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DEMONESS
Directed by Glynn Beard
Y2K: SHUTDOWN DETECTED
A film by John Gonzales, Trent Shumway, and Slava Siderman
Demoness is your basic substandard old-witch-in-the-woods tale. Creepy Jim?s (director Beard) wife Theresa
has left him to escape his obsessive smothering, so Jimbo goes for the quick supernatural fix. Getting a love potion from
the spooky old woman who lives in the mountains, Jim gives it to Theresa as perfume and presto, she?s all his once more. The
happy-again couple throws a celebration party out at the lake house, and sure enough their dull friends wander away to be
killed off one by one. By, wait for it . . . the Demoness, Theresa, who?s now been possessed by the 300-year-old spirit of
The Crier. You know, the woman the old witch told Jim about, the one who, centuries ago, was raped and hounded by villagers
until she was driven to drown herself and her children rather than be burned as a witch. But not before cursing them all forever!
Where to begin . . . Demoness looks like an overly long excuse to use film school shooting techniques and
digital visual effects while all but ignoring more essential elements such as script and action. And in fact, according to
the DVD commentary, this is almost exactly what happened. The film was planned out down to every shot and special effect without
ever actually having a completed script in hand. And the lack of preparation in this area truly shows. Scenes are clumsily
improvised or inadequately rehearsed, making nearly every delivery awkward and labored, and there are numerous redundancies
and errors in logic and continuity (which the filmmakers readily admit). And despite the concentration on the imagery, visually
the picture doesn?t fare much better. Lengthy filler space transitions, overly dark scenes, jumpy rambling-through-the-woods
cinematography, stock nightmares (and lots of blandly morbid talk about them), and poor or next-to-no set dressing make an
unremarkable story even more drab than it has to be. But after all that you?ve gotta at least hope there?ll be some nudity
and gore to justify the time spent in front of the tube, right? I can?t recall a single bit of nekkidness, and as for violence
you?ve got a killer tongue and an obligatory beating-heart-pulled-out-of-the-chest shot, a couple of people just disappear
. . . you know, nothing special. This is the kind of thing you might rent on a whim and regret within the first 5-10 minutes
of viewing. And yet the filmmakers still sound disapointed that their sequel never materialized . . .
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As something of a consolation prize ei & Shock-O-Rama throw a bonus horror short into the package, Y2K:
Shutdown Detected. In this one, compliance control runs amok at the Kirkland Biotech Research Center?s genetic engineering
facility. When their system crashes at the dawning of Y2K, the completely computer-controlled facility goes apeshit, locking
down the building and trapping the employees inside to conduct a little bit of genetic engineering of its own. The first creation
is a gigantic protoplasmic blob that wipes out a pair of workers ?during data gathering.? Still looking for host organisms
with which to generate ?a new species? the system reanimates one of the bodies, which comes back to life in classic zombie
mode. The mutilated corpse tears the throat out of one female employee while another is chosen as the ?birthing pod? for the
system?s offspring. But nothing much really seems to come of this, except that three years later Kirkland?s software specialist
is STILL plugging away as the head of ?Y2K Solutions.? But now he?s got a computerized voice.
?The Making of . . .? segment shows again how much more work goes into a film, even a short one, than the
audience usually appreciates. For example, this 22-minute film was two years in the making. And while capably assembled, as
a project that was apparently scaled down from a much more ambitious, elaborate, and expensive full-length feature the completed
short still shows that the filmmakers? eyes were bigger than either their budget or their script. There are a host of special
effects, both prosthetic and computer-generated (although sometimes a little flashier than necessary), and the picture is
neatly edited, but it doesn?t really go anywhere. (Sure, I take it we?re to believe the facility?s program was eventually
successful and it has now sent its minions out into the world to replicate the process ad infinitum, but this horrifying event
is played down so much that nightmares are more likely to come from the bag of hot & spicy pork rinds consumed during viewing
than from this terrifying conclusion.) Much like Demoness, Y2K resembles a student group film with even more fancy accoutrements,
but thankfully it?s much more lively and much shorter than its accompanying feature. And hey, a free bonus is a free bonus.
* *
ei Independent Cinema / Shock-O-Rama Cinema
www.eicinema.com / www.Shock-O-Rama.com
10 Park Place, Building 1-A, 2nd Floor, Butler, NJ, 07405
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DON?T TRY THIS AT HOME: The Steve-O Video
DON?T TRY THIS AT HOME II: The Career Ende
?People ask me why I do all this stupid shit, and it?s such a simple answer: I don?t like work and I don?t
like school, you know? And, I wanna, like, be remembered forever, dude.?
