Well, no picture to accompany my review this time. Why, you might ask? Well, because when I purchased the movie in question on eBay, I thought I was buying a legit DVD… I thought wrong. What I received was a bootleg DVD-R with shitty blurry artwork; not what I was expecting. Needless to say, that while eBay is the land of some kickass deals that sometimes if it seems too good to be true, it's because it is.
Anyway, the movie we're discussing is the late 90's slide of direct-to-video sleaze called Snuff Perversions: Bizarre Cases of Death. This was a Video Outlaw release consisting of a dozen faux-snuff films made by the likes of Marcus Koch, William Hellfire, and the wonderful perverts at W.A.V.E. The movie presents itself like a classic "death" tape of the period; meaning there is a very fake wraparound consisting of very fake "experts" attempting to make this seem redeemable or educational. In the case of this flick we have a cheesy cop who is a self-proclaimed expert on snuff films. He also looks curiously like disgraced former congressman and failed mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, but that is neither here nor there. Accompanying our poorly acted cop friend is an attractive female psychiatrist who offers insight into each clip and constantly rebuffs the advances of our man in uniform. Needless to say that these are some of the best segments in the movie.
The "snuff" segments obviously make up the bulk of the flick, themselves are obviously why anyone would get it in the first place. Frankly, they're all over the place. They run the gamut from atmospheric, creepy, realistic, and unsettling to flat-out laughably lame. Also, gorehounds and splatter junkies, take note; the emphasis in this is not on blood. This being a DTV independent title from the late 90's the focus is on a much more fetishistic bent. Bondage, verbal humiliation, and lots of strangulation. Strangulation, strangulation, strangulation. Why? Two reasons. First of all, there is a fetish for choking and that kind of shit, as multiple W.A.V.E and Factory 2000 products of the era show us. Second of all, strangulations are way cheaper to pull off than anything with special effects. You can make it look real with some practice and a few rehearsals, plus it's easy to do in one take to keep up the fake snuff appearances. So…yeah. Almost every scene is a strangulation with the exception of William Hellfire's segments where blades come into play. His are also among the best in the movie.
In terms of non-strangulation, aside from Hellfire's knife-play (one segment featuring an early Misty Mundae appearance), include a drowning in a pool, a very cheesy and fake autopsy of a supposed kidnapped kid (a mannequin), a quite funny sequence where some dumbass teenagers play Russian Roulette with a gun that isn't a revolver, and a "Political Snuff" video in which a topless Tina Krause is electrocuted. The most effective sequence in the compilation, one directed by Marcus Koch, isn't really even a "snuff" scene per se, but a video suicide note. A young couple who have decided on suicide for a quite tragic reason say goodbye to the camera before hanging themselves. It is an eerily realistic scene made stronger by the fact that both of the performers involved are very, very good.
Which leads me to the major downside of Snuff Perversions: the acting. The performers in most sequences are flat out not believable enough to make it appear convincing. The exceptions being the suicidal couple, as well as an art student serial killer who we see have necrophilic sex with a corpse in the tub while singing "Amazing Grace." While creepy the scene quickly turns hilarious as the actor slips on the floor and eats it rather hard getting out of the tub. A scene in which two teenagers strangle their friend merely for the thrill of it is another one strengthened by acting, being honestly chilling at times. The tension is broken at one point when the victim laughs while being strangled, however. The sequence featuring the rape and murder of a young woman is quite harrowing in that her performance is very, very convincing, even though the scene is not graphic in the least.
Overall, this is an interesting snapshot of that very un-PC, sick, twisted, depraved, low-budget, and hilariously entertaining world of direct-to-video that was the late 90's. I saw this movie advertised all of the time in different magazines, especially Alternative Cinema, and right off the bat there were rumors about it. Nowadays, it's damn hard to find, and if you can find it it's pretty pricy. So is it worth it? Yeah, I think so.
This is trashy, sleazy, offensive, and well… weird. They don't make them like this anymore. While hovering somewhere between a parody of a 90's death tape and a series of 60's roughies which have been bred with 70's faux-snuff loops, this one manages to hit some sort of sick sweet spot. I can't deny it's entertaining. Maybe it's because i knew it was young filmmakers having a blast. Maybe it's because it's just so flat out sleazy. Maybe it's because I'm sick. Who knows? I just thought it was worth checking out.
Now I'm on the hunt for a legit, real deal VHS of this piece o' sleaze!
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