Pervert!

King Russ Meyer is dead … Long live King Meyer! That must have been one of the mottoes director Jonathan Yudis treasured whilst shooting this indescribably demented but surprisingly successful tribute to rancid 70's exploitation, and more particularly to the fabulous repertoire of the Fellini of the Sex Industry; mister Russ Meyer himself. "Pervert!" has a weak premise, an incoherent screenplay, monotonous & uninspired cinematography and horrid acting performances … but we wouldn't want it any other way! It's a silly, brainless smut-production and it advertises a famous porn star's big breasts on all the posters, that is all you need to know! Twenty-something James drives up to his father's isolated ranch in the desert to help him out with the chores during the summer. Father Hezekiah has clearly found some new hobbies since his wife died, like making females sculptures out of rotting meat and – more importantly – share the bed with the large-breasted Cheryl. James, understandably, wants a piece of her as well, which leads to father/son arguments on the ranch. Shortly after, Cheryl goes missing and Hezekiah new and equally voluptuous girlfriend turns up dead. The plot then takes a couple of grotesquely insane twists and ludicrous turns, and only truly die-hard exploitation fanatics will be able to tolerate them. The first words that can be heard in "Pervert!" are the lyrics of a song that is spot-on and immediately determines the atmosphere of the entire film: "Baby, I'm so sick…I'm so twisted. I'm a pervert, baby!". Hell yeah, everyone's slightly perverted (or at least deranged) in this movie! "Pervert!" is definitely inspired by the best work of Russ Meyer. For example, the compilation of moments when James & Cheryl have sex at various places around the ranch while Hezekiah is sleeping is clearly copied from "Supervixens" and the early scene with the yummy hitch-hiker is also a textbook Russ Meyer utopia. Adult movie star Mary Carey can't act, and she honestly isn't very attractive, but she sure has an impressive pair of blouse bunnies. Jonathan Yudis set aside an interesting role for himself as well, namely the nasty and sexually confused mechanic in town. He also rewarded himself with a totally gratuitous and unexpected kick-a-toddler moment, which was priceless. "Pervert!" is a strange, gory (some nasty butchering, too) and totally moronic no-budget fan-boy flick that proves that grindhouse cinema definitely isn't dead. Warmly recommended to people with a bizarre taste.

I do not know whether Jonathan Yudis is the heir apparent to Russ Meyer, but he sure can make one crazy film.

The current Governor of California had to beat another actor for his job - Mary Carey. The way she eats an ear of corn or pours honey all over her body will quickly make you forget the Terminator. Who cares if he'll be back when you have Mary.

Now, to see Mary, we do have to put up with Hezekiah (Darrell Sandeen) and his "art." Along with a bodacious display of breasts, we have some blood and death, as befits a B-horror movie. But the wildest thing is yet to come!

I wasn't expecting too much from this, although there are some extravagant claims by some, but at only 80 minutes reckoned I couldn't go too wrong. The jokey start gave me slight cause for concern but then we were off and by the end of the marvellous corn on the cob licking scene, I was all set for some silly sexy fun. The scene at the garage comes as a surprise and with the director himself playing the mechanic things get a bit harder edged. Fine. But all the time there are these little diversionary bits and bobs and I wonder if I'm the only one not finding everything as hilariously funny as the film makers clearly do. The lurch into slasher/horror territory is not unwelcome but the 'humour' increasingly comes across as silliness and prevents the nastiness from developing. About halfway through and I'd had it and although resigned to watch it through felt it was becoming more and more childish. Always good to look at and very competently made, the material just wasn't worth all the effort. My critical stance has become slightly measured after listening to the director/writer commentary and whilst it's hardly fair to rate a movie on the strength of its commentary, it did make me feel more inclined to give the benefit of doubt. It is by no means a perfect film or even a decent exploitation movie but it is well directed and edited and approached the right way many could get a smile or two and an eyeful over a beer or three.

Silly little flick that reminded me of an old King Missile song. It combined the staples of any good horror-comedy, mixing tons of nudity (arrousal very dependent on your opinion of fuller figured women though) with a fair amount of blood and off the wall humor that will cause some to laugh out loud and others just groan. I reside in the former for the most part. Sure some of the jokes fall flat and the movie runs a bit too long and can't maintain either the laughs or erotica for it's entire duration, but it's still a pretty good party movie to watch while inebriated or toasty. Lucky I caught it on Starz on Demand as I wouldn't have even heard of if it wasn't.

My Grade:B-

Look, I'm not going to take a thing away from Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino when they take on the task of re-creating the classic B-movies of the Russ Meyer era -- but when you have $50 million bucks at your disposal to spend on state-of-the-art effects and every actor in town lining up to work with you, let's just say you're working with advantages that Russ Meyer would have sawed off his own leg to achieve.

Jonathan Yudis did it on a real Russ Meyer micro-budget, and pulls it off beautifully.

Pervert is an over-the-top spoof with deliberately hokey special effects, obviously fake violence, joyously cheesy sexploitation, and deadpan acting by a cast that's obviously enjoying what they're doing.

If you're a fan of the Russ Meyer classics, this is a must-see movie.