Tainted

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the movie on South Gate Entertainment video cassette.

An American film noir in the French tradition, "Tainted" is a well-shot and acted thriller that unfortunately relies on too many unbelievable plot pegs.

Lensed in 1894 in Hendersonville, North Carolina, pic was planned for theatrical release by Film Concept Group under the title "Body Passion", but surfaces belatedly in video stores instead.

Shari Shattuck toplines as a small-town teacher married to mortician Gene Tootle and resented by her sister-in-law Park Overall. Her world falls apart one evening when a prowler (Blaque Fowler) breaks into her home and attacks her. Tootle arrives and kills the prowler in the nick of time, but suffers a fatal heart attack.

Instead of telling the police, Shattuck decides to cover up the incident, fearing small-town disapproval of her involvement in such violent doings. She successfully stages a mock-death of her husband in his car and buries the rapist in the backyard.

She is forced to involve Overall in the body disposal coverup (in return for ownership of the family mortuary business she's inherited) when workmen start digging up the grounds. Pic climaxes at the crematorium with greedy violence breaking out via Overall and her workman lover, Magilla Schaus.

With echoes of such French classics as "Rider on the Rain" and "Diabolique", filmmaker Orestes Matacena creates some suspenseful sequences, but it's hard to swallow much of the characters' behavior, notably that imposed on Overall's role. Shattuck and Overall (latter now a tv regular on "Empty Nest") are arresting-looking and forceful heroines topping an interesting cast, all of whom bear odd stage names.

Ramon Suarez' cinematography is topnotch.

Tainted is a trashy tale of murder with a touch of noir starring sexy blonde Shari Shattuck, whose primary objective in the film is to take off her clothes a lot: her character - teacher Cathy - has one sex scene, two shower scenes, a bath scene, and indulges in a spot of self-gratification in her lingerie. Phew!

Cathy's husband, crematorium owner Frank (Gene Tootle), realises that he is punching well above his weight and isn't happy about all the male attention that his wife receives. When he arrives home to find Cathy being attacked in the bedroom by an intruder, Frank stabs the man to death and then promptly has a fatal heart attack. Afraid of how this might affect her teaching job, Cathy buries her attacker in the back yard and puts her husband's body behind the wheel of his car on a highway, to be found by a passing motorist.

What Cathy doesn't realise is that Frank has secretly sold their home, and the new owner wants to install a swimming pool - exactly where the dead intruder is now buried. When the bulldozers arrive, Cathy must enlist the help of her sister-in-law (Park Overall) to dispose of the corpse...

The script, direction and editing for Tainted are fairly dreadful, the plot only starting to make sense once Cathy has been assaulted (about twenty minutes into the film). Not that I think for a minute that many people will be checking out this film for the story or for its technical excellence: this is one for Shattuck's fans who want to see the babe in her birthday suit, and on that count it definitely doesn't disappoint.

In TAINTED, married couple, Frank and Cathy (Gene Tootle and Shari Shattuck), move into their new mansion only to encounter tragedy and disaster. Cathy is attacked by an intruder, and when Frank intervenes, only Cathy survives. Slipping several gears, she attempts to cover up the deaths.

Her mental meltdown only gets worse from here.

TAINTED is loaded with enough violence, nudity, and overall insanity to make it a classic of berserk cinema.

WARNING: This movie contains dire lovemaking; police brutality; intense square dancing; a wonderful bubble bath and shower; maniacal grave digging; an incessantly ringing telephone; a pseudo-symbolic dream sequence; a hooting, leather-clad, 1980's-MTV-style "gang"; and a rip-roaring, gotterdammerung of a finale!...

Shari Shattack seems to have it all; a loving husband, a great job, a beautiful house, but all of that comes crashing down after an intruder attempts to rape her. Her husband walks in and is able to save his wife in the nick of time, but after saving his wife he has a heart attack. Fearing nobody will ever believe her about what happened, Shattack tries covering up the intruder and her husband's death. However she starts to run into trouble mainly cause of her greedy sister-in-law and has to find a way to get rid of the two bodies.

Intruging premise offers a better then usual turn from Shari Shattack and plenty of surprises and twists, but is nearly done in by a ant sized budget. With what little the crew has to work with, it is a lot better then you would expect and the ending is pretty neat too.

Rated R; Nudity, Attempted Rape, Sexual Situations, Profanity, and Violence.

Cathy (Shari Shuttuck-in a better then usual performance) seems to have it all- a terrific home, a loving husband, and a great job. All of that comes crashing down however when a rapist (Blake Flower) breaks into her home and tries to rape Cathy. Her husband arrives in just the nick of time to save her, but her husband shocked by what has gone on has a heart attack shortly afterward. Fearing nobody will ever believe her, Cathy tries to cover up the deaths. However, she runs into trouble when her greedy sister-in-law Marion (Park Overall) shows up and starts asking a whole lot of questions.

Better then you would think, this manages to keep you entertained and excited from start to finsih. The film fully develops its premise and features some rather sexy moments featuring Shari Shuttuck, and the final twist at the end of the film is rather neat too. However the ant sized budget keeps this from being the film it could of been. What a shame that is too.......

Rated R; Violence, Rape, Sexual Situations, Nudity, Profanity, Adult Themes.