Aris Iliopulos directed this campy comedy utilizing schlock filmmaker Ed Wood's last unproduced screenplay. Stock footage and old hygiene films are intercut with this near-silent story following a cross-dresser (Billy Zane), who escapes from the Casa de la Loco Sanitarium, manages to acquire some money, and then loses it at a funeral attended by eccentric mourners. He then seeks them out, killing them one by one. Some script instructions appear as titles. Bud Cort makes an uncredited appearance,
and Wood aficionados can spot Kathy Wood (the filmmaker's daughter) in a walk-on, while Maila Nurmi re-creates her famed Vampira characterization. Larry Groupe's punk score alternates with standards by Nat "King" Cole and others. Shown at the Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
It's sad and misguided and boring. Pretending to make a pathetically amateurish movie isn't nearly as effective as accidentally making one because you don't know any better.
I can recommend three more enjoyable alternatives: counting the number of hairs on the back of your forearm, practicing breaking a cinder block in half with your bare hand, or submitting to a colonoscopy.
Nothing could be more lethal to a Wood script than actors who not only think they're hipper than what they're trying to do, but who also make sure that the audience knows it.
I've never seen a filmmaker so proud of himself for making crap as when I saw this at TIFF. The wonderful thing about Ed Wood was he was genuinely trying to make a good film whenever he made a turkey, and it really showed and made his films really endearing, almost sweet. This turkey is made by a bunch of people who
think they're better than the material... guess what, they're not.
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