Death Spa

{{Infobox film

| name = Death Spa

| image = File:Death Spa (1989) VHS cover.jpg

| caption = Promotional poster

| director = Michael Fischa

| producer = Jamie Beardsley-Jones

| writer = {{ubl|James Bartruff|Mitch Paradise}}

| based_on =

| studio = {{ubl|Maljack Productions|Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment}}

| distributor = MPI Media Group

| music = Peter Kaye

| cinematography = Arledge Armenaki

| editing = Michael Kewley

| released = {{Film date|1988|07||U.S.|ref1={{cite news|title=Show biz demands rewarding long run|last=Briggs|first=Joe Bob|author-link=Joe Bob Briggs|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118024465/|date=July 29, 1988|page=16|via=Newspapers.com|work=Alabama Journal}}}}

| starring = {{plainlist|

William Bumiller
Brenda Bakke
Merritt Butrick

}}

| narrator =

| runtime = 87 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $750,000

| gross =

}}

Death Spa is a 1988{{efn|Some sources indicate the film is a 1987 production,{{sfn|Lentz|1993|p=408}} though it was first released in July 1988.}} American supernatural slasher film directed by Michael Fischa and starring William Bumiller, Brenda Bakke, Merritt Butrick, Ken Foree, Karyn Parsons, Rosalind Cash, and Vanessa Bell Calloway. Its plot follows a series of mysterious deaths occurring in a high-tech Los Angeles health spa, resulting from the spirit of the owner's deceased wife, who possesses the club's intricate computer system.{{cite magazine |last=Collis |first=Clark |date=October 30, 2015 |title=Death Spa is the best-worst Halloween movie of all time |url=http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/30/paul-scheer-death-spa |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230205193830/https://ew.com/movies/best-and-worst-eddie-murphy-movies/|archive-date=February 5, 2023|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Rife |first=Katie |date=10 April 2015 |title=Gore Verbinski is making a movie about a killer spa |url=http://www.avclub.com/article/gore-verbinski-making-movie-about-killer-spa-217824 |newspaper=The A.V. Club |url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150410165600/http://www.avclub.com/article/gore-verbinski-making-movie-about-killer-spa-217824|archive-date=April 10, 2015 }}

In Europe and Asia, the film was released under the alternative title Witch Bitch.{{cite news |last=Harris |first=Blake |date=October 30, 2015|title=How Did This Get Made: Death Spa (An Oral History) |url=http://www.slashfilm.com/death-spa-oral-history/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230205193658/https://www.slashfilm.com/540804/death-spa-oral-history/|archive-date=February 5, 2023|url-status=live|work=/Film}}

Butrick's role in the film was his last before his death, while Parsons's role marked her feature film debut as an actress.{{cite news |last=Hale |first=Ann |date=June 3, 2014 |title=Film Review: Death Spa |url=http://pop-break.com/2014/06/03/film-review-death-spa/ |work=Pop-Break |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114170852/http://pop-break.com/2014/06/03/film-review-death-spa/ |archive-date=November 14, 2016}}

Plot

After closing hours in the Starbody Health Spa in Los Angeles, Laura Danvers is mysteriously locked inside the sauna, which fills with chlorine gas, inducing chemical burns on her skin and eyes, nearly killing her. Her boyfriend Michael Evans—the club owner whose wife Catherine committed suicide the previous year—is notified and rushes to the hospital. The club features a state-of-the-art computer system which controls its various workout machines and other features, and is managed by David, Catherine's twin brother.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives Sergeant Stone and Lt. Fletcher arrive at Starbody to investigate Laura's accident. Shortly after, club patron Darla is nearly injured when the bolts holding the pool's diving board break loose. Later, Robert is brutally killed when a weightlifting machine malfunctions, tearing him apart at his limbs. Marci Hewitt, another patron, is brutally killed in the locker room by a spear. Michael brings Laura, still wearing bandages over her injured eyes, to the spa. Laura blindly goes searching for her things inside her locker. There, inside the locker, Marci is visibly mutilated but not discovered. Darla plays a prank on them by dressing in a zombie mask.

Troubled by nightmares and visions of Catherine, Michael visits Dr. Lido Moray, a parapsychologist, for answers regarding the strange incidents at the club. Moray uses psychometry on an object owned by Catherine, and divulges details to Michael about Catherine's life, including her paralysis after a traumatic childbirth in which the infant died, her subsequent depression and jealousy of Michael, and apparent suicide by self-immolation. Michael is skeptical of Moray's reading, believing he may have obtained the information from newspaper articles about Catherine's death.

