MAY 25, 2007
GENRE: PSYCHOLOGICAL, WEIRD
SOURCE: DVD (BUDGET PACK!)
In honor of Star Wars day, I decided to watch a movie with rape (you figure out the connection).
Actually that’s not entirely false. What happened was, I was gonna watch a movie called Slashed Dreams, which from the description on the sleeve (this is from the budget set, naturally) sounded like a decent (read: awful) enough rip-off of Last House on the Left. But then I glanced at the other side of the disc and saw Dr. Tarr’s Torture Dungeon (aka Mansion of Madness), which was described as a “sanitarium that gets overtaken by the inmates” movie. Sounded like it could be a gory romp.
Instead, it was sort of like Barry Lyndon by way of Calvaire. The nuts aren’t really that violent, they mostly just wear colonial clothing and put on plays. But at one point, one of them rapes a minor female character, but it’s ‘tastefully’ done, as we hold not on the rape but of another inmate with a hat made of branches laughing at it.
Naturally, some fun can be had at the mockery of mental illness. Lines like “You have three shadows even if you refuse to believe me!” will always elicit a chuckle from me. I was also amused by the repeated mispronunciation of sanitarium (sounding like ‘sanitorium’). Also, the main chick is quite hot. But it’s not enough to recommend the film, unless you are a die hard fan of watching guys in powdered wigs run around a forest. The weirdness grows tiresome after awhile, and you want something to just HAPPEN. Which it never really does.
And if anyone can explain why the opening and closing of the film was seemingly shot through a Nintendo Virtuaboy, by all means explain it here.
I can feel my neck and back hurting all over again!
What say you?
Well, it is probably a reference to thework of Fernando Arrabal, especially Viva la Muerte. The director worked with Arraabal and Jodorowsky in the 60s/70s. I actually love this movie but can definitely see that it is not for all tastes. Saw it first at the Dusk til Dawn horrorthon in Austin. Amazing experience. Have you seen Alucarda? Much more up your alley I think.
ReplyDeleteHi there, I have this movie in english, but where can I find the spanish subtitles for this movie, anybody know? my email is adriana.madrigal((@))gmail((.))com if someone whats to share with me :)
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