enjoyable. Perhaps most fun of all, though, is the unforgettable character of Mikey. He's the androgynous, whiny teen that you just can't help but love. I give the movie a score of 6/10, and the MST3K version a 9/10.

lemon_magic You have to like "Teenage Strangler". Or at least I do. There's so many problems and mistakes and inanities and miscues and missed opportunities here that it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet for your inner film critic. But it's still a likable (if laughable) film. The filmmakers didn't have a clue about how to write dialog, pace a scene, direct an actor, film a chase scene, edit a film, or, apparently, market their finished product for a wider distribution. And the acting on display here wouldn't pass muster at the local community theater tryouts. Every scene features some of the most tin-eared lines dialog you can possibly conceive, which are then delivered with some of the most hilariously inappropriate line readings ever kept on film. Example: "I knew a policeman named Henderson once." "The name I have is...ANDERSON." Another example. "I'll pick you up from school I don't know how this is going to end but BY JUPITER I won't be..." Everyone here is straining so hard to make a GOOD film, an IMPORTANT film that comments on contemporary morays while also displaying arch wit and hipness...and everyone here stinks up the joint something awful. Bill Rebane would abandon the project in despair. Ed Wood, Jr. would scrap these scenes as "unsalvageable". Herschel Gordon Lewis would decide that they just "weren't suitable". Larry Buchanan would...well, on 2nd thought, Larry Buchanan might use them. But only because he didn't have enough of a budget for another take. Highlights of "Teenage Strangler" include: The scene where "Mikey" and "Betty", in the emotional climax of the movie, have a joint meltdown in front of the police detective that will cause you to rupture your diaphragm. There is a hotrod 'drag race' scene where the hot-rods reach apparent speeds of 20 mph. The additional 15 mph 'chase scene' near the end of the movie between the same two hot-rods where the camera pans away and the Foley sound effects make it sound as if the driver shot himself and then exploded. There is the whole "I didn't steal no bike neither" subplot which exceeds all known FDA allowances for goofiness. There is the "juvenile delinquent gang" subplot which packs all the drama and emotional resonance of a toothpaste commercial. There is the psycho janitor, and the misunderstood sullen kid, and the "Yipes Stripes" dance party where the peppy girl dances and sings on the lunch counter in her pantaloons while the kids have epileptic seizures all around. (Oh no, my mistake, they aren't having seizures, they're dancing.) But you know something? It's all so kitschy and well meaning that you can't hate the people involved, and you end up enjoying "Teenage Strangler" for its campy sincerity and its fumble fingered tributes to far, far better films made by actual directors. The MST3K coverage of "Teenage Strangler" easily falls into their Top 10 all time enjoyable episodes. Let's hope it gets reissued on one of their DVD collections so it can continue to make our milk go down the wrong pipes and out our nostrils instead.