Category Archives: Exploitation

A Teacher’s Raunchy Romance is Not the Only EVIL Being Committed! “Amor Bandido” reviewed! (Cinephobia Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Forbidden Love and Severe Malefactions in “Amor Bandido” on DVD July 18th!

A remiss 16-year-old Joan is the son of a wealthy magistrate who doesn’t see eye-to-eye with his father’s wishes.  What was supposed to be the last day of school before Easter break turns into Joan’s most anxious day when he learns that his mistress, his teacher Luciana, is exiting her position at the school that very day.  Pleading to Luciana to take him with her, she reluctantly accepts his tagalong despite him being underage and her being more than double his age.  Their unlawful affair leads them to an isolated manor where they can romantically explore themselves in a paramour tour of passion.  A couple of days have past and Joan is completely smitten until Luciana’s brother arrives and the whole getaway has been a trick at Joan’s expense.  Now, the adolescent is being held captive and has to fight for his very life before he’s executed for being nothing more than a wealthy judge’s son and a naïve, jilted lover. 

More by more, news stories are printed of older women, specifically women in education, having intimate relations with a young, student boy – sometimes, another girl as well.  Men have always been the archetype of the infamously ugly term pedophilia, but women can be just as predatory despite the lack of widespread printed and televised attention.  Mostly, these new bites are mostly obscured in the newsfeed of an online aggregated newsreel, hyper-regionalized to the area where the crime was committed, but the story is nearly always the same – young (often good-looking) 20-30 year old teacher abuses young, under 18-year-old boy in the car, at her home, via text with lewd pictures, etc.  Honestly, boys have long been hot for teachers, but there is an inherent sliminess to the idea that has been rooted in steamy fantasy pubescent minds.  Iconic films like 1967 Mike Nichols’s “The Graduate” starring Dustin Hoffman aroused the notion of forbidden lust while others like George Bower’s 1983 “My Tutor” and even the more recent “No Hard Feelings” with Jennifer Lawrence, to an extent, makes light of the subject matter; however, no other filmmaker really captures the act’s grooming nature like director Daniel Werner.  Werner’s “Amor Bandido,” or “Bandit Love” depicts minor exploitation like never before with fellow screenwriter Diego Avalos in their feature film together after the production of their 2019 short, another contentious teacher-student relationship, entitled “Nadador.”  The Argentinian film is a co-production of The National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) and Werner Cine, produced by Werner and Nicolás Batlle.

The film opens up to Joan, a 16-year-old student with a bit of a chip on his shoulder as he glues together a volcano-like model in slapdash fashion.  Spoiled further into his innate teenage angst by his own abundance of wealth, Joan is able to get away with essentially disrespecting his empty-threatening father and boozy mother.  The extent of his entitlement spills into the classroom when learns his teacher, Ms. Luciana, is leaving the school at the end of the day and this is where we learn that Luciana and Joan have been in a forbidden affair as they meet in a storage room where she caresses his crotch as they kiss.  Though looking very much like a 16-year-old brat, Renato Quattordio is actually in his early 20s when the Buenos Aires born actor becomes passionately intertwined on screen with early 40’s actress, Romina Ricci.  The noticeable age difference places a stamp of scuzzy approval as the principals really put on a show of sensuality that defies the numerical age gap while also defining the maturity and the experience of individuals.  Quattordio hits the mark as the naïve teen eager to jump at the behest of his older, curvaceous companion.  And, boy, is Romina Ricci curvaceous, luring Joan in as the wanton teacher cautious of their alluring affair.  The erotic thriller quickly turns into a survival thriller when Joan’s eagerness to grow up comes face-to-face with Luciana’s past, embodied by Rafael Ferro (“Terror 5,” “White Coffin”) and Sergio Prina as two money greedy thugs eager to milk Joan for all that he is worth.  “Amor Bandido” rounds out with a few more bandidos in Mónica Gonzaga, Carlos Mena, Jurge Prado, and Santigao Stieben.

“Amor Bandido” is a coming-of-age tale with a pair of dichotomizing facades strung together by opposing forces in choosing between love or money.  Essentially, those two driving forces boil down to the relationship’s core and that is what director Daniel Werner simmers on, a test of idolatry strength between two people.  Werner pretenses the narrative with a forbidden love escaping to the rurality to make passionate, unjudged lust in a love context, well, at least for one of them.  The absconding is only a diversion for another unlawful act and is palpable in the undertone that something isn’t quite right with Joan and Luciana’s relationship, something that you can’t quite put your finger on and it’s not the surface fact that she’s a mid-30 something-year-old teacher screwing her 16-year-old student.  Werner leaves a breadcrumb trail of concerning clues that make sense when all is exposed but keeps those hints closed to the chest, protected to not giveaway too much until the summiting turning point of the exiting passion and entering perpetration.  Yet, despite our intuitive inklings of the funky air, the pivot still hits hard like a blindsided punch to the jaw that dislodges the mandible and rattles the teeth when the two lovebirds are struck with one payday load.  The only aspect that could be narratively tweaked is the introduction of the wounded stranger whose motives are understood but not quite absolutely clear his connections and how he became wounded in the first place with a gnarly gash on the calf that looks like a Great White shark attack had a snack on.  Digressing to figure out where he fits into it all becomes a distraction and a divergence from the main story that has now snowballed into additional but unwanted molestation, possible incest, and a ransom deal that won’t be faithfully upheld. 

