The Greasy Strangler, 2016.
Directed by Jim Hosking.
Starring Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar and Elizabeth De Razzo.
SYNOPSIS:
Ronnie and his son Brayden run a disco walking tour in a small town. When the pair meet Janet on one of these tours, the father and son find themselves in an increasingly vicious competition for the affections. Meanwhile, a greasy serial killer begins to stalk the streets.
Filled with all kinds of very greasy goodness we have the comedy horror The Greasy Strangler, a film that I guarantee many of you are going to absolutely hate.
Many of you might be questioning why I’m bothering to include this film at all, given that it seems to have a distinct lack of horror and is much more of an overt comedy or some of joke that got out of hand. Well, IMDB calls it a horror film so it’s going in.
Besides, The Greasy Strangler has some of the scariest sights ever committed to film. Monstrous abominations that will shake you to your core and leave you waking up at night screaming. What sights are these you ask? How about several extended sequences where we gaze upon the majesty of greased up old maniac and his suspiciously long penis.
The film is also something of a slasher film in that it has an unstoppable killer on the loose dispatching various innocent and very peculiar victims in all kinds of greasy ways, with people having their eyes popping out and their faces caved in. It’s all very gruesome and cartoonish stuff.
The film’s particular brand of humour is almost definitely an acquired taste with it being filled with the kind puerile, immature, vulgar and politically incorrect kin, bound to disgust anyone with even a modicum of sanity. Although, I imagine that the film’s displays and discussions of flatulence, defecation, ejaculation and greasy sausages (pun intended?) are bound to get a laugh out of some of you sick bastards.
The comic set pieces are very much going to either make you laugh till it hurts or make your head hurt till it explodes. Jokes are stretched to their absolute limits before a punchline is mercifully reached, while others (such as a confusing debate among tourists over the pronunciation of “potato”) being repeated until way past the point of the gag wearing thin. I hope you like the phrase ‘Hootie Tootie Disco Cutie’ because you’ll be hearing it a lot in your nightmares while also seeing it mimed in some rather creative and graphic ways.
The film also has some odd moments of randomness that serve absolutely no purpose but still make for some rather “pleasant” and “wonderful” diversions. Diversions such as an argument with a hot dog vendor over how much oil you can put on a hot dog before it goes against regulations or a rather groovy spotlight lit disco street dance from Big Ronnie and his flapping member to music that sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks if they where Hellspawn.
The characters are something else and to describe them as “odd” would be like calling Donald Trump slightly tanned, with them feeling like what I imagine The League of Gentleman would be like if it was set in America. The actors brilliantly bring these oddballs to nightmarish life, giving performances that are highly unusual, off-kilter yet weirdly fascinating, particularly the frankly disturbing, yet oddly heartwarming, father-son relationship at the centre of the film.
As Big Ronnie, the disco loving bullshit artist whose a ‘big smoothie’ with the ladies, Michael St.Michael is hilarious, his immature threats about eviction, constant demands for more grease, foul-mouthed insults and every other bizarre utterance delivered with straight-faced sincerity and seething menace. And there is something about the sight of a greased up man with such a relaxed attitude to underwear that is slightly disturbing.
Sky Elobar serves as a perfect foil for his on-screen father as the very pathetic but otherwise sweet-natured Brayden. And no his name is not Scottish. Elobar despite being portrayed as a giant bed shitting loser is still a very sympathetic character, one whose regular breakdowns over his horrible father are deeply tragic to watch. They are also really really funny.
The Greasy Strangler is a marmite film of the greasiest kind. Some among you will side with me and appreciate the off-kilter, dark, surreal and just downright gross humour and the wonderfully weird performances that compliment it. Others will utterly hate this film with such a burning fury that it could rival the sun in intensity, finding those same qualities infuriating to the point of wishing death upon all around them. Regardless of where you end up, I’d give this one a watch. It’s a greasy good time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Graeme Robertson