And after watching this set of video footage from the archives of the insane stunt school you may well think
those words of Jackass? Steve-O will make a fitting future epitaph for the guy. Watch in awe, amazement, and disgust as this
crazy fucker: jumps from the roof of a moving car into the waterway below; takes roman candle shots to the bare ass (even
catching one right in the crack); snorts hot curry and pukes up snot; ice skates a thinly frozen lake in only ballerina garb,
falling or jumping in multiple times; sets himself on fire and flips from the roof of a hotel into the pool many stories below;
has his buddies throw darts at his bare ass, then has ?em cauterize the wounds; jumps out of a flying seaplane; launches a
rocket from his ass; and throws himself from, on, and into everything within leaping range.
One appreciably odd segment has Steve-O going to Louisiana for some ?coon-ass cookin?.? There he samples
fresh cooked squirrel kabob and dines upon stewed nutria rat and possum. All are prepared and served head-on, and Steve-O
hurls great chunks after every bite. But the amazing thing is that he keeps going back for bites until he?s tried every one
of the little roadkill-looking fuckers! In another scene Steve-O is shot up with vodka, then allowed to wander the streets
in a hospital dressing gown, IV unit in tow.
Also on this tape is a lot of skateboard stunt footage, along with shots from the bodily harmful Don?t Try
This at Home tour (which also featured Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Wee-Man, Preston Lacy, Johnny Knoxville, and Ryan Simonetti)
and a soundtrack by the likes of Smut Peddlars, Dimwits, and Prevail.
Video #2 begins with a pair of bold disclaimers (? . . . do not try any of these stunts ever. If you do
you will turn gay and/or die and that?s not good.?) before diving headfirst into ?The Horrible X-Rated Extremely Gay Career-Ending
Footage of Steve-O.? Getting his bikini area waxed; standing outside of a bar dressed as a human urinal and taking piss from
a whole line-up of drunken patrons; drinking beer poured down some guy?s butt crack, and vomiting immediately thereafter (?Aargh
. . . Butt Crack Beer!?); shaving his taint in public; jacking off on the phone and keyboard of Jackass production coordinator
Scott Polasnik (who is not amused); and including scenes from ?one of the most amazing things that?s ever happened to me?:
?I humped this Danish girl, in my friend?s bed, tied the rubber in a knot and threw it on the floor. Fuckin? dog comes chargin?
in the room, and gobbles up the rubber. Three days later, fuckin? dog crapped out the rubber.? Which is then picked up and
examined for an all-too-close inspection. Oh wait, can?t forget the most ridiculously awful stunt of all, staplegunning his
scrotum to each leg! You will cringe, guaranteed.
His amazing lack of concern for personal safety really does make Steve-O an impressive entertainer. There?s
gotta be more than just a little bit wrong with you to keep doing ?all this stupid shit,? but Steve-O keeps plowing on with
remarkably good humor. (His rare complaints are understandable, such as when a fire stunt goes wrong and burns his face and
head, or when a leap from a bridge doesn?t land quite right: ?That hurt like shit.?) Whether you admire him for his fearless
insanity or look down at him as a drug casualty in progress, the bottom line is that these videos are some pretty crazy shit
to watch. And if you own a television you?re gonna want to see some of that.
* * *
$19.95 for both (+ age statement and postage?) from www.steveovideo.com
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HOLLYWOOD BABYLON
Directed by Van Guylder
In a flimsy but mildly amusing attempt to capitalize on Kenneth Anger?s infamous book-length scandal sheet,
1971?s Hollywood Babylon takes a half-assed approach at further sensationalizing some of Tinsel Town?s glittering low points.
Starting off on a sleazy softcore note, Hollywood Babylon begins with a sloppy dinner party orgy staged
by some of Hollywood?s elite back in 1916. This token gang-bang moves on to leer at the disgraceful downfalls of Olive Thomas,
Wally Reed, Fatty Arbuckle, Von Stroheim, Clara Bow, and other fallen silver screen stars felled by bad judgement and general
?drink, dope, and debauchery.? (Unlike Anger?s more dirt-digging tell-all approach, in the film names aren?t always named,
doubtless to protect those who wish to consider themselves innocent. Legally, anyway.)