“Amor Bandido” is the first feature to be covered by us courteously supplied by our friends as Cinephobia Releasing, a new distribution label from original world-searching and independent cult worshipping cinephiles of Artsploitation Films.  Coming soon to home video on July 18th, the single-layer DVD is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio from a digitally recorded print and renders an expected damage and dust/dirt free picture with nature, yet smoothed out detail, skin tones and natural coloring.  There’s not a ton of visual risk here from cinematographer Manuel Rebella (“A Taste of Blood”) with the stimulation coming strictly from performances and the erotic, forbidden spirit.  The DVD5 format falls below par for darker portions within the frame that are seen with splotchy banding as well as the aforementioned smoothness around facial features.  The Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 are equally comparable with the focus primarily on the dialogue and less on the sound design to warrant extra channels so both tracks output relatively the same.  There are scenes or sequences all other tracks are muted or receded to make way for a vivacious musical soundtrack to accentuate the moment.  Dialogue comes across clean and clear without any interference in the balance of the little ambience of rustling leaves, water splashing, and gun shots.  Option English subtitles are available, but I did spot a pair of typographical errors.  Bonus features include a 3-minute sale and promotional make-of with director Daniel Werner, the original trailer – separated from the bonus features on the static menu – and trailers for future Cinephobia Releasing films, such as “Sublime,” “Emmanuelle’s Revenge,” “Brightwood,” “The Latent Image,” and “The Goldsmith.”   Pressed with the cropped but same image as the front cover, the DVD comes in a standard tall snapper with the front cover sporting that crotch-fondling moment of intimacy.  The Cinephobia Releasing title comes unrated, runs at 80 minutes, and is has region 1 playback.  The coming-of-age arc prevalently scores into the naïve, angsty adolescent tale but “Amor Bandido” also suggests that maybe maturing too quickly should be left off the table, keeping fantastical temptation at bay and keeping innocence intact for kids to be kids just a few years more.

Forbidden Love and Severe Malefactions in “Amor Bandido” on DVD July 18th!

The Slammer is Full of Correctional Officer EVIL in “Lust for Freedom” reviewed!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The Jailed Chicks “Lust for Freedom” on Blu-ray!

Broken by the violent death of her partner, who she was also engaged to marry, after a drug bust goes south, undercover officer Gillian Kaites abandons law enforcement and drives across country in an internal turmoiled mess.  She’s pulled over by a Georgia County cop after she aids a frantic woman fleeing to escape two men in a black van.  Framed for narcotics possession by the corrupt officer, Gillian is drugged and locked away in the County’s women’s penitentiary overseen a strong-handed matron and an unscrupulous warden who dabbles in prostitution trafficking, drug smuggling, and even the occasional snuff filmmaking.  Back into a cellblock corner, Gillian must defend herself against the warden’s goons, protect other girls also falsely incarcerated, and lean into the sympathetic ear of the same corrupt cop that framed her after voicing his years of disgust with the warden’s malfeasance.

Part II of our bamboozled behind bars and following the 1986 examination of Eric Karson’s military simulation turned enslavement “Opposing Force,” is our next feature helmed by another director named Eric, notably Eric Louzil, with “Lust for Freedom.”  The debut film of Louzil, who went on to helm “Class of Nuke ‘Em High Part II and Part II” for Lloyd Kauman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment as well as slaving over standalone horror and sleazy schlockers in “Bikini Beach Race” and “Night of the Beast,” was also the first feature penned by the American-born, UCLA grad with a penchant for low-budget lewidies, cowritten alongside the “Shadows Run Black” writing duo, Craig Kusaba and Duke Howard.  With the working title of “Georgia County Lockup,” which in actuality the film was shot in various California and Nevada locations, such as Ely, Nevada, “Lust for Freedom” is an 8 x 8 cell of nudity, violence, and corruption under the co-production companies of Mesa Films and Troma Entertainment, with the latter reediting the original script and adding ADR adlibs to apply a sexed up and Troma-fied integration of product into their independent collection.  Louzil and Laurel A. Koernig produce the film with Troma bigwigs Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz as executive producers.

