CAFE FLESH at 366 Weird Movies

Check out my review of Stephen Sayadian’s CAFE FLESH (1982) over at 366 Weird Movies here.

Mitchell Froom – Miami Priests (from Café Flesh)

More music and images from Stephen Sayadian and Mark S. Esposito’s 1982 film Café Flesh. Music from Mitchell Froom – Miami Priests.

Goregirl’s Dungeon on YouTube: Mitchell Froom – Fruto Prohibito (from Café Flesh)

A Saturday post? Well, I figured since I was going to be girl incognito Monday and Tuesday I’d give you something to nibble on. I took in this absolutely brilliant XXX gem last night. As much as I enjoyed Night Dreams (also written by Stephen Sayadian) it can’t compete with Café Flesh for me. Café Flesh is the best adult film I have ever seen! Sticky, surreal, funny,, strange, enthralling, immensely creative and a helluva soundtrack! 1000 thanks to my friend David Arrate for setting me up ever so sweetly with this superb soundtrack!

Music and images from Stephen Sayadian and Mark S. Esposito’s 1982 film Café Flesh. Music from Mitchell Froom – Fruto Prohibito.

NIGHT DREAMS (1981) – The Dungeon Review!

Night Dreams is the most unusual, unique and innovative film you will ever see. That is what this wackadoodle trailer promises. Unusual and unique are kinda the same thing, but in any case it is not an inaccurate statement. The trailer goes on to say that Night Dreams is mesmerizing, dazzling, outrageous, insane, riveting, hysterical, surreal, outlandish, mysterious, relentless, magnetic, erotic, indecent, flaming, steaming, disturbing, monstrous, kinetic, sweeping, ethereal, mind-boggling and shattering. I can not say that each one of those descriptors doesn’t fit Night Dreams at some point during its runtime. Despite its many fascinating flourishes Night Dreams is first and foremost a hardcore adult film. This means there are scenes where penises are shown entering vaginas and some of the scenes go on for a goodly long time. I haven’t seen a whole lot of adult films; maybe a half-dozen titles and all of them have been from the 70s. I don’t really have much in the way of reference points to draw from but Night Dreams is definitely the most unusual and unique adult flicks I have ever seen.

Watch the Trailer…

Stephen Sayadian who wrote and directed Dr. Caligari which I reviewed here last week, wrote Night Dreams along with Jerry Stahl. Night Dreams is exactly what its title suggests a series of weird, funny, sexy, surreal and twisted dreams; the sexually explicit dreams of Mrs. Van Houten (also the name of the bored housewife with disease of the libido in Dr. Caligari). Mrs. Van Houten is participating in an experiment and is being closely monitored by a pair of doctors. The doctors watch Mrs.Van Houten carrying on as she shouts, writhes and masturbates and of course dreams. Her dreams range the gamut from a creepy and kinky segment featuring sex with a man-sized jack-in-the-box, two sexy cowgirls who speak in unison and are obsessed with fire, sex with the man from the Cream of Wheat box (later a horn-playing piece of Wonder Bread makes an appearance), sex with a roaring fish, and it goes without saying that Satan shows up. All the segments really do have a perfect dream-like feel, and the visuals outside of the sex are very creative and always interesting. It felt like a pornographic stage play at times.

Yep. You are going to get an eyeful of long graphic sex scenes but there are plenty of other enthralling sights and sounds to enjoy in Night Dreams. I’ll let these images from Night Dreams speak for themselves. Several of the below screen caps are courtesy of David Arrate’s Night Dreams Tumblr post. Night Dreams really is one of a kind!

Mrs. Van Houten played by Dorothy LeMay.

Jack-in-the-box man.

An apt use of the song Ring of Fire. The version in Night Dreams is courtesy of Wall of Voodoo.

Part of a complete breakfast.

Masturbating for hookah-smoking sheiks.

What the hell?

Again…what the hell?

Mrs. Van Houten says good-bye.

Directed By: Francis Delia

Starring: Dorothy LeMay, Loni Sanders, Jennifer West, Kevin James, Fast Steppin’ Freddie, Paul Berthell, Ken Starbuck, Jacqueline Lorians, Danielle, Andy Nichols

DR. CALIGARI (1989) – The Dungeon Review!

