Frisk

The flip side to optimistic, hopelessly naive, queer-positive films like "Beautiful Thing", in fact this movie could be called "ugly thing". This movie shows the dark side of human sexuality in all people, not just gay ones. With a great book as source material, an awesome cast, and a terrific score by Coil (the greatest), this movie has everything going for it, even if those uptight queens at the SF gay and lesbian film festival booed it off the screen. Anyway, this isn't a movie for mainstream audiences, whether they be homophobic heteros or gay yuppies. There is a plot to this movie but it doesn't seem to be that important, taking a back seat to the striking visuals and twisted eroticism on the screen. Snuff films, bondage, violent sexual mutilation, and brother-to-brother incest are just a few of the trangressive delights in this film. Performances of note include Parker Posey who makes an extended cameo as a wild-eyed serial killer and Raoul O'Connell who is notable only because he is hot, hot, hot!

Pretty awful. Even though I had read and loved the book, I couldn't make heads or tails of the movie. Although one thing needs to be pointed out, in the films brief conventional narrative moment, Craig Chester is brilliant as the semi-comatose whore. When his trick for the evening is trying to drag his lifeless body out of his house, Chester wakes up to ask if there was anything he could have done better for them. It's hard to explain, but in a way, that one moment almost gives this terrible, rootless film a sense of humanity that leaves an impression. I would watch the first 30 minutes again for that scene alone.

This is a very difficult film to review.

First of all, if you are not a gay man then you might as well not bother with this film. Even if you are a gay man, it is still important to note that it is *supposed* to be a revolting and disgusting film. I read the book first, and let me tell you -- it messes with your mind.

What disturbs the s**t out of you when seeing the movie is also what is so "awful" about the book: if you stop to think about what the central character's thought process is, then you see certain basic pieces of it that actually make some sense. THAT is what stayed with me and actually gave me a nightmare.

Unfortunately, this is where the film is lacking. In the book, we get into the head of the central character, and we hear his thoughts. In the film, Dennis's thought process is implied but not stated sufficiently. The result is a muddled film that just gets more and more violent as it goes on.

The men in this film are VERY attractive, and this of course makes it all the more disturbing -- everyone wants to see killers be like Charles Manson -- it's scarier when they look like the boy next door, and they get off on disemboweling other boys next door.

I would say that the high point of the film is probably Parker Posey. Lordy lordy, that woman... Tales of the City to Scream 3, with a stop in the middle in Frisk. She brought her usual perkiness to a role that is, well, murderous.

To sum up: definitely made for a queer male audience. Far too disturbing for the average sensitive gayboy. Hard to follow if you haven't read the book. A few moments of brilliance, but overall it's muddled. Worth seeing if you have nothing else to do and have a strong constitution and a sick mind. Otherwise, don't bother.

This is another of those art films that goes nowhere but gets there in style. This film is gritty and fascinating in a sick, can't help but look at the car wreck on the highway sort of way. It's not bad enough to turn off so you keep watching hoping that sanity will be restored. It won't be but you watch nonetheless.

There is a brief scene after the credits that perhaps most people have not waited to see. I wonder if the UK censors in the mid - 1990's did as well; it is in my opinion the key to the whole film. Without spoilers it implicitly says that the whole film is a joke, and that the supposedly ' unbearable scenes ' are a kind of acted out pantomime for adults, and that over 18 years olds are adults! The acting is no worse than what you can see in other short for cash cult films, and sometimes it is quite good. The gist of the scenario is a fascination with killing so as to see the inner organs within our outer flesh, and only two scenes one in a windmill and one at the end that I averted my eyes. I have done this in certain family Westerns! Also, and that is again in my opinion this is not a purely gay film at all. A young woman joins the men in the so-called atrocities, so using logic this crosses over the divide of how it is just men who think about killing. I do not think it is gruesome especially as in 2025 you can see worst atrocities on television news. And they are real, and this film is definitely not. And Todd Verow is a good queer director who is not afraid of choosing risky material. If the film was submitted today in the UK would it get a certificate ? A question that I think needs an answer.