''Relentless'' is a 1989 American

crime thriller film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by

William Lustig William "Bill" Lustig (born February 1, 1955, in The Bronx, New York) is an American film director and producer who has worked primarily in the horror film genre. He is the nephew of former middleweight champion Jake LaMotta. Film career As ...

and starring

Judd Nelson Judd Asher Nelson (born November 28, 1959) is an American actor. After a lead role in the film '' Making the Grade'' (1984), Nelson had his breakout with a starring role in the coming-of-age teen film ''The Breakfast Club'' (1985), which caused ...

Robert Loggia Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...

and

Leo Rossi Leo Rossi (born June 26, 1946) is an American actor, writer and producer. He is a character actor known for his role as foul-mouthed EMT Vincent "Budd" Scarlotti in the 1981 horror film '' Halloween II'', as the serial killer Turkell from the ...

. The film follows two

LAPD The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

officers on a hunt for a

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

. ''Relentless'' was the first in a series of four films starring Leo Rossi as detective Sam Dietz trying to stop a serial killer. The three sequels were all filmed and released

straight to video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strateg ...

within three consecutive years from 1992 to 1994.

Plot

Sam Dietz is a rookie

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

detective recently transferred from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He is paired up with veteran detective Bill Malloy in order to find and stop a serial killer. The killer is Arthur "Buck" Taylor, the son of a former LAPD cop whose motive for killing is frustration over not having been accepted to the force and failure in the eyes of his father. Taylor chooses his targets by randomly looking up their names in the

phone book A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

and skillfully covering up his tracks by using his skills and knowledge that he learned while on the force. While in pursuit of Taylor, both Dietz and Malloy become his next planned targets for murder.

Cast

Production

After the success of ''

Maniac Cop ''Maniac Cop'' is a 1988 American slasher film directed by William Lustig, written by Larry Cohen, and starring Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North. Z'Dar plays the titl ...

'', producer Leonard Shapiro of Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment wanted to do another picture with director

, and presented him with a bunch of scripts that had been submitted to the company. Lustig came across a script by

Phil Alden Robinson Phil Alden Robinson (born March 1, 1950) is an American film director and screenwriter whose films include '' Field of Dreams'', ''Sneakers'', and '' The Sum of All Fears''. Early life and education Robinson was born in Long Beach, New York, the ...

called "Sunset Slayer" that he thought was especially good, but when Shapiro's company ran into financial problems, Lustig ended up making the film for

CineTel Films CineTel Films Inc. was an independent film production company and distributor based in West Hollywood, California. History The company was founded in Chicago in 1980 as Chicago Teleproductions and later moved the company's headquarters to Los ...

, and changed the title of the film to ''Relentless'', which was the original title of the 1985

Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the first three films in the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present) and the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the super ...

movie ''

Crimewave ''Crimewave'' is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, from a screenplay he co-wrote with the Coen brothers. It stars Reed Birney, Sheree J. Wilson, Paul L. Smith, Brion James, Louise Lasser and Bruce Campbell, with the latter a ...

''. Lustig had contacted Raimi and asked him permission to use the title. Raimi approved, and he was given a special thanks in the film’s end credits.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of 50% based on reviews from 6 critics.

Sequels

''Relentless'' was followed by three

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

sequels, forming the ''Relentless'' film series. * '' Dead On: Relentless II'' (1992) * '' Relentless 3'' (1993) * '' Relentless IV: Ashes to Ashes'' (1994)

References

External links

* * Relentless (film series) 1989 films 1989 crime thriller films 1980s serial killer films American police detective films American serial killer films CineTel Films films Films directed by William Lustig American crime thriller films Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department Films scored by Jay Chattaway 1980s English-language films 1980s American films English-language crime thriller films {{crime-thriller-film-stub