PERVERT

While no intelligent genre devotee would deny the importance of careful characterization and the mature handling of archetypal themes when crafting an ultimately meaningful horror story, there is no doubting the pleasures of the occasional 'just for fun!' approach. After hours logged in studying the stylistic integrity and aesthetic layers within 'serious' movies, sometimes the critic and fan alike can appreciate the outrageous humor and courage of a gleefully shocking, cheap feature. Subtlety be damned! Bring on the sensationalistic and irreverent, the rowdy and the rude. Pervert, an absurdly entertaining knock at various exploitation genres, is more funny, sexy, and outlandish than it has any right to be! This is one of those rare occasions when pure enthusiasm, energy, and, yes, breasts, transcend literary considerations or the need for seriousness. Nothing is serious in Pervert but the filmmaker's desire to offend, entertain, and exploit. Sex, death, and meat sculpture: this surprise sleeper is as intelligent as it is raunchy, enjoying the very same genre conventions that it lampoons.

Starring porn actress Mary Carey, whose natural plumpness makes her more attractive as she shakes her breasts and ass, this good natured explosion of gore and laugh-out-loud humor just doesn't let up. In a plot that rushes like a mad cow to the groin, Pervert embraces its slapstick and splattery conventions with a not-so-sly wink at the audience, giving it precisely what it wants but might be too ashamed to ask for. James (Sean Andrews) heads to his pop's desert ranch for the summer in a personal Epic, of sorts, wanting to learn to be an honest to god ball scratching MAN! He also needs to make peace with his estranged father, but the plot is too devoted to carnage for you to really notice. Hezekiah (Darrell Sandeen) the father, is a miserly old codger with an understandable fondness for large breasts and biblical scripture. Free to decline into the depths of sexual perversion and insanity after the death of James' mother, Hezekiah has spent his private time indulging in beautiful women when he isn't making high art with meat sculpting. Oh yea, my friends, it's that kind of movie! When James finds sexy Cheryl (Mary Carey) at home, he finds himself torn between the desire to hop aboard this teasing cutie or respect his father's status. Of course he screws the girl! When Hezekiah discovers James and Cheryl going at it in the back of his truck, she is replaced by a new lovely lady the next day. What happened to Cheryl? That's just what James wonders, suspecting his father of killing lust, as the body count -- and suspicion -- mounts.

A salacious tribute -- both visually and thematically -- to the films of Russ Meyer (who would love all the swollen tits on display), Pervert also gives more than a nod to the home-made shock-shlock of H. G. Lewis and adult cinema. At the same time, the plot succeeds in poking fun at family values, political correctness, and even our own love of genre -- yet never in a self-satisfied or superior fashion, such as in the sneeringly disdainful Scary Movie series. This is a surprise horror hit that, while lacking story integrity, never suffers for it. Instead it deals honestly with its simplistic premise, wringing every bit of sly humor and social criticism out of wet punch-lines. Sex, pornography, hypocrisy, social ineptness, the media, violence - everything is touched upon here. Yet it isn't simply the content that makes this a great camp film but, more importantly, the approach which director/producer Jonathan Yudie and writer/producer Mike Davis adapt when fusing these chaotic elements together. With a score that perfectly expresses the crazy intent of the story, the script approaches universal truth, touching upon some real issues beneath all the shenanigans. This is unarguably a sexist, rowdy, politically incorrect film -- and all the more welcome for it. It may be low on brains but high on breasts, blood, and plain old fashioned goofiness. This is, at heart, a welcome departure from the 'oh so careful not to insult anyone' features being churned out by the mainstream.

Watch this feature with your feminist date or friends -- if you want them to hate you! Fun is the operative word in this blue collar exploitation. You want sex? You got it! Gore? Check! Gratuitous nudity, black magic, killing body parts? Check! Check! Check! Pervert is the perfect ode to the seedier, sillier, bloodier side of the genre, and for this alone it deserves a place close to the embittered horror fan's heart. True love -- and yes, skill -- is evident in both the script and execution of the film. Scribe Mike Davis merges raunchy everyman humor and gags with witty dialogue. In short, this is the movie that your parents had in their minds when they forbid YOU to watch the latest horror-thon down at the local theater. One important note: while many so-called horror-comedy films go for ridiculousness all at once, writer Davis combines filth with wisdom, pointing out in the course of all the madness observances about cliché, the genre, and our species that more 'serious' films don't dare to even approach. Bravo!

The visual quality of this check-disc was clean, evidencing a small amount of image softness but nothing to get worried about. And this was just a screener . . . A nicely managed widescreen transfer brings the colors to life, and lends all that wonderful naked flesh a realistic skin tone. The picture looks surprisingly good, so good, in fact, that it makes the 'dirty' approach seem even filthier. Audio is clean and evenly distributed in a Dolby Digital 2.0 track.

Review by William P. Simmons