This is certainly one of the strangest films I have seen and it is mainly due to the tone that is constantly shifting throughout. It plays like your average 70's TV movie at first then switches to grindhouse 'video nasty' territory at a moments notice before getting all arty in places with weird montages, flashbacks and a troubling yet committed central performance from Millie Perkins as Molly who played the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) to much acclaim.
Having seen her career take a nose dive in the late 60's Perkins returned in the mid-1970's with a couple of low budget movies working with Mike Climber and her then husband writer Robert Thom, both of whom were responsible for this oddity. Taking a starring role and maybe written with her in mind by the Death Race 2000 (1975) writer, this is a controversial and disturbing 83 minutes which found itself on the DPP video nasty list in the UK and in this case you can see why, although it was unsuccessfully prosecuted.
The moments of graphic violence and gore are surprisingly voyeuristic with the central character seemingly enjoying performing sadomasochism on men, but with her backstory of child abuse at the hands of her Father and her slow but sure psychological degeneration as she recalls moments in her past, the excessive violence doesn't come across as exploitative as it does with other films who use it just for shock effect.
Director Mike Climber came from the theatre directing Off Broadway productions of F. Scott Fitzgerald plays and worked with John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men). He then married Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and directed her in Single Room Furnished (1968) proving she could act. In the 1970's he made several low budget blaxploitation films before venturing into the psychological drama, horror and taboo subject matter that is The Witch Who Came from the Sea.
I get the feeling that Climber didn't have a clear enough vision to know how to approach the material but the shifting tone and erratic editing choices do keep you off kilter and you can't deny Perkins strange performance which goes from bright and breezy, to a dream like traumatic state to a crazed killer.
Having seen her career take a nose dive in the late 60's Perkins returned in the mid-1970's with a couple of low budget movies working with Mike Climber and her then husband writer Robert Thom, both of whom were responsible for this oddity. Taking a starring role and maybe written with her in mind by the Death Race 2000 (1975) writer, this is a controversial and disturbing 83 minutes which found itself on the DPP video nasty list in the UK and in this case you can see why, although it was unsuccessfully prosecuted.
The moments of graphic violence and gore are surprisingly voyeuristic with the central character seemingly enjoying performing sadomasochism on men, but with her backstory of child abuse at the hands of her Father and her slow but sure psychological degeneration as she recalls moments in her past, the excessive violence doesn't come across as exploitative as it does with other films who use it just for shock effect.
Director Mike Climber came from the theatre directing Off Broadway productions of F. Scott Fitzgerald plays and worked with John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men). He then married Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and directed her in Single Room Furnished (1968) proving she could act. In the 1970's he made several low budget blaxploitation films before venturing into the psychological drama, horror and taboo subject matter that is The Witch Who Came from the Sea.
I get the feeling that Climber didn't have a clear enough vision to know how to approach the material but the shifting tone and erratic editing choices do keep you off kilter and you can't deny Perkins strange performance which goes from bright and breezy, to a dream like traumatic state to a crazed killer.