Pervirella

This is a weird one. I first heard about from the TV Series OutTHERE which featured clips from weird, cult films like Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend, Baby Cart at River Styx and The Toxic Avenger. As a connection later episodes were presented by Emily Booth.

It's a really obscure high-camp comedy possibly inspired by films like Russ Meyer's Fanny Hill (?) more so than historical films. To be honest the only late 90s\00s film I rate which is a campy homage to 60s\70s films is Pervert! Which is a nod to Russ Meyer and great fun, but not a great film. Ken Russel's pastiche of his own Tommy and Rocky Horror, Fall of the Louse of Usher is particularly poor.

Emily Booth is always nice to look at and there is a stellar cast of well know film and TV personalities including Jonathan Ross, stand up comedian Mark Lamarr and musician\poet\artist Sexton Ming. Unfortunately these aren't necessarily great actors, but it's a bit like Who Killed Bambi? Where the weirdness sort of pulls it through. Also be warned like a lot of British sex comedies; it's not pant wettingly funny and it's about as sexy as shaving a hairy back.

TBH the plot is incomprehensible. The good quality sets and costumes hide the low budget. I would recommend this only for curiosity sake. Alex Chandon is a talented director and writer, who is best known for producing music videos for British Neo-Goth Metal band Cradle of Filth. Much like directors such as Richard Stanley it makes you wonder what they could do with 8-figure Hollywood budgets.

The DVD from Screen Edge is hen's teeth and expensive (£25+) given the quality of the film and scant extras it's not really worth it, I rented it back in the day. Picture quality is mediocre and sound is a lowly 2.0.

I have a friend who is one of the cult bouff fans and he loves this film. He loaned it to me in an attempt to persuade me to join the bouff cult but it pushed me in the opposite direction. On to the movie - where oh where oh where oh where do I start? Duff acting, duff script, duff effects that are befitting of this 'Z' movie. It is supposed to be an arousing comedy but it fails in both areas. If you have committed an evil sin and want to evil up the score with the almighty then watching this film will even up the score.

A duff attempt at reviving the British sex comedy, which just about survives by virtue of not taking itself in the slightest bit seriously. The theme that female libido can be positive and empowering is the only real similarity with "Barbarella" - although the outfits will appeal to men as much here as they did there! Harmless fun (but not too harmless...) and a film that would have a cult following, if it weren't so obscure!

But enough about the film. This is really just a vehicle for the delectable Emily Bouffante (a.k.a. "Bouff") who has her own small but dedicated cult following among the further-flung fringes of British TV fandom.

British sex-humour hasn't progressed much since the seventies. It's still dirty old men behaving foolishly around a parade of young cleavage. "Pervirella" is basically a home-movie with no-budget production values masquerading as camp. The video cover art is great, as is the title, but beware!

If you are a fan of Plan 9 From Outerspace, Troma, Russ Meyer and Terry Gilliam then this is a must see. This is what Barbarella would look like if it would have been directed by Terry Gilliam with 2 dollar budget. Some of the humor reminded me a bit of Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, but don't get me wrong, this one isn't filled with blood, guts and brains. Pervirella is filled with intentional bizarre and obscure, bad humor throughout the whole movie. Made with very low budget that they aren't even trying to hide, but instead underlining it to get few laughs.

I'm fairly confident that this is a movie that most will hate, but then again I'm sure that this is targeted to a very different and certain audience that loves low budget camp b-movies and movies by Ed Wood, Russ Meyer, Troma Entertainment & Monty Python.

And of course, the great and humorous performance of the divine Emily Booth in the title role doesn't really hurt it either