RAPIST RAMPAGE: GRINDHOUSE DOUBLE FEATURE

After Hours Cinema does it again, loading a disc with more perversion than even Boris Johnson could cope with in one evening. Allegedly.

The first of two features on offer is the near-legendary WET WILDERNESS, a really sleazy puppy from the mid-70s. Widely regarded as one of the most sick and twisted 16mm porn films of its era, it kicks off pleasantly enough with a family strolling through the woods one sunny afternoon.

The mother and her teenaged son reach a log cabin and decide to go in. Meanwhile the daughter and her brunette friend Mandy decide to find a sheltered spot in the trees so Mandy can take photos of the blonde daughter as she strips. This leads to a surprisingly sensual lesbian scene, witnessed in the trees by a rapist in a yellow ski-mask.

After having seen enough muff-diving and finger sucking, the rapist appears with his two-foot machete and demands both girls fellate him. They oblige, but blondie manages to sneak back into her red dress and do a runner as the thug busies himself cumming on the brunette's lips. The scene ends with him ramming his machete between her legs.

Blondie flees to the cabin and warns her mother and brother. It's too late though - the rapist pops up from behind a tree and forces the mother into oral then anal sex, while watching blondie suck her brother off. It must be said, although these people are supposedly acting under duress, they really seem to be enjoying it (note the brother's hand on the back of his sister's neck!).

Again, blondie manages to race off - exhibiting a blatant disregard for her family members. She stumbles across a topless black man, who claims to have been tied to a tree for three days. She frees him, hoping he can save her. But the rapist turns up again, this time brandishing an axe, and the humiliations continue.

WET WILDERNESS is certainly outrageous on paper. Forced incest? Rape? Gory murders? It appears to transgress as many taboos as possible, and yet is curiously innocuous in execution. This may be due to the atrociously bad post-dubbing, or the rapist's laughably broad Southern accent. It may well be because they attractive cast give such spirited performances when fucking each other. It may just be that it's a no-budget quickie shot on 16mm and consequently looks akin to someone's home movie.

Having said that, it's oddly compelling. The dialogue of the rapist is undeniably racist and sexist - probably the most shocking element of the film - while the murders, albeit badly shot, offer an unusual Sadean twist to the 70s porno melting pot.

The sex itself benefits from the aforementioned enthusiastic performances and the attractive females on offer (the blonde is a stunner). There's more sucking than fucking, and a combination of bad camera angles and natural lighting (the entire film takes place outdoors) make for several hard-to-see penetration shots. As is usual for films of this era, be on the look-out for masses of pubic hair and overly gooey sperm (what were they eating back then?!).

The film is apparently uncut but has had original music replaced by a stock slasher score (listen out for the FRIDAY THE 13TH- style "ch-ch-ch"s), to avoid a Universal lawsuit.

The second film on offer is COME DEADLY. Lesser known, but arguably better made, this offers a novel riff on THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

This whodunit revolves around a theatre staging a production of "The Taming Of The Shrew". Actress Anne is the first to be raped and strangled upstairs while changing costume, by a masked figure not unlike the killer in BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. By the time the other cast members respond to Anne's screams, she's dead and the phantom has vanished.

Theatre director Andy calls in the sharp-dressed detective Rains (ah, a nod and a wink) to work undercover as a stagehand.

Rains carries out his investigations by shagging cast members (when he gets a stiffy, that is), while now and again the phantom returns to force fellatio and doggie-style gratifications from his hapless victims. More gooey money shots are duly dealt.

The whole thing works towards a reveal which I admittedly didn't see coming (I suspected the totally wrong person - although in my eyes they're all guilty as Hell, if only for the ludicrous facial hair sported by each male cast member).

Surprisingly stylish and well-edited, COME DEADLY also benefits from a script-of-sorts and live sound. It's not a badly shot or lit film, and although the sex scenes are nothing special it's pretty competent in all other respects.

But WET WILDERNESS has a power, an authentic sleaze about it, that COME DEADLY cannot match.

The static main menu page gives direct access to both films, each of which is presented in a decent 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. Colours and blacks are strong throughout, while grain is moderate and specks are minimal. These are above-par presentations in After Hours terms.

The English mono audio on WET WILDERNESS is ridiculously loud and clear (have they added their own dubbing? I've not seen the film before so perhaps someone can help me out with this?). COME DEADLY also has clear, problem-free mono playback.

Although there are no scene-selection menus on offer each film has it's own chapters: WILDERNESS has 9 chapters; DEADLY has 10.

The only extras on the disc are a whopping 37 trailers, including the likes of FORCED ENTRY, GUNILLA and SEXORCISM.

Elsewhere in the package there's an 8-page booklet with decent liner notes and colour screengrabs, plus a nice fold-out mini-poster of the DVD cover artwork.

Proceed with trepidation. If not for the sleaze that awaits you, for the bad hair fashions!

Review by Stuart Willis