“Lust for Freedom” has many eccentric characters with many assorted plotlines in what is essentially an all women battle royal brawl in the cat-scratchin calaboose.  Stirring up trouble like a piece of scrap metal lodged in the gears of a well-oiled machine is tall and beautiful former cop, Gillian Kaites.  Played by Melanie Coll in her only known role, Kaites is only the bear in the bees’ nest, forced into confinement under false pretenses and to be subjugated by the likes of a wayward officialdom with lust in their eyes, greed in their pockets, and a disdain for disobedience.  Coll’s a bit flat footed with her performance and her Karate Kokutsu Dachi stance could use some improvement, but the tall, muscular, curly haired and light blonde actress can wield a multi-round popping automatic rifle with authority.  Stark against her Amazonian physique, not in a hard pressed and sexualized way, is main antagonist is the unbecoming Southern gentleman Warden Maxwell under the balding and overweight guise Howard Knight, but Kaites is more in tune against the procrustean penitentiary matron Ms. Pusker and Judi Trevor gives a Hell in a cell pastiche of early fascist women of Roger Corman produced WIP films, enforcing her will with prison muscle in the miscreant tough Vicky (Elizabeth Carlisle, “Evil Acts”) and the oversized guerilla (professional wrestler Dee “Matilda the Hun” Booher, “Spaceballs,” “DeathStalker II”).  Ultimately, Kaites sees her only path to escape through the very same person that wrongly confines her in the first place.  William J. Kulzer (“Class of Nuke ‘Em High Part II:  Subhumanoid Meltdown”) doesn’t quite fit the corrupted bill of Sheriff Coale, a mild manner and seemingly reasonable officer who goes with the despicable flow of sex trafficking amongst other indelicacies.  Yet, maybe that’s the purpose in Kulzer’s character, to be conflicted by the choices he and his callous cohort has made that made him stick out as the least repulsive individual behind the concreate and metal barred big house.  “Lust for Freedom” rounds out the cast with Donna Lederer, John Tallman, George Engelson, Rob Rosen, Shea Porter, Rich Crews, Raymond Oceans, Elizabeth Carroll, Lor Stickel, and Joan Tixei.

Gratuitous, full-frontal lesbian sex.  Yes, “Lust for Freedom” appeals to the very definition of its own title, like many other WIP productions and though a core element to the integrity of the subgenre, the creamy smoothness of two curvaceous, naked bodies getting it on shouldn’t always be the main selling point.  Luckily, Louzil ponies up more salacious material for his pinks in the clink caper.  An elaborate spiderweb of activity balloons and pulsates outward from the moment Kaites crosses path with an evening-dressed escapee being chased by a scary looking Native American and his sociopathic hooligan partner in a black van.  “Lust for Freedom” may be hammy and cheesy but what it’s definitely not is dull in its multifaceted approach to expose character layers.  Some characters grade more toward deviancy, such as Warden Maxwell and Ms. Pusker, while others are lifted toward a more redemptive means, such as with Sheriff Coale; that shepherd “Lust for Freedom” into a culminating jailbreak.  The narrative doesn’t necessarily focus around Kaites but she’s on a redemption arc to dig her out of a despair pit and into a fight worth fighting for purpose after the death of her finance, set up in the opening act.  As she evades the Vickey’s directed infringement to rough up the new girl, Kaites takes under her wing a fright clink chick named, another wrongly accused prisoner after being taken wandering the road, a theme that is a reoccurring motif from Kaites to Donna in thinking the young women can manage the world and their problems on their own accord but at a cost. However, whatever semblance is left of Louzil’s original script has likely been lost once Troma revamped it into the finished product you see today. Riddled with choppy cuts and incoherent segues, we have to wonder about Kaites’ role that may have been transmuted into a lesser core commodity in the final product.

Troma Entertainment releases a high-def, Blu-ray release of “Lust for Freedom.” The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, widescreen release, in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, compressed from its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Lloyd Kaufman mentions Louzil had shot the film on 16 mm and Troma subsequently blew up the negative to a 35 mm print that reframes the transfer for projection. Image-wise, the picture appears relatively clean albeit a plush grain and a few visible 16 mm cigarette burns with little-to-no age wear or exposure issue and the BD25 storage format has capacity aplenty to render an adequately compressed image with hardly any loss to the quality. Since the quality is heavily granulated, definitely no DNR implemented, the compression doesn’t suffer from a lack of a sharper, restored image. The audio is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo can be echoey at times, as if the boom is catching warehouse reflection, but dialogue does topple in an appropriately laid out track mix that’s intertwined with hair metal band Grim Reaper’s titular “Lust for Freedom” single. We don’t get a ton of depth in the close quarters of the prison set but neither do we receive any depth in the exteriors either, sustaining most of the volume in a forefront stasis. Troma adds spotty ADR to kitschy up to Troma’s ludicrous level and its quite evident like a sore thumb that doesn’t quite match the ingrained audio mix. There are no subtitles available. Extras include the original DVD intro by Lloyd Kaufman, which also plays automatically at the startup of the feature, a directory’s commentary by Eric Louzil that is asynchronous with the feature in what is an approx. one-minute delay behind the Louzil’s retrospect, the original theatrical trailer, an interview with Lloyd Kaufman, a brief, brief clip of Eli Roth’s encouragement to just go and do a movie to the best of your ability, a Troma-themed showcase of one of their more modern Tromettes – Mercedes the Muse, the Radiation March, Gizzard Face 2: The Return of Gizzard Face, which has been on a slew of Troma’s releases over the past year, and coming attractions from the independent company. The Blu-ray comes in a tradition snapper with a guard tower, barbed wired, and Gillian Kaites with a semi-auto in her grip and barely cladded and torn clothes. No insert inside the case and the disc pressed art is the same as the cover illustration. This Troma release comes unrated, is region free, and has a runtime of 94 minutes. Plenty of desire for “Lust for Freedom,” busty babes behind bars barely bores and this vintage Troma keeps the WIP lacquer wet with self-satisfactory sadism and sexual spiciness.

