Review of 'Targets' (1968)

Targets is a quiet, simple film, its plot basic but dark: an American man (played by Tim O’Kelly) goes on a killing spree, escalating to a massacre at a drive-in cinema. Meanwhile, horror actor Byron Orlock (Boris Karloff) prepares to speak at the drive-in for his last appearance before retirement. While it’s a terrible thought that a sniper is killing off audience members in their cars, the emotional impact of Targets could have been far deeper if (for example) we became familiar with a family of cinema-goers during the daytime before they are killed that night. Instead, Boris Karloff’s story had little bearing other than to provide quirky, self-referential parallels of film-within-film. Targets is less a scary movie and more a comment on the evolution of the horror genre & its changing reception by audiences.