EXTREME BONDAGE COLLECTION

After Hours Cinema and 42nd Street Pete have proven to be a marriage made in filth Heaven over the last few years. Between them, they’ve unearthed, restored and remastered an incredible amount of vintage smut – some of which is truly terrifying in its politically incorrect, jaw-droppingly ‘wrong’ nature (just check out their EXTREME SLEAZE series).

Which brings us to this 2-disc set, a collection of disreputable 8mm loops from a company called T.A.O. Films who operated in the 1970s – "a time when this stuff was so hot, if you were caught with it, you got cuffed" (from the DVD’s back cover).

Disc one opens with ATTACK, which opens very quickly with a convincing outdoor scuffle between a man and woman. He gets the better of her, ties her up and rapes her. Thankfully, it’s clear that this is consensual. Still, it’s a good indicator of where this set is headed ...

Next up is ROPE FANTASY, in which a sexy redhead drifts off while reading a copy of "Playgirl" magazine – imagining that she’s bound and gagged. BELLE DU JOUR this is not.

FIVE O’CLOCK SHADOW plays like an outtake from FORCED ENTRY, with a masked assailant breaking into an unsuspecting brunette’s house and tying her up – ultimately leaving her suspended upside-down and naked. The woman’s resistance is unnerving in this competently shot and edited roughie.

SORORITY SISTERS is a 10-minute excursion into lesbian coercion and humiliation. Never a bad thing, from a spectator’s point of view.

BOUGHT FOR BONDAGE exhibits a modicum of exposition as a john consorts with a hooker on a street corner (there is no dialogue). He gives her cash and they retire to his place. All goes well, with them getting naked. And then ... he gets rough, and gets the ropes out. She’s very complicit, I must say. Nice tan, too.

This is followed by BREAKING AND ENTERING, which is obviously not to be confused with the film starring eternal turd Jude Law. This has a great crude style to it, looking akin to what you’d imagine porno to look like if Argento had ever dabbled. Good framing, artistic lighting, kinky violence – it’s all here, and very stylish to boot. Basically, a female burglar (wearing the most inappropriate burgling attire EVER) gets caught in the act, trussed up in her underwear in a kitchen, and left to burn beside a scolding hot radiator. Ouch!

After that, the remaining four films on disc one feel like lesser offerings. But they’re still worth a look. These are SWITCHED BITCH (an office-based woman-on-woman roughie – includes a great cat-fight), WORKING OVERTIME (lonely times at the office for a redhead, compounded by the arrival of an intruder with bondage in mind; not bad), SINK SINK MY DEAR and TICKET FOR THE LADY.

A static scene-selection menu offers direct access to any of the 10 loops, as you fancy. The animated main menu page also includes a "Play Feature" option, which plays all loops in one run.

Extras on disc one are limited to trailers for EXTREME SLEAZE 3 COLLECTION, HONEYMOON SUITE TRIPLE FEATURE, NEW YORK FANTASY CLUB, RENE BOND’S SLEAZY 70S and VIRGIN NYMPH COLLECTION.

Over on the second disc, the fun resumes with BEHEADED: a foxy dark-haired lady retires to her bed, only to suffer a nightmare about appearing before a guillotine and a grinning executioner. This is a little tame in comparison to the other films in this set, but retains a modicum of Gothic style to it.

THE MAD DOCTOR seems to have been shot guerrilla-style in a genuine medical examination room. In it, a masked doctor removes his nurse from the wheelchair she’s been bound to and prepares to hurt her with a nasty-looking tool. She looks genuinely worried.

An attractive female lead and a fair amount of theatrical style save the otherwise lacklustre SOLD INTO SLAVERY from total disappointment. Meanwhile, RETURN OF THE MAD DOCTOR sees a hot bespectacled nurse terrorised by the doctor and a male intern – she doesn’t look happy as they strap her to a bed and administer gas to her while fondling her privates. It makes for uncomfortable viewing.

DE SADE has echoes of Richard Kern’s lo-fi artistry as an innocent-looking redhead has fantasies about the book she’s reading. It’s only De Sade’s "120 Days of Sodom"!

MANIAC IN MY BEDROOM has a stylish low-budget horror veneer to it; HIGH STAKES GAME pits a classy-looking lady in Scarlet against three hairy gamblers. She loses and they flog her.

BONDAGE TRAINING SESSION is the only loop with any kind of credits. "With Linda La Rue and Jock Stern" flashes on the screen for all of a second. It illustrates the perils of females hitch-hiking – though perhaps not effectively as TAKE AN EASY RIDE did ...

The final two loops on disc two are considered to be "bonus loops", and offer female-on-female abuse – in the form of WELL HUNG and FEM-DOM.

Disc two offers the same animated main menu page and static scene-selection menu as disc one. There are no extras, save for the aforementioned "bonus loops".

Each loop across the two discs is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and has been newly remastered from the original 8mm film elements. Despite frequent film damage (specks, vertical lines etc), these generally look unexpectedly good. Colours are solid, lighting seems fair given the amateurish production values and blacks are stable throughout.

There is no audio throughout as these loops were recorded without sound.

Should you choose the "Play Feature" option on either disc, you get introductions from Pete. If you should want to avoid these, you can do so by perusing the scene-selection menus.

A fold-out 6-page booklet completes this impressive package with liner notes from Pete.

If you’re looking for sex, don’t look here. But if you’re looking for bondage (hey, we won’t judge you), then I imagine you’ll find this set extremely fulfilling.

Review by Stuart Willis