The Jailed Chicks “Lust for Freedom” on Blu-ray!

Beckerland Fosters Deranged EVIL Upon POWs! “Opposing Force” reviewed! (Scorpion Releasing / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Opposing Foce” now in Control of Blu-ray Home Video!  

Air Force Lieutenant Casey has initiative, determination, and something to prove being the first woman to be approved for a special and notorious evasion and escape course on a remote U.S. base Philippine island.  The course simulates downed Air Force pilots behind enemy lines where they either have to evade capture or escape as POWs without divulging U.S. secrets.  The simulating is meant to break down the individual physically and mentally through psychological and physical torture that nearly blurs the regulation guidelines of the United States military, but has been proven to be an effective training to withstand the most brutal of POW conditions despite the course’s infamous reputation.  Casey joins the ranks of participants, a young group of eager male officers and one experienced Major Logan looking to requalifying for action, and are dropped into the simulated enemy combat zone controlled by General Becker, a calculating commanding officer who has succumb to his opposing force role.  Becker’s unconventional and illegal tactics exploit Casey’s gender in the name of training her, but his knowingly criminal activity puts the rest of the trainees in danger and it’s up to the Logan and Casey to stop him and his opposing force in an all hell breaks loose war.

POW exploitation has been missing in modern day cinema.  A subgenre that is a dark, degrading note of unscrupulous and vengeful action has been exclusive to the 1980s for far too long, barely being reprised throughout the proceeding decades.  Not to be restricted to the popularization films of Chuck Norris of the “Missing in Action” franchise or of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo II and III, these camp from Hell films run the money and production gamut, pulling inspiration on conflict wars before the decade, such as Korea, Cambodia, and even as far as World War II.  For mainstream, the jungle entices with harrowing heroism that glorifies determined, strong-arming patriotism while showcasing America’s enemies as Geneva Convention ignoring villains who deserve every ounce of blow’em up, shoot’em up at the hands of escaped captees or an elite team, or a one-man, rescue mission.  Nazis saw more action in the low-budget Eurotrash market with sexploitative women-in-prison camps ran by the sleazy, inhumane, and experimenting Gestapo mostly.  American filmmaker Eric Karson, director of Jean-Claude Van Damme actioners “Black Eagle” and Lionheart,” moves away from the Muscles from Brussels and into Tom Skerritt’s mustache behind bamboo bars in the 1986, American-versus-America military-thriller “Opposing Force.”  Penned by Linda J. Cowgill, under the pen name of Gil Cowan in what’s likely a name change spurred by sexism in the industry, originally titled the script as “Hell Camp” but took the name “Opposing Force” based off the antagonistic enemy labeled as OPFOR right on their chest.  “Opposing Force” is coproduced by “Skinner” and “Final Mission” producer Tamar E. Glaser and “Sometimes They Come Back… for More” producer Daniel Zelik Bert under the theatrical distributors of Orion Pictures. 

We already know Tom Skerritt’s world-renowned mustache is in the movie and is the star of the show, but Tom Skerritt is in there as well as the man behind the stache as the seasoned boot Major Logan.  The “Alien” and “Contact” actor become the patriarchal figure to a bunch of figurative sons in younger course participants and overprotective of one figurative daughter in Lt. Casey in a wildly uncharacteristic situation brazenly exploited in unconventional mainstream means in the uncomfortable skin of Lisa Eichhorn (“Deus”).  What Lt. Casey goes through is more on familiar ground with the low-budget sleaze of women-in-prison grindhouse and while it’s certainly jarring and unexpected, It’s a welcoming chance for an upper tiered independent film with big names attached.  A couple of the other big names attached are Anthony Zerbe (“The Omega Man”) and Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”) as Commander Becker and his staff sergeant Stafford.  Becker and Logan mirror each other as veterans that have graded into either being corrupted by power or to be righteous in doing what’s right.  Yet, but Zerbe and Skerritt play into what the experienced actors know best, their trademark stoicism.  Tack on Eichhorn’s equally endurable fortitude and a three way standoff erects a monumental solemn stalemate of relatively the same attitudes until the last straw breaks the proverbial camel’s back and war erupts.  Roundtree at least develops Stafford’s internal conflict when the job bites at his conscious, becoming the connection needing convincing of Becker’s crossing over to the darker side of power like a Sithlord in public face disguise.  The narrative physicality aspects piece together a grueling atmosphere that each actor undertakes appropriately by their determined military rank, but as eloquently as Lt. Casey puts it to the aging Major Logan, “You got a limp and I got tits; these aren’t great things ot have in the military,” sets up themselves as misfits-to-heroes that were being crapped on all their careers for their antithetical military image.  “Opposing Force” rounds out the cast with a bunch of moaning male air force participants in the middle of it all with performances from Paul Joynt (“Echos”), Robert Wightman (“Impulse”), George Cheung (“Rambo:  First Blood Part II”), and John Considine (“Circle of Power”).

