Carleton Hendricks, aka Captain Howdy, (played by Dee Snyder) is a twisted fiend obsessed with finding a higher spiritual plain through piercings, tattoos...and torture. He doesn't wish for the death of his victims, he wishes for his own death, which makes him a nasty antagonist indeed.

When Captain Howdy lures young Genny Gage into his lair, it seems he has selected the wrong victim, for Genny's father Mike (played by Kevin Gage) is a police detective. Mike hunts down Captain Howdy and rescues his daughter, but Howdy is insane and gets sent to an asylum rather than prison.

Without giving too much away, the movie will go on to question whether the beast inside can be contained, or whether it is just held behind the bars of medicine. Another very interesting dilemma brought to light, is whether or not it is a crime to ignore a crime; and what would the consequences be for you if you did.

Although the movie is a little bit flat in some facets such as dialogue and some weak plot smatterings, overall it is richly filmed and well acted. Kevin Gage, Robert Englund, and Elizabeth Pena hold up the cast with skill, and Snyder does a rather decent job himself; especially as the psychotic Capt Howdy half of Carleton Hendricks. Look for a brief but well done job by pretty girl Amy Smart. (Road Trip)

Rather than compare this movie to Silence of the Lambs, I would say it was closer to The Cell (but with better acting), or perhaps the original Manhunter, in that it gives us a brief glimpse of the lamb inside the wolf.

As for the horror, the movie makes up for its lack of blood by terrifying us with an unwelcome and horrifyingly disgusting buffalo shot of Robert Englund in his underwear. That alone made me toss my lunch harder than any brain eating scene could have done.

If you like creepy horror villains, scenes of torture, and a glimpse into the psychotic all set to a heavy metal soundtrack, then you will probably like this movie. Watch for Captain Howdy's full size puppet scene! Enjoy!


A nice try   April 23, 2000
 13 out of 19 found this review helpful

The reviews of Amazon.com reviewers will lead a potential buyer to believe that this film is either the best horror movie ever filmed or the worst piece of nonsense ever released to video. Neither is really true. Dee Snider's attempt at movie-making really could have been excellent. There aren't many horror films that attempt to produce empathy with the villain. In fact, Strangeland really surprised me with the whole lynch-mob attacks misunderstood figure scene. If the film had focused more on the relationship between the media and the mentally ill, Strangeland might have been quite the film.

Unfortunately, Dee Snider decided that this movie also needs a maniac torturing innocents while spouting off like Charles Manson on blow. Captain Howdy comes off more as a raving nut than a misunderstood schizophrenic. The silly one-dimensional characters (including a cop that basically asks an on-line Howdy "Where are you?" as if he expects a correct answer) don't add much to the insipid nature of Strangeland. Bottom line: This is a rental.


So Bad, It's Not Even Good   May 18, 2006
 10 out of 14 found this review helpful

Some people were talking about this movie as if it were the next Silence Of The Lambs. There are several reasons why this is not so. Mainly, because it's really bad. It's badly acted, scripted, directed, and it's really dated. I'll break down the top six things I hated about this film; and keep in mind that I am a dyed-in-the-wool Dee Snider/Twisted Sister fan.

1. The Dumbest Cop In The World: This character never calls for backup, and is too slow to think of the most obvious clues. At the end, he even throws down his gun to have a fist fight with Snider. I repeat: He threw down his gun! To have a fist fight! He'd never survive five minutes on the Sopranos.
2. It's really out of date. This movie assumes you know nothing about the internet, email, etc. Kind of embarassingly hard to watch.
3. It tries to be cool by combining BDSM, body modification, and rituals, but in the end it just makes all these things look bad and "evil". It's just weak to use these things as negative stereotypes.
4. It's inconsistent. The Dee Snider character "retires" all his piercings for a few years, and then suddenly they're all back in the next scene. How? They all grew in, they'd have to...How'd he repierce them so fast? Can't be done!
5. It's unrealistic. Where the heck did Snider get that second dungeon from in just a day? Same problem as the piercing thing. He had a dungeon, then he didn't, then he did again. You're not supposed to ask how, I guess.
6. I won't even get into the gaping plot holes. A child could pick them out.

The acting, pretty bad. The dumbest cop in the world character has just one mood: Grumpy. Amy Smart is totally wasted in this movie. Snider's pretty good though. Actually he's really good. Shame about the script though.

Really, bottom line: You have only two reasons to buy this movie.
1. You are easily entertained and you have no problem with plot holes so big you can drive a Twisted Sister tour bus through them with room to spare.
2. You're a Snider fan and you must own this.

If you belong to one of those two groups, go for it. For Sister fans, they'll enjoy how the movie roughly follows the plot of the song Captain Howdy/Street Justice.

You've been warned!


A sadistic psychothriller from Twisted Sister's, Dee Snider.   January 18, 1999
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

This video is a truly horrifying display of what can happen when you meet your on-line pal. Dee Snider, plays a ruthless, sadistic psychopath wonderfully. In the movie, Snider, frequents chat rooms under the name Captain Howdy. He lures people to his house where he then procedes to torture them. The movie picks up where he makes his first mistake. He lures the daughter of a police detective to his home. The detective and his partner go on a wild goose chase to catch this psycho.(You may remember the detectives partner as 'Buddy' from the sit-com Charles-in-Charge.) The detectives manage to catch 'Captain Howdy' but that's only the beginning. This movie is a graphic reminder of how twisted some people become. This is one movie you'll just have to see for yourself to believe it. Beware, this video is not for wussies or the weak of stomach.


Utterly terrible.   August 20, 2000
 5 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is absolutely on of the worst movies i have ever seen. Itcertainly is horrifying - for all the wrong reasons. The acting isutterly terrible. The cop guy is wooden and uninteresting and Snider ... I JUST WISHED HE WOULD SHUT UP! He delivers every single line as if it is some kind of mind-shattering revelation - when in actual fact he is talking absolute nonsense. It's drivel. All of the dialogue is so contrived it's embarassing, cringe-worthy. There are so many inconsistencies I am left wondering if I got the full movie - it views as if about an hour was cut from it. Anyone who recommends this has either never seen a decent movie of this genre before and has nothing to compare it to, or is doing so on the basis of hype alone. I don't care how cool the soundtrack is (and that's another thing - ... I am positive Soulfly would not endorse this kind of exploitative rubbish), i don't care how cool the cover is, or who made it, or the advertising campaign. This movie is mindless rubbish. I cannot fathom how anyone can possibly endorse this. If you want horror like this (done well) see Hellraiser. Even Hellraisers myraid of hopeless sequels is better than this [junk].