“I just killed my wife and my mother. I know they’ll get me. But before that, many more will die…”
While preparing to appear at a drive-in showing his swan song movie before his retirement, aging horror star Byron Orlock questions his place in modern Hollywood, while young Bobby Thompson kills his family and goes on a shooting spree.
Peter Bogdanovich's directorial debut gave little indication of the films he'd be best remembered for, such as PAPER MOON, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, and WHAT'S UP DOC, but makes a lot of sense considering he was working for the 'King of B Movies' Roger Corman at the time. Tasked with writing a film for Boris Karloff, who owed Corman two days of work, and must include scenes from their last collaboration, a gothic horror film called THE TERROR, Bogdanovich and writing partner Polly Platt came up with the idea for Karloff to play a version of himself, an aging horror actor retiring from show business who ends up in the crosshairs of a very ordinary young man who embarks on a shooting spree.
The old-fashioned golden age of Hollywood collides with the all too real terrors of a modern world where the Vietnam War is televised nightly, and most certainly drawing inspiration from the 'Texas Tower Sniper' Charles Whitman, TARGETS is as relevant and frightening as ever as it gets under your skin in its portrayal of the mundanity of evil. - Steven Landry