Influenced by the U.S. Military’s real life training program known as S.E.R.E. (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape.), Cowgill uses the program to formulate “Opposing Force’s” principle groundwork in setting up the jungle POW scenario on a remote island that goes through the motions of no chance of a rescue and aid of any kind.  Participants are throw into a survivalist gauntlet that turns surprisingly rough aggressive when physical and mental tortures are instilled upon those thinking the training would be a walk in the park.  This particular training simulation is unique to the OPFOR team with an aging officer looking to requalify for combat and the first woman to ever be accepted into the course due to a loophole, throwing new challenges to an embedded far too long commander who can easily break a man’s spirit but tiptoes around the possibilities of what to do with a woman until his insidious power and authority blurs right from wrong and takes the torturous tactics and enhanced interrogation techniques too far, beyond the limits of what’s necessary and beyond the limits of human decency all in the name of reinforce training.  The grueling torture and bush action is palpable enough to contrast the naked, sweaty, and battered bodies with the M1A1 bursts and munition explosions galore.  Only one aspect adds an out of place measure in the narrative and that is of the rest of the POW contingent and their seemingly wishy-washy decision on whether to escape, stay put, or join in the fight against Becker and his live-round shooting island battalion; the group disperses into the jungle only to fade from the climatic third act Major Logan, Lt. Casey, and Botts defending their lives against a treacherous throng and their wicked commanding warden.  Their disappearance doesn’t allow for closure for the acts against them during the entire ordeal and becomes a fizzling distraction.  Another distraction is the severely cut ending that freeze frames on Eichhorn’s final act with her voiceover exposition post-battle in what feels sorely rushed to complete.  The Blu-ray bonus features has an extended ending that’s more completist approach in wrapping up the story sutibly.  For a POW film, “Opposing Force” is an archetype of its originating decade that sates the subgenre’s need to pit an overreaching and ruthless camp head against the resiliency and determinate of the America fighting spirit. 

A re-release from the 2019 Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray comes “Opposing Force” reprising a presence on online retail shelves.  The AVC encoded, high-definition, BD25 is presented in 1080p resolution with a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  Identical to the earlier Blu-ray 4 years prior, the image quality is freshened up quite a bit from the likely 35 mm print source into a detail-laden HD transfer that offers a lush jungle-scape to be in juxtaposition against the camp from within its center, a large guerilla compound bathed in browns and greens make for good POW-themed pageantry.  Skin tones and individual features flesh out nicely, adding detailed levels of salubrious status over the course of the day-to-day detainment. The English language DTS-HD master audio 2.0 leans toward a softer dialogue mix that, for the majority, is discernible despite favoring “Opposing Force’s” selling points: large explosions, pepper potshots, and militant vehicles running rampant around and above the island terrain. Dialogue’s clear enough to emerge without much hinderance with enough depth to provide a sense of position and the audio layer is remarkably clean with no hissing, popping, or static. English subtitles are an available option. Special features include an audio commentary with director Eric Karson, the trailer, and that extended ending I mentioned, and noted preferred, earlier in the review. The traditional Blu-ray snapper casing includes a rendition of the alternate titled “Hell Camp” poster with a more titillating illustrative lookalike of Lt. Casey in shredded rags and ride-up shorts with hands tied above her head and looking over her shoulder. The warm yellow with a hint of white stirs in an element of jungle heat ramped up by also providing the cage accommodations in the background to let it be known you’re about to watch an exploitation POW film. Locked on a region A playback, “Opposing Force” has a runtime of 98 minutes and is rated R. Eric Karson manages to find a place amongst a serrating subgenre that takes an ostentatious, yet not entirely fictious look, at prisoners of war with his “Opposing Force” actioner that goes to convey that not every unethical and malintent camp leader is a foreigner; evil can also be domestically grown.

“Opposing Foce” now in Control of Blu-ray Home Video!  

Being Bored at Home Turns into an EVIL Enterprise! “Moonlighting Wives” reviewed! (Dark Force / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

They’re Housewives.  They’re bored.  They’re…”Moonlighting Wives.”  Now Available at Amazon.com!

Unsatisfied with her distressed husband’s meager wage as a third shift switchboard operator, Joan Rand strikes up a new Stenography business to bring in a little extra cash for the household.  When her new boss makes salacious advances toward her, she explores the opportunity of making more money than just on a stenographer’s wage.  Roping in her only contracted typist, Joan begins to bring in beautiful, bored housewives seeking to earn dough no matter how sexually scandalous and instead of perfecting their short hand skills or their ability to read back letters aloud without error, the determined entrepreneur revamps her stenographic business as a front for perfecting prostitution.  Infiltrating her way into every bar, hotel, and country club, even partnering with the country club’s golf pro, Joan’s call girl ring rides a profitable high and expands into new men-oriented territories but how long can the lucrative venture last when two vice cops are inching to bring down the elusive ring and one of her girls become scorned by the affectional eyes of love. 

Sexploitation has come a long way since 1966 when director Joe Sarno helmed the scene-efficient and bored housewife subversion “Moonlighting Wives.”  Before embarking full-fledged into the adult industry, Sarno blazed the trail for the economically friendly dicey skin flicks of the 1960s through the 1970s, retrospectively finding a cult base amongst observers and academics of subversive cinema and underground exploitation. “Bad Girls for Boys” producer Robert M. Moscow serves as associate producer on the Morgan Picture Corporation production, founded by George J. Morgan, producer of “The Thrill Killers” and “The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monster.”

