Dark Sky Films is one of a handful of companies making a habit of rescuing B films from obscurity and giving them fairly lavish DVD presentations. 1974's The Killing Kind is not a great film, but it's a well produced piece of psychological horror with a grindhouse era degree of sleaziness, and based on what director Curtis Harrington says in an interview on the disk (the one bonus feature included) more people are probably going to see the film through this DVD release than did during its brief theatrical run.

Terry Lambert (John Savage, who would later appear in The Deer Hunter) has just been released from prison after serving two years for sexual assault. He returns to his mother's boarding house where she eagerly takes him in, but there's something not quite right with Terry's relationship with his mum (Anne Sothern). He always calls her "Thelma" and never "Mom," and there's something disquieting about how close they are. Terry is carrying around a lot of anger over his incarceration, insisting that he was unjustly accused. Considering we eventually learn that he is impotent this would appear to be true, but that doesn't necessarily make him any less psychotic, and he's soon seeking revenge against the girl who accused him and the lawyer that failed to get him released.

Louise, the mousy neighbor who you can tell is a librarian even before she says so, has her own parental issues. While drunkenly coming on to Terry, she admits to having fantasies about putting ground glass in her wheelchair-bound father's food. Terry spurns her advances, not realizing what a dangerous enemy he's making in the process. Thelma rents exclusively to elderly women, but she makes an exception for a plucky young wannabe model named Lori, played by a pre-American Graffiti Cindy Williams. Having her close by brings Terry's misogynistic tendencies to the surface.

The print looks far better than one might expect for an obscure film from 1974. The film sports an impressive cast with two performers at the beginning of their careers and one screen veteran with only a handful of films left in her. The actors are what make this one work, making a fairly simple story work better than it might with lesser actors. There's no gore to speak of, but the characters have enough icky-ness that you won't miss it.

Director Harrington is best known in horror circles for What's the Matter With Helen, Night Tide (an early Dennis Hopper vehicle), and Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? I personally know his work best from Queen of Blood and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, both of which were produced by Roger Corman and built around existing special effects footage from a Soviet made science fiction epic.