Pervert!

Pervert! is a modern-day homage to the films of Sexploitation king Russ Meyer. I went into this not expecting much as I'm really not a big fan of the recent flood of "homage's" and "tribute's" being churned out by directors pathetically trying to cash-in on the current "retro" / "grindhouse" trend. Pervert! however, is a totally different beast.

Old Hezekiah (Darrell Sandeen) resides with his young, busty live-in whore Cheryl (Mary Carey) in Desert Range, an isolated stretch of desert in the south(?) where he indulges in his love for the art of meat sculpting. When his son James (Sean Andrews) comes to stay Cheryl gets a hankerin' for some younger meat and the two of them begin an affair behind the old man's back. Suddenly, Cheryl mysteriously disappears and James thinks his ol' man may be behind it. When Hezekiah comes home the next day with a new whore, James sets out to investigate his pops "studio" where he discovers Cheryl's temporarily re-animated corpse. But all is not as it seems, as later on when ol' pops is chained down, the bodies still keep a droppin'...

Writer/director team Jonathan Yudis and Mike Davis obviously have a Russ Meyer obsession. There are scenes and set-pieces here stolen directly from such Meyer films as Supervixens, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Vixen and a few others but nevertheless Pervert! still manages not to come off as yet another feeble attempt at a cash-in. Like Meyers films, Pervert! is very comic bookish in style with dream bubbles, wacky in-your-face camera angles, cartoon sound effects and loadsa really silly humour. Aside from Darrell Sandeen's fantastic performance as the perverted old holy roller, the acting isn't all that good especially from porn star and one-time Governor of California candidate Mary Carey, although she still fulfils the role of the stereotypical Meyer chick: big, natural tits! (in fact I'm pretty sure there's no silicone in this flick at all).

So, being as this is a tribute to the spirit of Russ Meyer there's obviously a whole lotta gratuitous nudity, but there's also (mainly in the second half) a generous splattering of gore. From arterial blood sprays to ol' Hezekiah tearing his own heart out for one of his meat sculptures, Pervert! can be rather bloody at times. Also, to its credit, Pervert! never reveals its low-budget origins - it has excellent camera-work, razor sharp editing and its cartoonish colours are extra bright and bold.

Overall, for a low-budget modern-day attempt at a Sexploitation flick, Pervert! is pretty decent. Sure, some of the jokes fall flat, the acting ain't too hot, and its all been done better before but if you're lookin' for some mindless nudity and laughs, check it out.

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!

This film completely surprised me. I rented it thinking it would probably be fairly bad, but be entertaining because of it. I quickly realized that this is actually a very funny and well done flick. The cheese is intentional, the breasts are wonderful, the script is actually quite clever, and the cinematography is impressive. Even my girlfriend enjoyed watching it, and laughed through the whole thing. That is saying a lot, since she has an aversion to anything not released by a major studio.

The only reason I didn't score this film higher is I feel it lost momentum towards the end due to a stop motion animation gag that I think went on a little to long. All and all though, a great movie, especially for such a low budget ($50,000 is the figure given on the making-of documentary on the DVD)

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-

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.