Credited as Diane Vivienne, Tammy Latour (“The Naked Fog”) plays the business savvy Mrs. Joan Rand turning her dictation craft as a storefront for a more provocative and promiscuous profession to keep men happy and her pockets plush.   Latour’s a cool and calculating in her performance that makes Mrs. Rand a pragmatic kingpin of her quick-to-success prostitution ring but in doing so with her performance, that is much like everyone else’s in the film denoting a sign of the time period in which the story is constructed, Latour comes off extremely monotone like her large 60’s hairdo houses a little green man at the control of her cerebral center, calling out commands flatly, coldly, and without a slink of emotion behind her absent inflections or thousand yard stares.  Instead, much of the emotion, if any, is produced by her ashamed-driven to alcohol abusing husband and emotionally exploited bored housewife (Gretchen Rudolph, “The Dicktator”) brought to shambles after cheating on her husband and losing her paramour at the same time due to Rand’s scheming into the operational fold to rake in more rakes and cash.  We’re treated to Mr. Rand’s bottoming out as he’s no longer the bread winner and he’s suspicions overwhelm him to drink himself into a stupor.  The emotional pull that the Rand swindled housewife goes through is callously cut deep when her country club lover, Al Jordan (John Aristedes, “My Body Hungers”), becomes in cahoots with Mrs. Rand, taking her own as not only a business partner but a side-by-side lover, and coaxes his former mistress’s desire for him into doing naughty things with other men to keep him out of a deceived lie of debt.  A rollercoaster of fear, doubt, acceptance, and emotional evolution goes to full arc spectrum with the one cog in the machine that ends up breaking down the whole organization into a crumbling heap.  Aforesaid, the other performances don’t stray too far from Tammy Latour’s matter of fact and is more just a sign of the times in which “Moonlighting Wives” is produced, especially on a microbudget as early sexploitation couldn’t break into mainstream or even with welcoming arms in a more accepting niche public as a more right-wing, puritanical society was starting to be on the brink of uninhibited free love model.  “Moonlighting Wives” has a sexploitation friendly cast with June Roberts (“The Pink Pussy:  Where Sin Lives”), Marla Ellis (“Sin in the Suburbs”), Joe Santos (“Flesh and Lace”), and George Winship (“Teenage Gang Debs”).

How does a racy U.S. cinematic story beat the odds of staying out from the sleazy cinemas, like the sheltered exterior and tacky carpeted 42nd Street of the 1980s, and from being blackballed from the blue balled public looking for a little titillating release?  Innuendo in film became a thing of the past once the film boards ruled film nudity was no longer to be considered obscene a few years before 1960 and this opened up an opportunity for filmmakers to tap into the salacious half of the American population, experimenting with primal carnalities depictions that burrowed into the deepest of desires.  Since financing was scarce as the newly appointed sexploitation genre was too much of a risk for return, movies like “Moonlighting Wives” were made for next to nothing and director Joe Sarno quickly became quickly an expert in churning out licentious cinema commodities on a dime at the turn of the decade.  Having completed moderately successful films of this nature with “Warm Nights and Hot Pleasures” and “Pandora and the Magic Box,” Sarno built a rapport with actors and actresses who would return film-after-film.  John Aristedes, Joe Santos, June Roberts, and Tammy Latour, to name drop a few, regularly frequented Sarno’s casting call – and, hopefully, not his casting couch. Much like the rest of the lot, “Moonlighting Wives” serves as a lesson learned, a steep cost if you will, when morals mingle with perversity and blur the lines of right and wrong.  However, these types of films didn’t come tense action either, or rather much of any type of action because of it’s hand-to-mouth (or in related terms – any orifice to mouth) leanness in funds.  Sarno masters the exposition scene with what I like to label as high school sexual education discourse in where talking heads explain in detail every single action and do it in a tone that’s somewhere between mundane and deadpan.  Objectively, “Moonlighting Wives” is a cold-hard look at cause-and-effect with the loosening of standards jeopardizing what’s most dear to you after the deed is done. 

