MARDI GRAS MASSACRE 1978
The “Mardi Gras Massacre” is a film that was recorded in 1978, but for reasons unknown, it wasn’t released until 5 years later in 1983. I tried to find whatever I could about the movie after watching it, but information is scant. In fact, when I tried to look up anything on the newspapers archive, the site kept messing up, and I couldn’t see anything past a couple of pages. I guess it’s supposed to remain shrouded in mystery, for the most part. That said, I didn’t see any reviews for it when it was released in 1983, just listings of the movie from said year, and 1984.
I watched the film on Fawesome.
The start of the film threw me off at first, as the opening credits have no sound at all. The same is true for the end credits, which is an odd choice, considering that the film has a fantastic soundtrack. The movie starts in a bar, where we see two women talking to each other and a man named Sam, who I assume is the owner of the bar? Sam seems to be the “overseer” of the women in the bar, if you want to call it that. Sam seems to have a lot of women who know him. In the bar, we also see a strange yet proper gentleman, who asks for the most evil woman in the bar. It’s implied from the start that the movie deals with some underworld type things, the main theme being around prostitution and of course murder.
The proper gentleman makes acquaintance with the “most evil” of all the escorts, and they go back to his apartment. Before doing so, he pays the woman, Shirley, and she gives her cash to Sam to hold. When they get to the apartment, the Proper Gentleman ties up the woman, and starts oiling her body. The way the scene looked, it seemed clear to me that it was inspired by Anton Lavey in some way; with how the room was a literal ritual chamber. The women would be put on the altar, naked, and the ritual would be performed. The biggest difference here, is that the women are literally sacrificed, murdered, where in real life The Church of Satan never condoned any of that. It seems that a lot of horror movies were inspired by The Church of Satan, The Satanic Bible, and Anton Lavey, though they never flat out admit it. Movies such as “Satan’s Children” come to mind.
The murderer, who I don’t recall being formally named ever, is supposed to be some sort of rich kind of freak. He reminded me of Jack The Ripper in a sense, where he would pay for an escort’s services, but end up killing them in the end. There are multiple instances of prostitutes being murdered in history, due to men’s preconceived notions on how a woman “should act”. That said, the exact reason why the prostitutes are targeted isn’t known. The murderer is never really fleshed out in that way. The most that we the viewer, get, is that the murders happen as part of a sacrifice to an Aztec god. When the murderer kills his victims, he takes out their hearts and puts it on the altar in the back of the room. Beyond that, we don’t see what happens next. What does he gain when he places their hearts on the altar? Is that how he gets money? This is never addressed.
Even still, I found the movie to be incredibly entertaining, and pretty funny at times. I loved how the movie was actually filmed in New Orleans, and had actors from Louisiana in it. There were some characters played by people wearing Saints jerseys, had distinct Louisiana accents, and were just very southern overall. Even though I live in Texas, I always appreciate anything Southern, and done right. There weren’t phonies trying to emulate Cajun accents, it seemed very authentic. I could tell that the people making the film had a great time, and many of the extras seemed happy to just be there!
After the murder of Shirley, Sergeant Frank Hebert is put on the case with his partner. In trying to gain information about the case, Frank talks to Sam, the barkeep/owner from the opening part of the film. Sam gives Frank the money that the murderer paid, and Frank just pockets the money! This isn’t brought up until later. Frank then talks to another escort named Sherry, who saw Shirley with the murderer the night before. The names were pretty confusing, and I wish they thought up different names for the characters.
Frank ends up taking Sherry out to dinner, and they quickly fall for each other. The two sleep together, and start a romance. The couple fall into the trope of a guy falling in love with a hooker, the whole “a woman with a no-no job”. Frank shows how he’s the type of guy that would love to sleep with escorts, but would never seriously date one because of her job. Ironically, when he tells his friends about Sherry, they actually say that she’s too good for him! All his friends seemed to know that he was dirty cop. The movie develops the love plot line for a little bit, which I didn’t understand at first, but it all comes into play later. Basically, Frank and Sherry seem to have a real love, but he can’t get over her profession. Eventually, the two break up, especially once she finds out that Frank pocketed the money that Shirley made before being killed. What was interesting, was how Sherry said that everyone had to pitch in just bury Shirley! They could have at least used the money to give her a proper burial.
In between the love plot line, the murderer kills two more women. I found it interesting how he used the fact that they were prostitutes against them. Of course, that was the point of the movie, but they way it was written was quite clever to me. In all instances, he would talk to someone at the bar, looking for the most “evil woman”. He wouldn’t prey on a woman…his victims would all be brought to him. What was sad, was how the last victim was a 19 year old girl, who was told by her pimp that initially didn’t have to sleep with men anymore…but had to do it this time because she owed him money. You really see how money and sex were held against these women, and how easy it was for the murderer to kill them. They were easy victims, because they were thought of as “throwaways”, or “evil” by the killer himself.
I wonder if the idea was that he was killing “evil” women, because to him, using sex to make money was evil. In each ritual killing, the murderer stabs the womens’ hands, then cuts their foot. He cuts the hand because it took the money he gave them for sex, and cuts the foot because they walked to his apartment to do the deed with him. I found this an interesting concept, because it was like a punishment for sex. With all of the women he kills, he throws the bodies on the railroad tracks, which are found the day after. He wasn’t even trying to hide the bodies.