Hollywood Babylon?s running time is shamefully padded out with a ridiculous amount of old timey newsreel
and comedy short footage, inserted no doubt for ?historical purposes? but serving the much more practical purpose of adding
much-needed filler. As far as recreating the infamous moments themselves, the softcore sex scenes (generally featuring lots
of big chubby asses) are all ludicrously unerotic and the farthest thing from scandalous. It looks as if the producers spent
considerably more money renting vintage cars than they did their ?talent,? who rarely fail to look nothing like the fallen
idols they?re portraying. Along similar lines, the trashy low budget faux elegant furnishings of the film?s rich & famous
subjects are equally laughable.
But everything has its moments, and this flick is no exception. There are some wonderful bits of melodrama
and amusement nestled here and there in the garbage: Virginia Rappe dramatically moaning, ?I?m dying! Oh my god I?m dying!?
in Fatty Arbuckle?s bed; mounting TV show-style music blaring as ?Big Daddy? stalks the decks of his party yacht, revolver
in hand as he hunts for the other man boning his little strumpet of a starlet; the bitch-slappin? lesbian catfight; and Clara
Bow?s ludicrous orgy with a college football team (?She had tried other forms of relaxation: tennis, golf, croquet . . .?).
With its constant yellow journalist stream of narration Hollywood Babylon almost plays out like a new addition
to the line of hysterically cautionary ?educational? films: that of the celebrity scare film. ?Accept stardom, and you accept
the responsibilities that go with it. Every trip to the toilet is counted and recounted. Every love affiar is duly noted and
publicized. Scandal is a constant companion of the new breed of golden people.?
*
#6200: $15.00 + $5.00 shipping and age statement from Something Weird Video
www.somethingweird.com
P.O. Box 33664, Seattle, WA, 98133
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HUMAN BEASTS
Directed by Jacinto Molina Alvarez
This twisted flick starts out almost as a parody of the crime drama, but after some stereotypical spy hijinx
and the ol? betrayed love interest it gets down, dirty, and literally hog-wild.
Bruno the mercenary (Paul Naschy, looking a little too much like John Belushi to play a scary soldier of
fortune) is contracted to hijack a consignment of diamonds for a budding Japanese crime syndicate. But Bruno the mercenary
has other ideas for those stones, and he pulls a quick double-cross on his girlfriend Miyako and her criminal-minded brother
Taro. ?We?ll learn how to use guns Miyako ? we?ll track him down and kill him!? Taro vows, ?No matter where he hides!?
And just as soon as Taro and Miyako learn how to use guns they track Bruno down in the Spanish countryside
and put a few holes in him. Wounded, Bruno still manages to blow Taro away and escape before passing out.
Some time later Bruno awakens at a strange farmhouse. He?s been found by pig farmer Don Simon?s lovely daughters
Monica and Alisha, who have brought him home to tend his wounds and administer a little sexual healing. One small insight
into Don Simon?s household: when his daughters start a petty quarrel over their wounded he-man?s favors and are ridiculed
by saucy black maid Rachel, Don Simon takes the wench upstairs and belt-whips her sweaty as the entire household listens to
his cries of ?I am your master! You have no decency!? Then he screws her.
Elsewhere, spurred on by some inquiries from Miyako, Don Simon?s randy ponce of a veterinarian Don Serafin
gets the picture that something strange is going on up at the pig farm. Promising top dollar, Don Serafin encourages a couple
of louts to break into the farmhouse and get some information on ?The Foreigner.? These petty criminals are quickly done in
by a mysterious meathook-wielding killer, and now, some 65 minutes into the picture, Human Beasts kicks over into a more savage
gear. Don Serafin sneaks onto the grounds to flirt with Rachel and gets hacked in the face and fed to the hogs (twenty years
before Hannibal did it); Miyako sneaks into the house to hunt for Bruno and is knifed to death on the stairs; and Bruno sneaks
around in the dark and comes face-to-face with the spectral Teresa (Julia Saly). Don Simon?s third daughter, Teresa still
suffers from the trauma incurred long ago when her mother was raped and murdered by ?some natives? when the family lived in
Africa. Nowdays she lurks around the house spying on the various goings-on, and tonight gives Bruno the ?GET OUT? speech.
But Bruno ignores Teresa?s warning, and continues stumbling about until he comes across a collection of human skulls.