You only need to look at the cover of Dr. Caligari to know it came out of the 1980s. Just look at that cover! All angular and neony! Remember neon’s fleeting but massive popularity? The 80s were freaking crazy. Dr. Caligari was directed by Steven Sayadian who also co-wrote Night Dreams which I will be reviewing next. It will be my first and very likely only hard-core porn film I will review on this blog. It is bat-shit crazy enough to warrant a review. While I can not even fill my hands with the porn titles I’ve seen I know weird and surreal when I see it. I can’t imagine there are too many porn films quite like Night Dreams out there. Back to Dr. Caligari; Steven Sayadian’s New Wave nod to Robert Wiene’s silent masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; a hallucinogenic sci-fi horror comedy with a serial killer, a nympho housewife and a mad doctor. Once again I have David Arrate to thank for turning me on to this bodacious bit of brilliance.

The version of Dr. Caligari I watched was courtesy of Excalibur Films. I mentioned this only because they had an amusing intro. A test pattern lingers on the screen and eventually three bars slide upward to reveal a naked woman on a couch. When she realizes she has been spotted she moves over to the other side of the couch. Than those three bars slide up revealing her once more. She than shuffles to the middle and the middle bars rise giving her no more places to hide. I don’t know, it is all vintagy looking and I thought it was kinda fun.

Mrs. Van Houten has lost control of her senses and is diagnosed by Dr. Caligari as having disease of the libido. Just one of several patients under the questionable care of Dr. Caligari. Dr. Caligari is the great grand-daughter of Dr. Caligari who also served as director of an asylum (see Robert Wiene’s 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). His female descendant Dr. Caligari is conducting controversial experiments on mental patients that include electroshock among other more heinous pursuits. Dr. Caligari is preparing her biggest and most important project yet. Will Dr. Lodger and Ramona put a stop to her monstrous plans before it is too late?

Dr. Caligari is highly stylized. The sets are astounding! The angular and neon design featured on the poster is carried over to all the sets. Strange shaped doors, bright bold colors, painted backgrounds and peculiar props all help accent the surreal world of Dr. Caligari. Particular detail is paid to the wardrobe. The colors are uniform for every scene. If the central character in the scene is wearing pink, everyone else is wearing pink. If Dr. Caligari is wearing yellow, her co-workers and even the patients are wearing yellow. The color coordination added a great deal to the overall trippy and surreal feel of the film. Also adding to Dr. Caligari’s delicious decadence are the exaggerated robotic like movements of its actors and actresses who often stare and speak directly in to the camera. It goes without saying there is an assortment of unique and unusual images on display. A man who appears to be a member of Devo leaps out of Mrs. Van Houten’s bubble bath with a straight razor; a blob behind a door vomits up candy and grows a giant tongue to Mrs. Van Houten’s delight; a female patient who shows up randomly to say nothing more than “Chinchilla! Chinchilla!” The switching of three personalities in the film’s finale is nothing short of spectacular! Dr. Caligari is listed as comedy, horror and sci-fi and it delivers on all fronts. Dr. Caligari is heavy on the comedy with a light peppering of gore (including a real nice looking icky leg sore and a nasty birthday cake) and science (lots of injections! “She blinded me with science And failed me in geometry”).

Every last character is quirky and eccentric and the over-the-top delivery and exaggerated movements was a whole lot of yeah! Dr. Caligari is as catty as catty gets; in her array of well-fitted suits she has some great quotable lines. “I know what it’s like when a girl needs her prescription filled” and “Burnt flesh always reminds me of something.” Madeleine Reynal plays the bitchy doctor quite nicely thank you very much. Fox Harris is great as Dr. Avol; he doesn’t have much to do early, but wait until you get a load of him in the film’s finale! David Parry and Jennifer Balgobin are hilarious as the chain-smoking married couple; Balgobin plays Ramona Lodger and Parry plays her doctor husband. Nymphomaniac housewife Mrs. Van Houten is cute as a bug’s ear and really goes all out in the name of satisfaction! Pretty much all the sex and nudity in the film is courtesy of her character. Laura Albert appears to be a stunt woman by trade! Albert is the cat’s ass in the role of Mrs. Van Houten! Fun fact; Mrs. Van Houten is also the name of the central character in Night Dreams played by Dorothy LeMay. John Durbin as Gus Pratt, Gene Zerna as Les Van Houten and Barry Phillips as Cesare are all memorable. On the other hand, there isn’t much that isn’t memorable about Dr. Caligari.

Dr. Caligari is a one of a kind offering from the 80s that is quite unlike anything I have ever seen; this is definitely a film I will re-watch!. Dr. Caligari is funny, trippy and utterly unique! Dr. Caligari gets my highest of recommendations; a perfect score!

Dungeon Rating: 5/5

Directed By; Stephen Sayadian

Starring: Madeleine Reynal, Fox Harris, Laura Albert, Jennifer Balgobin, John Durbin, Gene Zerna, David Parry, Barry Phillips, Magie Song, Jennifer Miro, Stephen Quadros, Catherine Case