Exploitation Week: ‘Pervert!’ an exercise in sleaze.

As promised, this week is exploitation week at zombiehamster.com and to kick things off we’re beginning the proceedings with a modern homage to the bouncy bouncy romps of Russ Meyer. Director Jonathan Yudis makes no secret that this movie was merely an excuse to have as much fun as possible whilst paying tribute to the girls and gore features that he grew up with. The result was ‘Pervert!’ and from the title sequence alone, you know exactly where the movie is headed.

A young man travels into the remote desert to rekindle his strained relationship with his father, who he finds has somehow managed to procure himself a rather buxom young wife (played hilariously by Mary Carey). It isn’t long before the two are (ahem) hitting it off, thanks to some of the most unsubtle come on’s that I’ve seen outside of a Rugby Club disco. The most notable being a hilarious suggestive corn eating scene which would have Vladimir Nabokov spinning in his grave.

Suddenly, she disappears only to be almost immediately replaced by a new successor, who seems equally interested in her new groom’s son. It is about this point that the film starts to get really weird. The girls start to get viciously mutilated by an unseen entity. A really disgusting car mechanic appears and tires to man love our protagonist (see pic). The father is then discovered constructing a woman out of meat (a là Quincannon from Preacher – ‘Say the Name’).

I’m not spoiling a thing by telling you that the entity emerges to be a disembodied killer penis, which is animated Morph style out of plasticine. The penis belongs to the son, who underwent an impromptu voodoo ceremony to cure him of his sex addiction. We are in ridiculous territory here, but thankfully, the locals are friendly. There is a charm to this movie that goes beyond the absurdities and you are genuinely transported to a time when people made movies that were just plain old fun.

The whole ethos of exploitation was that it focused on the elements that mainstream cinema ignored, with its pretensions and grandiose ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I have a love for in depth, heavily structured intelligent moviemaking, but sometimes it does good for the soul to watch something like this. The soundtrack is excellent, comprising mainly of 60’s surf and boogie, adding to the Meyer feel of the whole thing. I can imagine that if the great man himself were alive, he would have happily added his grubby seal of approval.

If you are new to the exploitation genre, you could view this as pure garbage, however, if you have even a slight familiarity with the influences behind it, you will be left chuckling long after the credits have rolled. It’s a great late night feature and it makes me wish that they still had drive in theatres, because there has not been a more suitable movie for such a medium as this in quite some time (with the notable exception of Grindhouse of course). Get yourself a copy, get some beers in and enjoy.

PS: Yudis’ father in law is renowned animator Ralph Bashki, who directed the Animated Lord of the Rings and Fritz the Cat, oddly enough.

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