My review was written in May 1990 after watching the movie on AIP video cassette.
The Greek legend that produced arthouse faves "Orpheus" and "Black Orpheus" crashes to Earth in the idiotic punk sci-fi feature "Shredder Orpheus". It's for fans of in-jokes only.
Helmer Robert McGinley also toplines as Orpheus, a band leader (of the Shredders) in a post-apocalyptic world where hipsters live in shanty towns known as the Grey Zone. McGinley's underdeveloped script posits an easy enemy, the Euthanasia Broadcasting Network, which involves Cronenberg-style philosophizing) out of his "Videodrome") as weak satire.
Punk tv programmers want Eurydice (Megan Murphy) for their new show. The underworld in this sci-fi universe is a place where people's memories are shredded faster than you can say Oliver North.
Orpheus becomes a tv star playing an electronic lyre instrument supposedly invented by Jimi Hendrix. Heroine disappears after Orpheus violates the "Don't look back" warning and gazes at her; rest of the film is him searching for her. Finale involving skateboarders is stupid.
Apparently McGinley didn't watch Jean Cocteau's 1950 classic very closely since he leaves out the poignant role of Heurtebise (played eloquently in "Orphee" by Francois Perier). He also fails to find any equivalent to Cocteau's inspired anachronisms, and is instead content to littering the dialog with advertising slogans and catchphrases.
Acting is amateurish and technical quality, mixing film and video footage, subpar.
