This is a bad movie. It was made to be intentionally bad and if you don’t know that this will be one of the worst viewing experiences of your life. Then again even if you know it the film goes from being a bad bad movie to a good bad movie. When I saw this film for the first time with my brother at a midnight screening we watched the film in silence, both hating the film but not wanting to say anything to each other because we thought the other person was liking the film.
After that the film became a party tape that we’d drag out and inflict on our friends and loved ones with the promise of them seeing a great or unique film. No one really liked it, even if we admired the twisted nature of it all.
The plot of the film has Sardu the great, a magician doing all sorts of nasty things on and off stage to various people. The nature of the on stage antics lead to the films original title The Incredible Torture Show. Its basically a series of gory tortures and rude behavior for “laughs”. (probably the mildest of which is using a bare bottom as a dart board)
Truth be told as much as I’ve co-oped the non sequiteur statement of “elective neurosurgery”, I really hate this film. Its stupid, poorly done, extremely misogynistic and only occasionally remotely fun. In a many ways it’s the embryonic form of what we now call torture porn. It’s a series of nasty things for the edification of the audience, but its so artificial all the life has been sucked out of it.
As a straight film it really sucks rocks.
After suffering through and inflicting the film for years I thought I was done with the film. I thought I was free of ever having to see it again….
…but then someone handed me the special edition DVD (Why? WHY? I don’t know) and in a moment of self abuse I sat down and watched the film with the commentary. I was shocked to learn that the film was made to be bad and as a spoof of artistic pretention and horror films. They wanted it to be bad. They thought it was a satire. It was released as a horror film. It was promoted as a straight film with the result that everyone thought it was a worse film than it was. Most people didn’t get the joke because they didn’t know it was a joke.
Knowing that, my extreme dislike for the film softened. So perhaps the film isn’t THAT bad. Watching it with the commentary I found myself laughing with the film for the first time.
Maybe I thought it wasn’t that bad.
Sometime later I tried it again on it’s own. Stripped of the friendly commentary and left to its own jokey terms I found the film really doesn’t work. While not quite the cesspit I once thought it’s now a less extreme version of a bad bad movie.
Sadly the film is back to being a punch line to a joke.
This is one to avoid
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