The Love Cult

The Love Cult (1966)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A TV Magician grows tired of the smaller and smaller paychecks so he decides to open up a "Love Cult" where people will turn over their hard earned money for some good time with beautiful ladies.

THE LOVE CULT is another film that was rescued by Something Weird Video and no matter how great or awful a film is, they all deserve to be saved so we can be very grateful to that company and their founder. With that said, this film has to be seen as a disappointment because it should have been so much better.

Director Barry Mahon was cranking out countless exploitation pictures back in the day so he certainly knew what he was doing. The problem with this film is that most of the "action" takes place off the screen so more times than not the stuff you're wanting to see can't be seen and that makes sitting through the boring dialogue and narration even harder.

This film is outstanding! By that I mean that it stands out from other movies I've seen. This perplexing image drawn of love cults in this movie is grossly exaggerated. I used to belong to a love cult and it was an experience I don't think I could live without. I could relate to most of the things that this move had to offer and it didn't hurt that the protagonist was a magician. Through out the film we watch him put together the greatest love cult of it's century and gain money and respect from it. When push comes to shove, he better keep shoveling.

The main flaw of this movie is it's inability to interact with the audience or at least to get the audience's grasp of the subject. Only very few people would be able to comprehend what it means to be involved in such an institution without actually having been in one. I think the cameraman could have delved deeper into the subject matter and the director could have put some monologues in the beginning and end of the film just to get the feeling going. This would have made the film that much more accessible to the public. Right now this movie serves as nothing more than an instructional video to people interested in forming their own love cults.

What I love about this film was it's honesty and straight-forwardness. Also the crew did an amazing job, especially the cinematographer, gaffer grip man and the dolly operator. All transitions were smooth and the editing was superb. The story was written in a quite Scandinavian way so you would instantly think that the pen would be Jörge Minkulan, but he was the pen behind all the great love cult films such as 'Grab me and die: Opposites' and 'The Big Turn-Out'.

A great deal of respect for this lifestyle is required for this film and if you are into the love cult phenomena you would be wise to watch this film in a poorly lit environment. Comes highly recommended. Also look for the Swedish series 'Jumpelaten: Porky-pork' from the esteemed company Jävlar.

Vincent Van Lynn plays Eric, a hypnotist / magician who's fallen on hard times. He's now eager to find something novel to exploit, some new way of separating suckers from their hard earned cash. Inspired by TV preachers, he decides to become the leader of a love cult. His motto is that a religion should "have a good payoff", and realizes that sex is one of the unifying, universal desires of human beings. He re-christens himself "Brother Eros", and his love cult becomes successful, but trouble brews in a couple of ways. His "employees" demand a bigger piece of the action, and Mrs. Blakesley, a filthy rich nymphomaniac, bewitches him when she offers up one of her country homes as a house of love.

Director Barry Mahon made a LOT of exploitation titles during his career; here he directs under the name "T.A. Dee", which is a pretty silly and obvious pseudonym. Conceived by Forest Russell, "The Love Cult" is intriguing to a point, and it gets off to a good start with its opening titles. Its main problem is that nothing much ever happens. It does deliver sex and nudity for the target audience, and shows how things can progress towards violence when people are properly provoked. For a 66 minute long movie, though, it is rather slow and overly talky. It does get by thanks to a forceful performance by Van Lynn, who later appeared in bigger movies like "Marooned" and "Fuzz". The black & white photography and the music are reasonably effective. The highly unnecessary narration is frequently ridiculous and often very funny.

It does have to be debited, though, for a distasteful resolution for its female characters.

Five out of 10.