Later Bruno dresses up as Napoleon for a costume banquet. But upon deciding, ?Hmf . . . I look ridiculous,?
he declines to attend and decides to bail the farm instead. The other ridiculously-attired guests stuff themselves with questionable
meat (?Mmm, you know these are just delicious brains!?) until Don Simon, decked out as an SS officer, offers up the main course
of his ?masterpiece? stew. Everybody chows down (even Superman?s transsexual lover . . . no shit!), while upstairs Alisha
sneaks some wine in to Bruno before to his departure. This makes him just woozy enough to pass out in the midst of his escape,
laying his motorcycle down on the road away from the farm.
When Bruno wakes up he?s naked, laid out on a butcher?s block, and being prepped for slaughter by the entire
family. Miyako?s naked body hangs in a nearby meatlocker. ?In Africa we first discovered the pleasure of eating human meat,?
Don Simon explains. ?It was Rachel?s father, the leader of the village, who introduced us to cannibalism.? ?What a wonderful
experience it was,? Alisha chimes in, ?We all liked it. Except for our poor mother, and Teresa.? As Bruno?s pleas to the girls
go unanswered, Don Simon sticks his blade into the mercenary?s throat and a bucket of blood literally flows. Suddenly Teresa
barges into the room with a pistol, firing four shots into . . . The End.
Well that was kind of fast . . . Points for the cannibalism theme, even though it?s handled very mildly
up until the very end (prior to Bruno?s murder the only hints that Don Simon?s serving up more long pig than piglet come with
frequent gloating references to his special stew). More still simply for being another addition to the killer hog farmer genre.
Can?t have too many of those. Bruno?s sudden cold-blooded death does come somewhat unexpectedly; although his portrayal as
a greedy heartless killer is contrasted with a more sensitive loverboy-type personality, you still kind of figure he?ll get
his in the end. But that end, along with that of the rest of Teresa?s family, still comes awfully quickly and bluntly. Aside
from the base plot and a few grisly touches however, Human Beasts really suffers in the areas of direction and execution.
There?s a distinct lack of atmosphere and cohesive suspense throughout, and the film is further hampered by rigid camerawork
and hackneyed touches like unnecessary flashbacks, lengthy nightmares, bad gunfights, and the overly dramatic musical flares
accompanying extreme close-ups. All of which detract from the gut theme of the picture and drag it down into made-for-foreign-TV-movie
range. But for sheer perversion, even if it does get ridiculous at times, you?ve still gotta like parts of Human Beasts. After
all, how can you fail to appreciate a film having lines in it like, ?Your father?s an expert in tender pink flesh ? and I?ve
got plenty of it!?
* * *
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KOLOBOS
Directed by Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocviak
A buncha weirdoes get lured to a house full of deathtraps; nearly everybody dies. That?s the base premise
here, but there?s a load of other crap heaped on about psychosis, self-mutilation, murder fantasy, etc. etc. etc. Trust me,
it ain?t as interesting as it might sound . . .
From the very opening credits Kolobos starts off on a derivative note, as theme music bastardized from the
Suspiria soundtrack plays while the camera tracks past dark close-ups of artwork and razor blades or leather-gloved hands
engaging in secretive activities. Several disjointed and seemingly random shots later, some whacked-out chick covered in blood
is very unconvincingly hit by a car and taken to the hospital.
During post-operative recovery Kyra (Amy Weber) flashes back to answering an ad calling for, ?Five progressive-minded
individuals for ground-breaking experimental film . . . If you?re willing to laugh, cry, love, hate, befriend, betray, and
confess it all on VHS, I want you.? Obnoxious prospective players are interviewed on tape, immediately proving themselves
so irritating that even before their brief introductions are over you?re already looking forward to their grisly demises.
Along with Kyra, who quickly proves herself the perfect caricature of the troubled artist (it shortly becomes known that aside
from being just a little bit hysterical she?s also a self-mutilator on ?anti-anxiety? medication who is currently living at
some halfway house/group home type of place), we?ve got Tom (Donny Terranova) the ?comedian? who introduces himself as the
?gangster of love,? Tina (Promise LaMarco) the bubbly, mouthy, immature fast food worker, Erica (Nichole Pelerine) the pretentious
actress, and Gary (John Fairlie) the pretentious film student. All five of the lucky participants settle in at their ?resort?
location somewhere on snowy Mount Olympus (equipped with cameras in every room to catch all that laughin?, cryin?, lovin?,
& hatin?, natch.), and after a brief introduction by their ?director? Carl they begin the difficult task of . . . hanging
out.
