AllMovie

Prolific trash-horror director Andy Milligan churned out this truly strange slasher-love story as one of his last features. The Weirdo is packed with obsessions that anyone familiar with Milligan's work will recognize, such as virulently negative depictions of motherhood and the clergy. Amateur thespians and sluggish action are in unfortunate abundance as well. The first hour of The Weirdo is a limp character study of the titular hero, a mildly retarded 22-year-old who seems to be a magnet for abuse. His tragic love affair with a physically handicapped girl unfolds at a glacial pace, and their childlike dialogue bounces inanely off each other. After an interminable length of time, splatter fans are finally rewarded with a rash of poorly rendered rubber gore effects that lack realism but score with panache. With several unnecessary characters (like Mrs. Martins' attractive female boarder, who is apparently included only to take a sexy bubble bath), and a long wait for action that will undoubtedly irritate the only audience that might be interested, this is a film that is impossible to recommend for anyone. Though marketed to home video as The Weirdo, the opening credits identify the film as Weirdo, The Beginning, suggesting that Milligan may have harbored hopes of establishing a horror franchise. Despite an ending that points to a potential sequel, it was not to be, and Milligan died a few years later, a victim of the AIDS virus.