Never has a films title reflected more accurately the type of audience its titillating content is aimed at. In this homage to the late great Russ Meyer, whose penchant for featuring busty beauties in his productions has been emulated here in what can only be described as a sex romp with comedy/horror overtones. Filmmaker/actor Jonathan Yudis is the man at the helm whose effort to try and stay faithful to Meyers claim of "What the public wants are big laughs and big tits and lots of 'em" isn’t all that bad and offers some genuinely bizarre giggles mixed with a bucket of blood and a handful of boobs. What more can you ask for?
The film follows James (Sean Andrews), a young college student who decides to spend the summer break at his father Hezakiah's (Darrell Sandeen) remote desert ranch. Arriving at the ranch, James finds his eccentric father obsessed with his crazily unconventional art projects and shacked up with a buxom nymphet, Cheryl (Mary Carey). No sooner has James unpacked his suitcase, a bizarre series of murders begins, with one curvaceous bombshell after another meeting a particularly gruesome end. While Hezekiah is looking to pin the blame for the killings on his son, James is convinced that his father has become a psychotic madman. But the inexplicable circumstances surrounding the killings have James doubting his own suspicions and it’s not long before the culprit rears its ugly head… and it's definitely not pretty!
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Knowing that this film is touted as the ultimate in after-the-pub viewing, it came as some surprise that, after watching it stone cold sober, I actually enjoyed this rather silly little number. As a film reviewer, I often feel as though I shouldn’t like a film because it has little in the way of artistic value, but what really maters to me is how much enjoyment I get out of what I’m seeing and despite
Pervert! being a pretty shallow production in respect to its story and characters, it managed to jab my funny bone as well as appeal to my other ‘bone’ which gains pleasure out of watching exploitation movies. For saying that this is the feature film debut of Jonathan Yudis, it’s a very accomplished production which lacks the usual ham-handed values often associated with other independent low budget production of this nature. Saying that, there really aren’t many other films which could be compared to
Pervert! except for films by the already mentioned master of cheese Meyer, but even though the combination of large breasted lovelies and desert locations stir up memories of films like
Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! or
Cherry & Harry & Raquel, that’s where the similarities end as
Pervert! spins off into a whole other direction more akin to a Charles Band horror caper complete with one of the greatest horror villains of recent years.
The film really comes across as one big in-joke for fans of cult, b-movie cinema so those looking for a higher form of entertainment need not apply. This should become obviously apparent with the inclusion of the pneumatic Mary Carey to the cast roster. Better know for showing some front in the likes of Playboy’s Totally Busted and other such adult material of the harder variety, her presence hear is nothing short of a master stroke (ahem!) as it brings an audience to the film who might otherwise of passed it by. As is always the case with films which fall between genre boards, it’s important to target multiple audiences, so Carey’s inclusion brings a certain identity to the film. Even if she can’t act for toffee, at least some of the hairy-hand brigade should show up for the party. Whilst Carey is perhaps the most infamous player of the
Pervert! cast, everyone else does a sound job with their very limited characters. It’s clear that the primary talents of the other female cast have been provided more by mother nature rather than any acting school, but they are all fun to watch and do a great job of looking hot and curvy. Darrell Sandeen and Sean Andrews have just enough chemistry between the pair of them to convincingly portray the father/son relationship and some of their interactions help to reinforce the films ‘comedy’ categorisation. On the horror side, don’t go expecting to be breaking out in any cold sweats as the films propensity is more towards blood and gore rather than tension and frights, and even these are rather lean until the closing moments.
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It’s been a while since TFA looked at a DVD release from Arrow Films and it’s great to see that they have continued to bring a good selection of additional material to their packages. The highlight of this particular batch of extras is the insightful feature 'Beyond The Chasm Of The Hypervixens– the making of Pervert!', which is a 30 minute examination of the complete production process including the initial inspiration for the Mike Davis screenplay, a look at one of
Perverts! key special effects (don’t watch this before the main feature) and the problems of shooting in the punishing heat of the desert. Next up is a collection of 4 rather dull deleted scenes which were quite correctly left on the cutting room floor but then picked up again for this DVD. Then we have a brief 2 minute assortment of bloopers ranging from the amusing to the downright embarrassing. To top this off we have a slightly extended lesbian scene which really requires no explanation, a photo gallery and the official film trailer.