As a 2k restoration from the uncensored 35mm original negative, “Moonlighting Waves” has been paradoxically upgraded by adding back in original content that initially hit by censors with the lost nude scenes, a summation of 5 minutes’ worth of film, has be reclaimed for the Dark Force Entertainment Blu-ray release.  Yet, Dark Force’s release also competes with a Sarno double feature in “The Naked Fog” from Film Movement that was coincides with a similar market date.  Unfortunately, we’ve yet to land our hands on the Film Movement version to compare.  The Dark Force Blu-ray is AVC encoded with high definition 1080p resolution and presented in the letterboxed 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Back cover lists the ratio at 1.33:1 but also list an anamorphic widescreen and while I concur with the anamorphic lens, the presentation is firmly in a square box of 1.33:1.  Prefaced with a black title card warning regarding the additional image quality, more than just the additional footage has weathered under the test time to sometimes appearing more yellowish and with vertical scratch lines and speckled dust. For the most part, the overall image presentation makes the grade with an unimposing, yet steady color grading and most of the frames free from visual blights. If there were any digital enhancements done during the restoration, DNR appears to be the present culprit as facial features often appear too smooth for 35mm stock that should be developed with a fine layer of grain. The English 1.0 audio mix furnishes the appropriate single channel output for an exposition heavy feature. Distinct sound relativity is shot and the Stan Free score is lounge music 101 with rhythmic snare and hi-hat raps but the dialogue fairs rather strongly with forefront, clean, and clear conversing. Film historian Michael Bowen bookends a pair of included special features with an audio commentary track and an on-webcam interview discussing Sarno’s life coursing the newfound sexploitation genre pre his adult industry tenure. Also included is a deleted nude scene that involves no familiar actors from the trunk narrative in a seemingly out of place couple swap of the topless kind. I’m a little taken aback by the loss of some of the special features that were a part of the Alternative Cinema DVD release that are not present here on the Blu-ray, such as the Joe Sarno interview before his death. What’s neat about the physical features of the Dark Force release, aside from the clear Blu-ray snapper, is the retrograded, stark yellow and black, low-key cover art that builds up the hype with exclamational points about how obscene “Moonlighting Wives” is and not recommended it for the modestly shy and most prude moviegoers. The bold marketing attempt really perks up interesting in checking out the title that ultimately finishes with antiquated impressions, but the idea is neat, and the word heavy front cover is very representational of the exposition drenched dialogue in the narrative. Disc art is pressed with a wanted ad for young attractive women, which is also a nice touch. the region free release comes not rated and has a runtime of 86 minutes. Without a doubt scandalous in any decade, “Moonlighting Wives” encapsulates the seedlings of sexploitation with Joe Sarno at the helm of cultivating ripe, round melons out of barely any dirt and succeeding with a lust-heavy pursuit under a profession that now, ironically enough, only exists mainly in law-abiding courtrooms.

They’re Housewives.  They’re bored.  They’re…”Moonlighting Wives.”  Now Available at Amazon.com!

To Do EVIL, You Must Pay EVIL a Ton of Euro. “La Petit Mort 2: Nasty Tapes” reviewed! (Unearthed Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Step Back into La Maison de “La Petit Mort” for a Sequel that’s Hard to Stomach!  

La Maison de la Petit Mort’s doors remain open under new management, continuing to serve the dark web public interest with a wide variety of snuff services.  For the right price, a fantasy-driven in-person torture show can be arranged for your liking, and one can be an commanding observer or one can get their hands dirty in participatory play where anything goes and pleasures are on-demand.  The German snuff house expands their reach to a global level with live webcam shows that can be directed by the high price paying patron and the leather-cladded vixen staff carry out their illicit instructions exactly.  A robust menu of dark pleasures, displayed on a new showreel of select gruesome services, are available at the simple transfer of a money wire or cash in hand for the depraved to make their fantasies a reality.

In 2009, German born director Marcel Walz helmed a linear, three-act narrative of tourists laid over in the big city winding up at patronizing a dark and dingy dive bar, La Maison de la Petit Mort, only to be abducted as inventoried stock for the rich to exploit in a slew of murder perversions.  Five years later in 2014, Walz returns for a sequel, “La Petit Mort 2:  Nasty Tapes,” with reprising principal actress Annika Strauss co-writing the film alongside Walz as well as stepping back into the sadistic black platform shoes of Dominique, one of the two lovely ladies with a lecherous and violent vocation.  The direct sequel that follows a day-in-a-life of the snuff house’s employees making an advert showreel does not follow suit in the way the first film was structured.  Instead of a linear, chronological narrative, “Nasty Tapes” evolves into an anthology of different kill archetypes for the marketing video. Walz’s Matador Films serves the production oversight with Harald Schmalz (“Collar”) coproducing the anthological torture porn feature.

“La Petit Mort 2: Nasty Tapes” doesn’t seen a whole lot of return on the original cast.  The tourists were all mangled, mutilated, and murdered, the original Monique bit the dust in an escape attempt, and the first Maman rode off into the sunset rich with blood money.  Instead, and among other things, “Nasty Tapes” folds a new treatment of terror with the same old eggs and flour by reinventing itself into an anthology type, introducing a new, blonde Monique (Yvonne Wölke, “Bad End”) into the batter, and disclosing the new owner of the freaky, fetish club, a feminine man by the name Monsieur Matheo Maxime (Mika Metz, “The Curse of Doctor Wolffenstein”).  Annika Strauss is the only original cast member to reprise her original role of Dominique, the brunette to Monique’s blonde and who showed slight inkling of hesitation before being summoned to torture and murder.  Strauss doesn’t buck the character trend as Dominque still displays disgust on her face when slicing a man’s facial features in a Picasso style portrait.  Yet, Dominique remains loyal to the Monsieur and to the La Maison de la Petit Mort by committing the atrocities without question, unlike the regular administrative bookkeeping and housecleaning she regularly remains vocal in opposition in what’s a slither of dark humor contrast between her gruesome work compared to mundane work.  Unlike Cyanide Savior singer Manoush, who was a very convincing merciless club owner Maman, Mike Metz plays a very different, more layered proprietor portrayed as someone who sees the work as a paycheck to fund his deepest desire – to be a beautiful woman just like his wife Jade Maxime (Micaela Schäfer, “Sky Sharks”).  That’s about the gist of complexity the sequel has to offer with much of the thinly laid foundation is bricked up by a compilation of back-to-back kill scenarios that involve some extreme genre directors as special guests, such as Uwe Boll (“House of the Dead”), Dustin Mills (“Bath Salt Zombies”), Mike Mendez (“Big Ass Spider!”), and the late Ryan Nicholson (“Gutterballs”), taking part in the clandestine, underground activities in-person or on the web.  The film fills out the cast with victims and victimizers in Armin Barwich (“The Terror Stalkers”), Bea La Bea, Babriela Wirbel (“Plastic”), Nichol Neukirch, Marc Rohnstock (“Necronos”), Thomas Pill (“Moor-Monster!”), Kai Plaumann, Markus Hettich (“No Reason”) and the twins, Barbara and Patrizia Zuchowski.

