Aerobicide

Aerobicide (i.e. Killer Workout) (1987)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: David A. Prior

Starring: Marcia Karr, David Campbell, Fritz Matthews, Ted Prior, Teresa Van der Woude

From: Shapiro Entertainment/Winters Group

This sure was from the director of Deadly Prey & Sledgehammer. The only reason I tackled Killer Workout: recently on a messageboard, a user posted an image of a VHS cover of Killer Workout, only it went by the title Aerobicide… which is the better name, is the title of a song on the soundtrack, and one scene featured graffiti w/ that word—and Death Spa. More on Death Spa the movie at the end.

This user did not provide and never did provide any context or explanation for posting that cover. The presumption was “they wanted to hear what others thought of the movie” but no one did respond. Thus, might as well see another David A. Prior movie. This is not as hysterical as Deadly Prey but at least it’s not as mind-numbing as Sledgehammer although that doesn’t mean Aerobicide isn’t incoherent & befuddling.

Murders start occurring at the spa/gym Rhonda’s Workout, there’s plenty of beautiful people, various red herrings, Rhonda herself (who is randomly bitchy sometimes) and the police detective, who is constantly bitchy for no reason. There are plenty of low-budget flaws: the acting, logic, storytelling, plot, the kills, etc. Yet, I laughed often while watching the film. The fact that the killer’s weapon looked like a giant safety pin (?!) was incredible.

As I didn’t expect high-quality cinema, I could instead bask in how 80’s this was: the vehicles, the hair, the makeup, the aerobics scenes, the score, the soundtrack. The latter two are hysterical; the lyrics to the original song—in a modern film, I’d claim that they were written by ChatGPT but in the late 80’s, I’ll say that they appeared to be written by someone who didn’t speak English as their first language! They could be that baffling.

If you want to see low-budget 80’s cheese via a VHS print (which at least on Prime) featured tape errors including a distorted picture for a full 30 seconds, Aerobicide is for you.