A dark night somewhere in St. Louis, Susan Narcross (Debi Chaney) arrives home to find her roommate Jenny Thompson (Pat Knapko) murdered, impaled on a door with a spear. Detective Sergeant Paul Dollinger (Nick Panouzis) and his partner Detective Larry Mead (Terry Ten Broeck) are put on the case. They interview Susan who tells them of a date Jenny had been on that night with a man named Charlie (Turk Chekovsky) who had been in the office where they work earlier in the day looking for a job, and that they should question her boss Donald Andrews (Bob Winters). The following day the two Detectives visit Andrews but he is unhelpful and evasive and seems to be hiding something. Meanwhile, Charlie steals a car and picks a hitchhiker (Letty Garris) up. He drives her to a beach, she decides to take all her clothes off and have a swim in the sea. Charlie follows her in and strangles her. Charlie's real name is Charles Gunther an ex Vietnam vet who recently escaped from the Illinois state mental hospital. The guy has gone psycho because of the violence he witnessed in Vietnam, and the fact that a Vietnamese prostitute (Charlotte Littrel) taunted and laughed at him when he couldn't get an erection! Charlie has been hired by Stern (Barron Winchester) who runs a kangaroo court to correct injustices by the legal system and real courts, but Charlie has flipped his lid and is killing everyone he runs into, most of them being attractive young girls. After listening in on one of her bosses conversations and becomes suspicious, Susan herself becomes a target. Dollinger and Mead are baffled, all of their leads produce nothing but dead ends. Their Captain (Harry Gorsuch) is piling on the pressure, and they also have to deal with a sudden spate of suicides among criminals. Will they be able to save Susan and put an end to Stern's self righteous campaign of murder?

Directed by Peter Marris this is a bit of an odd film. It unsuccessfully blends various genres, little bits of horror with Charlie sticking pitchforks through girls throats and killing people with meat cleavers. War, there are various incredibly poorly done flashbacks of Charlie and Stern plus their fellow soldiers having gun fights in what looks like a football field and some local woods. Action, there's a small car chase with a few explosions and a shootout at the end. Romance as Mead and Susan become involved with each other, and crime with Stern trying to sort out St. Louis's injustices. It doesn't quite work, though. It's certainly different but just not very exciting or interesting. The script by Richard Yalem, who has a cameo as Peter Sykes who is thrown into the Mississippi in the opening sequence, is a little talky and reveals too much too soon, it might have helped if all these sub plots remained mystery's and were tied up at the end but instead the script reveals all very early on. Technically the film is poor, special effects, photography, acting, editing and music are all well below par. Talking of the music this film either borrows or more likely steals the theme tune to the British quiz show Mastermind, as someone who lives in the UK and has heard this music several times on Mastermind it sounds ridiculous to hear it on the soundtrack to this. I would probably describe this film as an interesting misfire. At least the makers tried to do something a little different, it's just a shame it doesn't quite work and the film lacks any kind of polish.