Rampage (1987 film)
5.4 /10 1 Votes
44% Genre Drama, Thriller Country United States | 6.4/10 Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date September 11, 1987 (1987-09-11) (Boston)November 23, 1988 (1988-11-23) (France)October 30, 1992 (1992-10-30) (United States) Based on Rampage by William P. Wood Writer William P. Wood (novel), William Friedkin (screenplay) Cast (Anthony Fraser), Alex McArthur (Charlie Reece), (Albert Morse), (Kate Fraser), (Dr. Keddie), (Mel Sanderson)Similar movies 12 Angry Men , A Time to Kill , The Rainmaker , Witness for the Prosecution , Shottas , The Juror Tagline This is the face of Charles Reece, a mass murderer. He doesn't think he's done anything wrong. The real crime is that the jury may agree. |
An assistant district attorney (Michael Biehn) opposes a public defender (Nicholas Campbell) pleading insanity for a killer (Alex McArthur).
Contents
Rampage is a 1987 American crime drama film written, produced and directed by William Friedkin. The film stars Michael Biehn, Alex McArthur, and Nicholas Campbell.

Rampage delves into the subject of legal insanity, so often the default defense in modern-time gruesome crime trials. Alex McArthur plays an outwardly normal guy who goes on incredible killing and mutilating sprees until (and even after, when he escapes for a short time) he's captured. When he comes to trial, the liberal DA (Michael Biehn) is torn between his own leftist leanings and the reality of the heinous crimes for which the accused is being tried. He must argue for the death penalty.
Plot
Charles Reece is a serial killer who commits a number of brutal mutilation-slayings in order to drink blood as a result of paranoid delusions.
Reece is soon captured. Most of the film revolves around the trial and the prosecutors attempts to have Reece found sane and given the death penalty. Defense lawyers, meanwhile, argue that the defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity.
The prosecutor, Anthony Fraser, was previously against capital punishment, but he seeks such a penalty in the face of Reeces brutal crimes after meeting one victims grieving family.
In the end, Reece is found sane and given the death penalty, but Frasers internal debate about capital punishment is rendered academic when Reece is found to be insane by a scanning of his brain for mental illness. In the ending of the original version of the film, Reece is found dead in his cell, having overdosed himself on antipsychotics he had been stockpiling. In the ending of the revised version, Reece is sent to a state mental hospital, and in a chilling coda, he sends a letter to a person whose wife and child he has killed, asking the man to come and visit him. A final title card reveals that Reece is scheduled for a parole hearing in six months.
Cast
Influences
Charles Reece is loosely based on serial killer Richard Chase. The crimes that Reece commits are slightly different from Chases, however; Reece kills three women, a man and a young boy, whereas Chase killed two men, two women (one of whom was pregnant), a young boy and a 22-month-old baby. Additionally, Reece escapes at one point - which Chase did not do - murdering two guards and later a priest. However, Reece and Chase similarly had a history of mental illness and an obsession with drinking blood. Unlike Reece, Chase was sentenced to death, but he was found dead in his prison cell, an apparent suicide, before the sentence could be carried out.
Soundtrack
The films score was composed by Ennio Morricone and was released on CD by Virgin Records.
Release
Rampage was originally shot in 1987 in Stockton, California; it played at the Boston Film Festival in September of that year, and ran theatrically in some European countries in the late 1980s. Plans for the films theatrical release in America were shelved when production studio DEG, the distributor of Rampage, went bankrupt. The film was unreleased in North America for five years. Director Friedkin reedited the film, and changed the ending (with Reece no longer committing suicide in jail) before its US release in October 1992. The European video versions usually feature the films original ending.
Home media
As of 2010, the film has been released on DVD only in Poland, by SPI International.
References
Rampage (1987 film) WikipediaRampage (1987 film) IMDbRampage (1987 film) Rotten TomatoesRampage (1987 film) themoviedb.org