HumanMillipede Reviews

Natural Enemies (1979)

Thoroughly powerful and engaging.

[10/10 · 3 July 2014]

This is a film that has been sadly neglected over time. I'm still unsure why it hasn't received a DVD or Blu-Ray release. As a cinematic portrayal of severe and isolating depression it has few peers. It compares favourably with the likes of Taxi Driver as a thorough and focused examination of an articulate yet highly damaged mind.

Hal Holbrook is superb in this film, exemplifying his talent. His character of Paul Steward is by turns sympathetic, disturbing, cruel and intelligent. Only a few years after her role as the monstrous Nurse Ratched, Louise Fletcher puts in a very strong role as Paul's wife, who is loving but woefully poor at communication until it is too late.

Every scene in the film focuses on Paul as he tries to express his rage, frustration and despair to anyone who will listen. His pleas are met with scepticism and well meaning but ultimately useless advice. He seemingly has it all, a family and a high flying job but something about his whole existence and outlook is broken beyond repair. His misguided and half hearted attempts to fix things prove ineffective. The simple and unflashy direction is completely appropriate to the situation at hand.

There's no easy solutions offered by this film which really helps the viewer see Paul's hopeless and detached perspective. The ending is somewhat predictable but in a way is made more powerful because of that, it feels true to the situation depicted. Definitely not a film to warm the heart but as a mature and captivating insight into the horrendously bleak mindsets people can fall into it is entirely worth seeing.

Satans Lust (1971)

Initially tedious satanic sex shocker does reward patient sleaze fiends.

[6/10 · 3 July 2014]

I was just about ready to write this one off entirely, it certainly doesn't take much time to get to a near endless parade of ugly and drab hardcore sex and stays in that area for too long. I have watched a lot of these sort of films recently and the lesser ones really do tend to blur into each other. But whilst some of the scenes toward the end do not quite redeem the initial tedium, they do offer a few outrageous exploitation thrills that will never be mistaken for fine cinema, but provided something close to what I want out of an obscure 70s horror porno called with the word Satan in the title.

The recurring flashing image of Satan them self is surprisingly effective, clearly a crude mask but it's convincingly gruesome looking and one of the better literal depictions I've seen. A later sex scene, the first one of the film to actually be mildly titillating is then subverted by the memorable image of a vaginal pencil insertion which eventually turns the unfortunate witch lady doing it into a skeleton. A bizarre and cheap effect, but that's OK with me, it provided a decent laugh. As did the evil cults cack handed attempts to escape the police, which seemed to be taken out of a no budget goofball comedy from an earlier decade rather than any horror film. So no, this isn't a conventionally great film by any means but you'd be a fool to expect one. However, it did offer a handful of weird and fun little moments that stuck out in my mind, which might make it worth a look for fellow undemanding sleaze horror fans.

Evil Come Evil Go (1972)

Occasionally creeky exploitation does deliver the goods.

[6/10 · 3 July 2014]

Evil Come, Evil Go has the strongest opening 20 minutes of an exploitation film I've seen for quite some time, with the main character singing a hymn on the way to pick up her first lucky/unlucky victim. When they're laying in bed together the rotten sleazebag berates her for continuing to sing hymns whilst he's "tryin' to give head" to her. Amusingly this ultra prude allows him to go all the way before sticking a knife in his back, ending his reign of wanton lust.

Unfortunately the pace does eventually let up, the numerous fateful sex scenes becoming increasingly dull. Sarah Jane's meeting with a lesbian named Penny does liven things up somewhat, she meekly agrees to assist her puritan rampage which yields several rather tasty murder scenes. The ending is a bit of a let down, but overall I had a fun time with this one and if the premise appeals to you then I imagine you will too. The running time is appropriate given the lack of variety within and prevents things from getting too stagnant. 2 years earlier Walt Davis directed the utterly perverted Sex Psycho, which is a real treat for lovers of cinematic depravity and must have surely been one of the most outrageous films to ever grace a grindhouse at the time.