Later, patron Linda is lured to the spa basement where she is doused with acid as an apparition of Catherine looks on. Meanwhile, David visits the recuperating Laura—still wearing eye patches, rendering her unable to see—while she is alone at Michael's house. Moray arrives at the spa under the guise of an insurance investigator, and finds Linda in the basement, her flesh decimated and barely alive. He is confronted by an apparition of Catherine, who brutally murders him. The next day, Michael visits his lawyer Tom to return his wristwatch, which Michael found in the computer control room. Priscilla, who is having an affair with Tom, is accused by Michael of sabotaging the club, but she denies it; Tom, however, is revealed to be vying to take ownership of the club.

Michael appoints instructors Marvin and Jeffrey to secure the club's computer room and keep David away. Stone and Fletcher discover that David has been hacking into the club computer system from his home, and suspect David may be cross-dressing as Catherine. That evening, a Mardi Gras party is held at the club. Catherine appears to infiltrate the room and kill Jeffrey before donning his mask and costume and wandering through the party. Catherine, revealed to be a vengeful ghost possessing David's body and manifesting in her living form, kidnaps Laura before binding and gagging her and attempting to kill her using the club's high-powered tanning bed. Catherine terrorizes the partygoers from the control room, shapeshifting in front of Michael's eyes.

Catherine, using psychokinetic powers, causes staff member Rhonda to lose her hand in a blender accident, causing her to bleed to death; Fletcher is killed by a fish in a food freezer, and Priscilla falls victim to spontaneous human combustion. The partygoers attempt to flee in the melee, many dying in the process, while Catherine uses the computer system to lock the club. Michael intentionally fries the club's computer system using the fuse box, burning the still-possessed David alive.

Cast

{{Cast list|

William Bumiller as Michael Evans
Brenda Bakke as Laura Danvers
Merritt Butrick as David Avery
Robert Lipton as Tom
Alexa Hamilton as Priscilla Wayne
Ken Foree as Marvin
Rosalind Cash as Sergeant Stone
Francis X. McCarthy as Lieutenant Fletcher
Shari Shattuck as Catherine Avery Evans
Hank Cheyne as Robert
Chelsea Field as Darla
Joseph Whipp as Dr. Lido Moray
Tané McClure as Vicky
Vanessa Bell Calloway as Marci Hewitt
David Shaughnessy as Freddie
Karyn Parsons as Brooke
Cindi Dietrich as Linda
Chad Hayes as Jeffrey
Lyle Howry as Cop

}}

Production

According to director Michael Fischa, "the health craze had blossomed in LA. [Health clubs] came up like mushrooms. So quickly that they went out of business. So we thought, basically, we turn it around and we have a ghost in our health club. That could be a fun scenario".

The location used for the health spa was previously a dance studio.{{fact|date=October 2024}}

The exterior shot of Starbodies Health Spa that opens the film was shot in a strip mall on the south 8100 block of Sunset Blvd. The strip mall, as well as the historical Lytton Savings Bank Building from 1960 (later a Chase Bank) were demolished in mid-2021.{{fact|date=October 2024}}

William Bumiller had previously worked as the manager of a health club prior to being cast in the lead role for this film.{{fact|date=October 2024}}

Release

Death Spa was given a limited release in the United States in July 1988. The film was released in Japan in 1989 on video, before being released to VHS in the United States in 1990. It was released on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack in 2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Death-Spa-Blu-ray/97545/|title=Death Spa Blu-ray|location=Blu-ray.com|date=May 27, 2014|access-date=November 13, 2016}}

Legacy

Actress Karyn Parsons made her screen debut in Death Spa, and was subsequently brought in to audition for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air after an NBC executive saw the movie on late-nite cable.{{cite web |title=How'd Karyn Parsons Get Her Gig On 'Fresh Prince'? |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=364079701 |work=NPR|date=November 15, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230205210816/https://www.npr.org/transcripts/364079701|archive-date=February 5, 2023}}

Notes

References

Sources

{{cite book|last=Lentz|first=Harris M.|year=1993|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|title=Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Film and Television Credits Supplement II: Through 1993|isbn=978-0-899-50927-3}}