Anyone who has had to deal with a less then sane neighbor will appreciate the premise of this film: a religiously fixated man decides to torture his new next door neighbors, a young married couple. Writer-Director Graeme Whifler, who also penned Dr. Giggles and has the best IMDB photo, was apparently influenced by the accounts of serial poisoner Michael Swango and the tale of a man who castrated himself on one occasion and tried to remove a "gland" attached to his kidney on another (unable to find this news story although I remember hearing it on the radio) .


This movie was a hard sell for me. The first half hour, particularly the initial sex scenes, really annoyed me. In general, I think the inclusion of unnecessary sex scenes, particularly at odd points in the film, destroys the story. A classic example would be in the film the Brain, in which two virgins are trapped in a school while a brainwashed horde of bloodthirsty townspeople attempt to break in. Rather than contemplate plans of escape or survival, the two teens, one of whom is an alledged genius, decide to have sex. Clearly, brilliance at work.


Here, however, the sex is justified later as a necessary element of the plot as it is what will drive main character, who is obsessed with removing sexual impulses, to act.



This film is clearly more in the gross out/goretastic vein featuring scenes involving hideous reactions to poison oak, chocolates laced with horse laxatives, and tainted water. It also features one of the best "medicalized" pseudo-sex scenes since the Re-Animator drill sequence, so I wouldn't count on having a nice dinner out afterwards. If don't believe me, this article about audience re-action might convince you that this is not a film lightly undertaken. After viewing this film, one of the other directors confided in me that it was a bit too much even for him. Imagine how manly I felt when after the movie, I indulged in one of the chocolates offered to me by one of the producers. Even my companion, a demonic little filmmaker himself, was impressed with by courageous decadence.

My favorite part of the film, and certainly the best writing, was the demented radio minister who inspires the main character in his quest to eliminate his own sexual impulses. The harsh "I'd like to help you, but I can't until you admit that you are a pit of oozing sin filled impulses condemned to wallow in your own putrescence" type of advice is both humorous and horrifying. I deeply regret that I can't remember some the exact lines from the radio minister, and I'm disappointed that the movie's website doesn't have of those audio clips because I would love to have just the minister's voice on a continuous loop in my office so all of my students could hear "Well I'd like to help you but..." as they sit and wait for a conference with me.

Nick Searcy, who you might remember from the series American Gothic, portrays demented Adrien, a very bad neighbor indeed. He gives a fabulous performance in a difficult role as he has to convincingly alternate between out of control religious fanatic and capable saboteur. When he screams at the tortured young wife during her "operation", "Don't be such a cry baby, it doesn't hurt that much," it's funny but believable.


There are problems however. The young husband's new job, which seems so important in the beginning of the movie, with lots of ominious indicators like the the "Zecor Love Canal" and the invisible boss with large Egyptian statues outside of his office, completely vanishes near the end of the film. I can understand trying to play with audience expectation by setting up the job only to reveal it to be innocuous, but too much time is dedicated to developing characters there (the shlumpy work friend, the "man eating" female administrator) for it to vanish completely in the later half of the film. But overall, if you go into this film with a sense of humor and a strong stomach, it's definitely a good viewing.