Shortly after arriving Kyra starts experiencing weird shit, like seeing videos of some character cutting
his face off while muttering about ?Kolobos.? And before long weird shit actually starts to happen: Tina gets sliced and diced
by a buzzsaw booby trap in the kitchen; steel shutters slide into place around the house, completely sealing off any avenue
of escape; fuses blow, forcing red, blue, and stroboscopic lights to play sporadically in every room; Tina?s head is found
on a platter; and the group is shown a video of Carl getting snuffed.
When Carl?s body if found dangling from the ceiling Erica admits that she and he were actors hired to participate
in some sort of set-up arranged by an anonymous investor. Of course things were never supposed to turn out this way, but there?s
nothing left to do now but creep around in the dark trying to find a way out of the house. Kyra?s escalating hallucinations
make her and the other three players increasingly uneasy, and before long some of her drawings are found in a conspicuous
setting, stained with blood and portraying death scenes too much like those the group has recently witnessed. Meanwhile Gary
is busy getting beaten up, thrown in a bathtub and given an acid shower, and having his face bloodily smashed in on the corner
of a bathroom counter. Kyra is locked in the bathroom by the other two; Erica has her ass snatched in some kind of bear trap
and then has an antler pushed through her eyesocket (Zombie meets ?Salem?s Lot!); Kyra gets out of the bathroom; Tom gets
killed off somehow; the guy from the face-cutter video shows up to torment Kyra further by telling her that he freed her drawings
by making them real; Kyra slashes him with a razor and sticks a pool cue through his skull; and Kyra finally gets out of the
house, hit by a car, and taken to the hospital where she?s told that nobody can find the house of horrors she describes.
Despite numerous obviously self-inflicted injuries Kyra is released from the hospital. Heading back to a
previously unseen ?home,? she wanders around amid some rather poor artwork, has another hallucinatory spazz attack, fantasizes
about the murders, and starts slicing her face. Guided by old Faceless she then places a classified ad for ?Five progressive-minded
individuals . . .?
Apparently all a sick fantasy engaged in by the very fucked-up female protagonist, Kolobos is remarkably
bad for its overly elaborate plot and settings. No T&A (not even from the brief and none-too-?special appearance by Linnea
Quigley?), cheesy gore, irritating lighting that?s almost always near dark or bathed in haunted disco funhouse colors, suicidally
annoying characters, poor high school quality artwork, and outrageous rip-offs of Dario Argento-style violence and Evil Dead
Trap-style video/boobytrap action that are pretty unforgivable for a 1999 feature. Even a straight-to-video dust collector
like this one. (Oh yeah, in one hospital scene the filmmakers even swipe that quick shuddery head thing seen in Jacob?s Ladder,
House on Haunted Hill, and other horror flicks.)
I gather there?s apparently some sort of larger Greek fable-type theme that?s supposed to be running through
this, as we?re told that Kolobos is the Greek word for ?mutilated? and the story is told of Zeus splitting the original being
to form man and woman (not to mention the previously noted Mt. Olympus setting). With Kyra?s self-destructive mutilation and
implied murder lust maybe this is meant to indicate some sort of myth about the warring creative and destructive sides of
a split personality . . . but given the bulk of the film that?s really quite a reach. The only real thing mutilated here is
the budget of the producers, and your time & temper should you bother to sit through this.
*
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MAD LOVE
Directed by Karl Freund
No, not that got-dang Drew Barrymore sapfest, but the classic B&W 1935 Peter Lorre flick of the Hands of
Orlac variety. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
A clever cast & credits screen (a window with titles painted onto it, eventually broken by a fist) leads
into a ghoulish opening scene: a hanged man dangling from a beam . . . as part of the diabolic fa?ade of Le Theatre des Horreurs.
At the grand guignol palace this evening the lovely Yvonne (Francis Drake) is performing as the ?Tortured? for the last time.
She?s leaving the theater to move to England with her husband, acclaimed concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive), much
to the chagrin of her ardently creepy admirer Doctor Gogol (Peter Lorre). As Yvonne enjoys her going-away party (complete
with a guillotine wedding cake) the crushed Dr. Gogol attempts to ease his sorrow by purchasing the Theatre?s lifesize wax
figure of her, Galatean fantasies dancing in his bulging eyes.
Elsewhere, the train carrying Stephen Orlac home to Yvonne stops outside Paris to take on another passenger.
