You walk into a movie with a certain expectation when you see it advertised as The Most Depraved Film of the 21st Century. I mean, you know, you get your hopes up a little just as you are dreading what you’ll see. Alas, I have already seen films far more disturbing and weird, but, well, while this isn’t really going to be acknowledged amidst the top of the bottom, it is watchable and is pretty weird. So it has that going for it.
Several friends out for a good time and in pursuit of anything that pushes the boundaries happens upon the records of patients that had been at the hospital they are interning at who had been sexual deviants and murderers. The find tapes of the couple and listen to their psychiatric sessions as they shoot one another up with the experimental drug that the couple had been on when they went mad. What happens when the friends take the drug though is they invoke the spirit of the two killers who want nothing more than to sexually assault each of them and kill them brutally. And now as reality begins to crumble around them, the friends must find out what is real from what is in their head, and figure out a way to survive.
The movie plays out like a crazed drug dream and in a way it is, though you can not quite decide if it is the dream or reality where the film is set. It’s a shame that it’s being pushed as a freak-fest because it’s a pretty decent, though over the top, movie. The worst thing I can say is that the film cannot find its tone. Is it a fun throwback to the drug movies of the ‘70s? Is it a bizarre gore fest? Or is it a serious look at the madness inherent in drug addiction. I suppose it’s all three at once but, in so being all three, it doesn’t excel at anything. The acting is decent, going from very good to very silly, the story is a mish-mash that never quite works, and the effects are pretty fun (and decidedly nasty). It’s a confusing little movie. I mean, just when you get into the over the top sex/gore it turns into a drug drama, then morphs into a weird film about the nature of addiction, then back to sex and gore. GAH! There are some really interesting scenes, some nasty set ups, and one scene that is really scary, but nothing maintains and the moods are inevitably killed again and again.
Overall, it’s a fun film, totally watchable, and well worth renting, though I cannot recommend it beyond that. It just isn’t enough of one thing to put it above the level of average. Don’t get my wrong, there are some crazy, over the top moments here that will shock some, disgust some, and will tickle a few blue (I mean, it’s a movie where the villains declare their wish to ‘rape you to death’ so it’s a bit much) but as a film it falls short. The film takes an interesting twist at the end that works, and really is interesting but which almost comes as such a shock that it just about kills the vibe of the film. An interesting curiosity but a little too disjointed to be much more than a one watch pony, but hey, that one watch is a hell of a weird movie.
5 out of 10
Viscious Circle Films
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 