When going into a German gore film, such as “La Petit Mort 2:  Nasty Tapes,” you have to go into It having an affinity for, or at least an understanding of, complete shameless representation of torture and killing of another human being for the simple and pure joy of the act.  In other words, you have to be somewhat sick in the head.  For me, personally, the sickness is rooted out of admiration for special effects and how the F/X artist(s) can create a realistic depiction of an unofficial autopsied anatomy. Filmmaker Ryan Nicholson, who passed away in 2019 of brain cancer, not only had a role in the Marcel Walz sequel, but was also the special effects artist, following in the footsteps of one of the notable German underground special effects artists, Olaf Ittenbach (“Premutos:  The Fallen Angel”) who had done the graphic gags on the first film with head turning results.  Nicholson, with a credit list that has a foot in independent productions and more mainstream, Hollywood productions, such as “Final Destination” and the remake of “Blair Witch” from 2016, doesn’t disappoint and keeps the blood, guts, and stringy sinew seamless in a gruesome pageantry of death that rivals and continues Olaf’s original stamp.  Beyond the glossy surface of a blood glaze, “Nasty Tapes” is nothing more than a kill-after-kill anthology with no concrete premise for either of the individual slaughter vignettes.  Title cards setup the kill moments with basic victim descriptors, such as married status, age, and how much their life has been paid for, but doesn’t humanize them in the least, creating zero compassion for the unsuspecting abductee fated for something far worse than death.  Instead, Walz flips the script with more background on the clients with ipre-and-post interviews of their most intimate time at La Petit Mort.  This structure can be monotonous as there’s nothing else to look forward to or to absorb empathetically as a viewer in an anthology that simply glorifies the leisure time of an undisturbed murder.  

As a nail-pulling, nose-cutting, drill-holing, lip-stitching, dick-scissoring, gut-stabbing anthology, “La Petit Mort 2: Nasty Tapes” is a gory, good time and is even better now in high-definition with a 1080p Blu-ray release from Unearthed Films The AVC encoded BD25 looks as good as can expected for a shaky cam, hectically edited, and filthy dark German gore film presented in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  Details are oleaginous wet with blood and tissue that incongruently with the Roland Freitag’s gloomy yet suppressed cinematography and Kai E. Bogatzki discordance and chaotic editing technique that is supposed to elicit extreme shock but consequently results in a loss of the intended grisliness.  Unearthed Films‘ release exhibits no issues with compression, but the hues and tones appear to fuse in the near eliminate of some contours where there should be some.  The German-English DTS-HD 5.1 mix can be score heavy, especially a hard and energized Tekkno title credits from composer Klaus Pfreundner that’s distinctive German, but “Nasty Tapes” has profound focus on its core selling point – torture.  The very few scenes of intercut dialogue shots spliced into the client’s sociopathic session are well understood and do have prominence over the score, as well as the ambient milieu of screams and the integrated flesh destroying Foley, despite the cam-esque quality of the pseudo-testimonials.  The burned-in English subtitles under the German Language only are synced well without error and with consistently good pacing.  Disc extras include a behind-the-scenes making of cut out from the main camera, an alternate torture scene, a behind-the-scenes still gallery, a short advert of a naked woman strung up by her arms and being stapled with signs, and Unearthed Films trailers.  The Blu-ray physical features don’t stray to far from normal Unearthed Films releases with a standard Blu-ray snapper case with grisly cover art of a marred victim’s plucked out eye and a Jade Maxime holding a bone saw and wearing ripped fishnet stockings and black lingerie.  The pressed disc art has the rehashes the back cover image of Monsieur Maxime wearing a venetian mask.  The Blu-ray comes unrated, region A locked, and has a manageably sufficing runtime of 83 minutes to not overkill the overkilling.  Transparent in its surreptitious atrocities, “La Petit Mort II: Nasty Tapes” subsists as Marcel Walz charnel house of horrors with a new revamped anthology approach to razzmatazz special effects wetwork without any due remorse. 

Step Back into La Maison de “La Petit Mort” for a Sequel that’s Hard to Stomach!