DIARY OF A SEX OFFENDER

"My name is Michael Regardie. I'm a loner".

Michael (Peter Grouse) drives down a lonely road at night, narrating to us in a style akin to Alex's musing in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Within minutes we learn that he is intolerant of people, his parents died when he was young and the aunt who raised him was a whore.

Just as it seems Michael is playing for our sympathy - and not coming across too badly - he invites us to watch him at "work".

He spies pretty brunette Amanda hitchhiking and picks her up. In-between admiring her admittedly fantastic cleavage, he chats amiably with Amanda and invites her back to his house where she admires his spooky collection of paintings and models.

All is going well. Amanda seems relaxed and Michael excuses himself to pour them each a drink (what is that pill he's slipping into her glass?). It's not long before their conversation about the book he's writing degenerates into him raping Amanda at knifepoint. By this time she's too drugged to fight back.

At this point, while he cuts Amanda's clothes off and spanks her bare backside with a child's toy, a curious robed figure lurks in the darkened background. This mysterious figure is referred to only as Michael's friend, and observes excitedly as the humiliation escalates.

This particular set-piece culminates with Michael slashing Amanda's throat, which in turn sends him into a fit of NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN-style foaming at the mouth. It's as if his "brain cums", he later informs us.

Before long he's lured another comely wench into his basement and the next vignette gets underway, this one looking startlingly similar to scenes from Richard Kern's THE EVIL CAMERAMAN but set to electronica.

Then comes the dumbest bit in the whole film. Michael meets his one real friend in the world, Jim (Jack Krebbs), at a cafe and discusses the possibility of the existence of a new Messiah (we've already seen Michael reading up on Kabala and the like). When his friend leaves, the waitress comes over and expresses an interest in Jim. So Michael tells her Jim is popping over to his house that night, and invites her over too, promising to introduce her to him. As if!

Later that evening, the waitress makes her way drunkenly to Michael's house and is all giggles for a while ... until his creepy paintings begin to freak her out. Too late - Michael has plans for her too ...

With a title like DIARY OF A SEX OFFENDER, this film is bound to raise a few eyebrows. The title may be intended as an attention grabber, but is almost certainly going to court controversy too. Writer-director John Niflheim, however, lacks the conviction of the confrontational title and delivers a film that instead plays on visual style and an admittedly convincing atmosphere of squalor.

The film has lots of said style and is proficiently edited, at times seemingly highly professional in its employment of slick, sharp edits and cut-aways to the genuinely disturbing artwork.

Well-lit and imbued with deep colours such as blues and purples, the film also has a gritty early 80s feel to it - parts of it reminded me of DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE or MANIAC.

But, for all that DIARY is clearly well-made by a director with technical talent, it is - as mentioned above - a little shy when it comes to living up to the salacious promise of its title.

Sure, the scenes of humiliation and rape do make for uncomfortable viewing. The degradation includes women being forced to fellate huge black dildos, endless fondling of victims' breasts, and Michael wanking while one girl dances. The sound design in these scenes is nicely creepy, with various distorted noises echoing the pandemonium inside Michael's shattered mind.

However, the sex is not as graphic as the film's marketing suggests. The gore is rather restrained, and all stabbings/slashing occur off-screen (a necessity of budget, I'd assume). These aren't personal gripes per se, I just think the title and packaging of this film will appeal to fans of MURDER-SET-PIECES, AUGUST UNDERGROUND and the like ... but those same fans will find this falls short of their expectations.

Grouse is good as Michael, but is saddled but some poor scripting that transforms him into a religious bore. Sure, the notion that he becomes obsessed with creating his own "anything goes" religion becomes integral to what little plot there is, but all verbal allusion to it is ham-fisted and corny.

The girls all have hot bodies, tight skimpy clothing and tattoos. They all look pretty filthy, like they'd be game for anything. So, they're hardly convincing - or sympathetic - as victims.

Despite these reservations, the film does have strong visuals and utilises its disturbing sound design well. Brisk, earnest and at times weirdly creepy, DIARY OF A SEX OFFENDER is an efficient cheapie that succeeds in being modestly impressive.

And, you'll need to stick around until the end (the film - copyrighted to "42nd Street Pete Media" - is only 68 minutes in length) to find out more about that hooded figure and the strange numbers scrawled on Michael's walls ...

Independent Entertainment's DVD presents DIARY in a decent anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer. Although a little dark at times, the lighter scenes are bright and colourful. Flesh-tones are accurate and blacks cope well due to no compression issues.

The English 2.0 audio is clear, clean and well-balanced.

The disc opens with static menus. Although there is no scene-selection menu, the film can be navigated through remotely via 11 chapters.

The only extras present are trailers for BLOOD AND SEX NIGHTMARE, ROT: REUNION OF TERROR, SHOCK FESTIVAL, STASH and WOMEN'S PRISON MASSACRE.

DIARY OF A SEX OFFENDER is undeniably well-made, albeit shot on a very low budget and somewhat reserved in the sex and gore stakes, all things considered. Having said that, I'm not sure what the BBFC would make of it - its overall sombre tone and numerous scenes of sexual sadism, despite being rather sedate, would be sure to rub them up the wrong way.

Review by Stu Willis