What’s interesting, is that with the last victim, he almost doesn’t kill her. He actually asks her to leave, but she doesn’t, because of how much he paid. He ends up killing her anyway. It seems that he started to feel remorse because of how young she was; like for a split second, he had second thoughts about what he was doing. That perhaps, the women weren’t evil for the jobs they were doing…and at least some of the women were selling their bodies because they had no other choice…or knew nothing else.
After the third murder, it’s revealed that Mardi Gras is approaching, and the police try to crack down and solve the murder, afraid that more killings would happen with the celebration. Frank and his partner are seen in a montage going to different shops trying to find the guy, and only by chance, do they get his address after going to a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant was the same one that the killer ordered food from, before he killed his third victim. The delivery boy remembered the address, because the killer gave him a pretty big tip (for 1978 at least).
The killer is seen trying to set up 3 women to sacrifice, one being Sherry. The 3 women are drugged then tied up, but saved in the nick of time by Frank. The killer runs away and they go on a chase, but eventually lose the killer. He supposedly drives the car he stole into the river, but it’s noted by one of the cops that no-one was in the car. Later, the car is pulled out of the water, and there’s no body. The only thing remaining is the mask the killer wore, before his ritual killings.
After this, the movie ends. The credits play, and for some reason, there’s no music.
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I really enjoyed this movie, believe it or not. The best part to this entire movie is the soundtrack. It wasn’t made for the movie, somehow, the creators to the film were able to license some songs from Westbound Records. I don’t know how they had those connections, but I’m glad. The actual artists don’t seem to be mentioned, but in the decades since this movie came out, other people have noticed how good the music is too. One blog, “Temple of Schlock” was able to find the track list [https://templeofschlock.blogspot.com/2008/11/mardi-gras-massacre-soundtrack.html].
1. "High On Love" – Dennis Coffey
2. "Cosmic Wind" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra
3. "Funk Connection" – Dennis Coffey
4. "Our Love Goes On Forever" – Dennis Coffey
5. "Ain't Nothing to It" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra
6. "The Bull" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra
7. "Belly Boogie" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra
8. "Free Spirit" – Dennis Coffey
9. "Boogie Magic" – Dennis Coffey
10. "I Love the Way You Move" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra
11. "Big City Sidewalk" – C.J. & Co.
12. "Brazilian Lullaby" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra
13. "Wings of Fire" – Dennis Coffey
Thankfully, all of the songs are found on youtube, but there don’t seem to be official digital releases to the releases. The songs are mostly from the album “Cosmic Wind” by The Mike Theodore Orchestra, and “Back Home” by Dennis Coffey. One song is by CJ & Co, which is what they used in the montage scene. All of the musicians seem to have ties to Detroit. I’m not sure if the creators of the film might have had some friends from the area, but it’s interesting to note. The soundtrack is this really funky, disco sound, and I think it fits perfectly with 1970’s New Orleans. If you like the soundtrack to this movie, I think that you’d enjoy the band Caldera, and their album “Sky Islands”. It’s very much within that same note. On top of that, if you enjoy more music like this, I highly recommend the youtube channel Terminal Passage, who has posted some amazing underground music. It’s one of my favorite channels.
I love music, and I especially love a movie that has a great soundtrack. Other movies that I enjoy the soundtracks to are “Taxi Driver”, “Day of The Dead”, and “Dawn of The Dead”. It’s one thing to have a good movie, but a good soundtrack can turn that good movie, into a great one. Without the music, this movie would be 3 stars at the most. But for me, I surprisingly give this movie 4 stars! I love the music to this so much.
Another interesting point about the movie, is how there was definitely some sort of research put into this. Obviously, having it set in New Orleans, there’d be some element of magic to it. But it doesn’t talk about Voodoo, Hoodoo, or even witchcraft. What’s interesting is how the killer is in New Orleans, yet practiced some sort of Aztec rituals. When the cops are talking to a college professor in another scene, they seem to cite actual information about this.
What also caught me by surprise, was how another scene brought up the Manson murders. They actually called it out by name! The police in the movie state that the Manson family committed ritual killings. Satanic ritual killings. I found this massively interesting, especially since the movie recorded in 1978. At the time it was made, Tate-LaBianca hadn’t been 10 years yet. The deaths of Jay Sebring and Sharon Tate weren’t even a decade old yet. Once again, we see how these actual murders influenced film, even though many people never seemed to outwardly admit it. We also see how many people in the public still thought, or at least remembered, how the killings were originally depicted as Satanic Ritual Killings. It seems so far removed today, in 2026, but it is true, that the news reported these deaths as ritual killings. I don’t believe Tex Watson would ever admit to being a ritual killer though.
Once again, I really enjoyed this movie, and actually recommend it! It might not seem great to people who don’t know much about Southern culture, or even magickal things, but for the niche audience it caters to, I find this to be great.
4/5 stars! I loved this!
My video: https://youtu.be/hKmKuQXyi0g
