Don't Mess with My Sister!

I enjoy the old classic horrors. Low budgets, questionable acting, cheesey effects etc. I spit on your grave, or Day of the Woman as the US print is known is a classic of the genre. Imagine my exitement when I stumbled upon a copy of "Family and Honor" (UK title) in a bargain bucket at the local video shop.

The initial exitement of the find was the only pleasure this film gave me. I viewed it once, with much use of fast-forward ; and in the words of Mr Gump, "that's about all I want to say about that..."

An abomination of a film. No gore. No story. No point.

this movie sucks two thumbs down...ehhhh...way down

Don't Mess with My Sister! (1985) * (out of 4)

Steven (Joe Perce) is stuck working at a junk yard for his wife's two brothers who are always picking on him and not paying him what he's worth. One night at a party being thrown for him, Steven strikes up a conversation with dancer Annika (Laura Lanfranchi) and soon after they are involved in an affair. When the wife finds out she informs her brothers who aren't happy with Steven.

Writer-director Meir Zarchi crashed onto the scene with his notorious I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE but it took him several more years before he came back with his second feature. With a title ilke DON'T MESS WITH MY SISTER! fans were expecting soem sort of exploitation trash but that's not what they got and this film has pretty much been forgotten. To be honest with you, I'm really not sure what Zarchi was trying with this picture but it certainly doesn't work.

Once you get past the fact that you're not getting anything like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, this film lets you down even more because there's really no point to anything you're watching. There must have been at least thirty times during the film where I wondered to myself what I was watching and what the point was. This is basically a drama about a man who gets tired of his wife and her brothers so he cheats on her with a questionable person. I won't ruin what happens but it's certainly not evough to warrant a feature length film.

The film clocks in at just 84-minutes and there's really not a bit of energy throughout. Zarchi really doesn't click as a director here as everything just comes across very flat and without much energy. It certainly doesn't help that some of the performances are really bad and get unintended laughs at times. Through in the fact that there's really not any violence, gore or nudity and you're left with a film that just isn't going to have much appeal.

DON'T MESS WITH MY SISTER! is a pretty poor film no matter how you look at it. I'm really not sure what the director was trying to do or why he thought this material would be something worth making.

Meir Zarchi's follow-up to his solid rape/revenge shocker, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, features some of the ugliest actors I've ever seen in a movie. The casts of SANTA SANGRE and FREAKS looks like Baywatch extras compared to the uglies-on-a-stick in this misfire.

The cliched story involves a junkman with Arnold Horschack's good looks having an affair with an ugly scrubber. Mr. Junkyard's business partners, the homely brothers of his dog-faced wife, get p***ed off and hell breaks loose.

But hell breaking loose in this flick is about as exciting as an old man breaking wind in his incontinence pad because it's all so badly directed, written and scored.

And though I've never heard it officially, I suspect this film's shoot was canned before the climax was shot because everything just ENDS like somebody turned the stinkin' lights out.

Not even good exploitation. Pukey.

Don't Mess With My Sister was a pleasant surprise. Those expecting the vicarious, somewhat questionable thrills of the director's I Spit On Your Grave will surely be disappointed, but those that appreciate a true auteur style will be amply rewarded. It's a shame that mostly brain-dead gorehound fans of Grave are the only ones that see this film. It's got style and mood, and the acting is great considering the low budget. To me it had the same feel of early Scorcese. I think the marketing of the film as some violent revenge drama is to blame. Don't let that put you off from seeing this film. Basically it's a wonderful character study and simple story of working class Italians in 70's New York. A couple of days in the life of an average Joe that go horribly wrong. Think After Hours or Mean Streets on a much smaller scale. I really liked the ambiguity of this film. It's no epic, but rather a nice little existential fragment of a movie.