Convicted killer Rollo (Edward Brophy), the circus knife-thrower who murdered his father, is escorted aboard under armed guard,
much to the excitement and concern of the other passengers. He?s being taken to Paris for his execution, where his arrival
is anxiously anticipated by loudmouthed American reporter Reagan (Ted Healy) and police commissioner Prefect Rosset (Henry
Kolker). But as they wait with Yvonne at the Paris platform a commotion is raised and the crowd is told that the train has
been wrecked.
Stephen is so badly injured in the accident that a surgeon, Dr. Mirbeau, believes both of his hands will
have to be amputated. A frantic Yvonne sends him to Gogol?s clinic for a second opinion, but when he arrives the next morning
the Doctor is not in. At the moment Gogol is attending the execution of Rollo, who has survived the train wreck without a
scratch. (?Boy!? the killer says as he approaches the guillotine, ?Ain?t that somethin?!?) Following the beheading Gogol returns
to his practice and greets Yvonne, telling the shattered young bride that amputation of her husband?s hands truly is the only
option. Except . . . with the placement of a discreet call to Prefect Rosset, Gogol manages to have Rollo?s corpse delivered
to his clinic. Some time and a bit of experimental surgery later, Gogol successfully grafts the killer?s hands onto the pianist?s
arms.
After a long, costly, and rather peculiar recovery, Stephen returns to his piano. Even though he?s been
led to believe that his crushed hands were repaired, not replaced, Stephen?s playing is more than a bit off, and the pianist
recognizes this immediately. What?s more, since the accident he has developed something of a temper, especially as the bills
continue to accumulate. In an unusual fit of rage Orlac nearly kills his father with a knife when the old man sneers at his
request for a loan, instead suggesting that his son?s actress wife find a way to ?supplement? her income.
Meanwhile Dr. Gogol has finally expressed his desperate love to Yvonne. ?Is there no room in your heart,
even pity, for a man who has never known the love of a woman but who has worshipped you since the day he first walked by that
absurd little theater?!? And while she admits to trading upon his affections in the past, she of course desists. ?Even if
I didn?t love (Stephen), there?s something about you, it . . .? ?It bothers you,? fills in Gogol. ? . . . Frightens me,? the
lady finishes. ?You are cruel!? says the doctor, but then softens. ? . . . But only to be kind.? Rejected, Dr. Gogol returns
to continue lavishing his attentions upon the waxwork Yvonne.
One evening Stephen bursts into the doctor?s home, demanding an explanation from Gogol ? Dr. Mirbeau has
told him that his hands were too badly damaged to be repaired, and Stephen has all too readily noticed his new mitts? fondness
for the blade. ?They want to kill!? he exclaims, but Gogal puts him off with some psychological mumbo-jumbo. ?Your case is
one of arrested wish fulfillment,? Gogol tells the pianist, and suggests he go off in search of a non-existent memory. ?I
told him a lot of nonsense I don?t believe myself,? Gogol later says to another doctor. ?I didn?t dare to tell him his hands
are those of a murderer. That would probably drive him . . . to commit murder himself . . .? Gogol drifts off for a moment
into an insidious reverie, the twisted idea already taking larger shape in his mind.
When Yvonne arrives looking for her husband, Gogol tells her that he?s sent Stephen out to the country for
peace, quiet, and recuperation. The doctor goes on to say that Stephen?s mind has been affected and his life ruined, and even
goes so far as to suggest Yvonne leave him before her life is destroyed as well. But Yvonne easily sees through Gogol?s transparent
ruse, distancing herself from him and coldly saying that she now understands just what he?s about. ?You don?t,? Gogol begins
to rant, ?How could you? I, a poor peasant, have conquered Science! Why can?t I conquer Love?!?? The mad doctor?s ravings
grow more intense as he proclaims, ?Don?t you understand? You must be mine! Not his! You ARE mine!? But Yvonne shoots him
down as a liar and a hypocrite, and telling Gogol how much he disgusts her she storms away.
The devastated Dr. Gogol returns to his practice, but Yvonne?s harsh words continue to ring so cruelly in
his ears that he cannot complete his surgeries. Fleeing to his office Gogol begins to hallucinate, seeing and hearing his
own image speak to him in Luciferian tones that convince the doctor he already knows what must be done to conquer love.
