7/10
For advanced students of psychedelic sleaze only.
23 February 2001
According to the box (and as an aside - God bless Something Weird Video!), this feature is cobbled together from material censored out of Marins' earlier "Coffin Joe" films. Though there are plenty of topless girls, and a good bit of torture and mayhem as well, the content of this movie seems to indicate that the censors in question (Brazilian?) had more serious issues with intense hallucination sequences. The handful of scenes which comprise the framing device, some mumbling business about a psychotic guy and the people trying to cure him, are certainly inept and boring enough, but this is actually a relief, because the hallucinations are pretty overwhelming, and you'll be happy for opportunities to catch your breath. An endless barrage of utterly grotesque and disjointed imagery, much of which seems to be intended as literal hellscapes, is liberally flavored with nude women, partially obscured by psychedelic lighting and editing effects, and staged on sets which must be seen to be believed (parts of actors' bodies are often built into the backdrop). It's easier to compare this to other movies than it is to describe it; if you can imagine Kenneth Anger's Satan movies, interspersed with gore scenes from H.G. Lewis, and rationalized by the further insertion of pieces of a fifties health class film on mental hygiene, you're on the right track; and, not to be snotty, but if you can't imagine that, you might not be ready to watch this one. If one can judge by this film alone (as, unfortunately, I must, though that won't be the case for long), Marins' big influences are Jung, Bosch, and E.C. Comics, which places this picture in heavy company by virtue of its aspirations alone, despite its technical shortcomings. (Not to mention that its very incoherency makes this movie a more accurate picture of some forms of schizophrenia than many more "serious" films which address the same subject.)
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