fertilecelluloid Review of The Defiance of Good

The Defiance of Good (1975)

Frightening, skilfully directed classic of torture and submission

[8/10 · 23 December 2005]

This is a truly powerful piece of cinema that also happens to be X-rated. Armond Weston is an accomplished director and made the subtly effective horror film, "The Nesting", quite a few years after this. "The Defiance of Good" aka "The Defiance" is a pictorially and psychologically claustrophobic work that was a freak amongst its adult brethren, even back in 1975, because it looked like a real film and was anchored by a strong central performance (Jean Jennings). Sent to a hospital for psychos by her religious fanatic mother, Jennings (Cathy Taylor) is subjected to a volley of sexual and mental torture by various inmates and staff members of the hospital. Fred Lincoln, a staff doctor, rescues her from her hell, but the worst is yet to come when Lincoln isolates her so he can visit much more extreme abuse on her fragile body and mind. In the course of this brutal treatment, Jennings learns to enjoy Lincoln's abuse and becomes dependent on him. Echoing "The Story of O", the film is exceptionally well shot, scored and performed. Lincoln, who played a murderous miscreant in Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" and forged his own career as a porn director after this watershed work, is frighteningly convincing as the "good" Dr. Gabriel. Anthony Spinelli, who wrote the fascinating script with Weston, became a successful porn director also. A classic.