The next morning Stephen?s father is found murdered, with a knife. As the police interview the elder Orlac?s
assistant, who witnessed the earlier confrontation between father and son, Stephen goes out to meet a shadowy trenchcoated
figure. Wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, the stranger whispers to Stephen that he can tell him the truth about his
hands. When Stephen asks how he knows about such things the man reveals his own, a pair of metal prostheses. ?I have no hands,?
he hisses. ?Yours, they were mine, once.? The stranger goes on to accuse Stephen of stabbing his father in the back the night
before, and doing so with his own stolen hands. The murder is news to Steven, and when he demands to know who he is speaking
with the man triumphantly replies, ?I am Rollo!? When Stephen expresses disbelief the figure rises to his feet, saying, ?Yes,
they cut off my head. But that Gogol, he put it back . . . HERE!? With this the man opens up his trenchcoat, displaying a
grotesque medical shoulder harness and neck brace. Stephen backs away in horror, followed by ?Rollo?s? demented cackling.
Returning home to Yvonne, Stephen tells his wife his fears just as the police arrive to take him away. Yvonne
rushes over to Gogol?s place, believing him to be behind Stephen?s delusions. Once inside she manages to get herself locked
into the doctor?s study by the drunken housekeeper, who thinks Yvonne is her own wax image come to life. While looking for
a way out Yvonne hears the man with the metal hands come in downstairs, and she sees that it is indeed Dr. Gogol himself.
As he?s distracted by his own crazed amusement at having deceived ?That fool,? Yvonne backs into her waxen doppelganger, knocking
it over and shattering it upon the floor. Thinking fast she quickly takes its place as Gogol enters, still braying and boasting
of his mad genius. He even confesses to the murder of Stephen?s father, and the good he hopes will come of it. ?She?ll come
here now . . . and he, he shall be shut up in the house where they keep the mad!? Acknowledging the irony that, ?He shouldn?t
be shut up, when it?s I who am mad!? the laughing Gogol takes his place at his organ and begins playing to his statue.
At the police station Stephen tries to explain to the officers what ?Rollo? has told him. The story is of
course taken as impossible, that is until Stephen?s fingerprints prove an exact match to those of the executed murderer. The
ever-pushy Reagan is at the stationhouse as well, and tells Prefect Rosset how he was violently chased away from Orlac?s home
a day or so before. The reporter believes Stephen?s wild story, and based upon the hunch that Gogol?s up to something with
the pianist?s pretty wife Rosset decides there?s motive enough to pay the good doctor a visit.
Back at Gogol?s place Yvonne is startled into a scream when the housekeeper?s pet bird flies by and scratches
her face. Seeing her blood arouses Gogol, and he seizes Yvonne with the declaration, ?Galatea! I am Pygmalion!? Yvonne?s shrieks
of resistance to Gogol?s lusty embrace troubles him, and as she shrinks away he hears his own voice speaking to him again.
?Each man kills the thing he loves,? the voice hypnotically repeats, until Gogol takes up the mantra as well and turns upon
Yvonne with bald menace.
Stephen and the police arrive to hear Yvonne?s screaming, and as they attempt to break down Gogol?s door
she faints dead away. Gogol takes hold of her hair, and, ?In one long raven strand I wind three times her little throat round.?
Having made it inside and upstairs by now, Stephen and the police are still unable to pass through the barred door of Gogol?s
organ chamber. Taking up the knife Gogol used to kill his father, Stephen hurls it through the grating and into Gogol?s chest.
And with a final reuniting embrace by the young couple, the film is over.
I?m generally not a big fan of the love story, especially when they end on a trite just-in-the-nick-of-time-note.
But as weird and creepy as this one is I?ve got to give it top marks. The theme of amputation makes Mad Love all the stranger,
and and even makes up for the film?s few goofy bits involving the reporter and the dipsomaniacal housekeeper. With Lorre?s
leering, obsessive, homicidal infatuation and the haunting black & white atmosphere of the picture I can?t help but think
of Charles Addams. And that?s a good thing. Along this same line there are also a number of great Halloween touches throughout
the film, especially at Le Theatre des Horreurs (headless hat-check girl, props like the giant skull and torture devices).
Gogol?s carnivorous houseplants are pretty nice, too. And, in the same macabre vein as Phibes and LaVey, Gogol has mastered
the role of the Satanic organist, as he demonstrates when playing for his waxwork fetish of Yvonne. A little bit of everything
here, served up as a stylish chiller that?s worth seeing again. (Apparently the makers of Body Parts thought so too . . .)
* * * *
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