VEROTIKA (2019)
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 90 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 & 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.38:1)
Director: Glen Danzig
Cast: Rachel Alig, Alice Haig, Scotch Hopkins, Natalia Borowsky, Sean Kanan, Ashley Wisdom, Kayden Kross
Verotika (2019) is a horror anthology based on punk/metal legend Glenn Danzig's long-running comic imprint of the same name, and the film is also directed by Danzig. I'm not familiar with the comics, but the film is clearly influenced by a lot of 70s euro-cult cinema, it's bathed in colored gel-lighting and bursting with nude women with big titties, a bit of gore and lots of cheap atmosphere.
In proper anthology form there's a wraparound story with introductions to each segment by a horned devil-woman character named Morella (adult film star Kayden Kross, Manuel Creampies Their Asses 3) who opens the film on a cool note by plucking out the eyes of a woman in chains before the first vignette starts to unfold. First up is 'The Albino Spiders Of Dajette' wherein a comely young lass with a pink pixie-haircut named Darjette (adult film star Ashley Wisdom, My Stepsister Squirts 3) is getting it on with a new lover. They're hot and heavy until he manages to get her top off, revealing that she has eyeballs for nipples! Turns out that this is a deal-breaker for the guy, so he takes off with a haste! As she begins to fall asleep a poorly rendered digital albino spider appears and digitally morphs into a six-armed dream-demon (Scotch Hopkins, 2 Jennifer), which looks a bit like a demented French mime, but with six arms. After telling Dajette that he is the only one who loves her he begins to stalk the streets in search of women and snaps their necks. As the segment continues Dajette visits a porno theater and begins to dream, she's a sleepy girl, and again unleashes the dream demon, but when she's awoken by a trio of horny guys trying to rape her it ruins the demon's neck-snapping fun. The first segment pretty much sets the pace for the anthology, it's fun but also a bit goofy with hokey French accents. The lensing is decent in a low-budget indie sort of way, and it doesn't hurt that there's a decent amount of nudity as well. It's cheap, pulpy fun, but I was a bit disappointed that the short never gets into those dang eyeball-nipples, they're not explained at all!
The next story is 'Change of Face', in it we have a masked stripper named 'The Mystery Girl' (Rachel Alig, Bikini Spring Break) who when not stripping to Danzig's "Eyes Ripping Fire" spends her free time cutting off the faces of women and collecting them, wearing the dead-ski masks over her own disfigured face. Again, there's plenty of atmosphere, and it's littered with big titties 'natch, but the dead-skin mask FX are not that great, but hey, there's a lot of titties and it features the best song on the soundtrack.
The third and final segment, 'Drukija, Contessa Of Blood', is a take on the Elizabeth Bathory legend, the tale of a blood-lustful countess (Alice Tate, Chillerama) who bathes in the blood of virgins in order to keep her youth. This is by far the most elaborate of the segments in the anthology, set in medieval times with fun, yet cheap, set-design and costuming, again with lots of titties and plenty of bloodletting. Again the FX aren't that great, including some very watery arterial spray during a scene that brought to mind hthe way that Heather Matarazzo's character dies in Eli Roth's Hostel II (2007), but a lot cheaper looking.
The anthology is a bit on the amateur side but I did enjoy the zest for genre filmmaking that's so evident in it, just the prologue and opening titles alone have homages to Fulci's Zombie (1979) with some cool eye trauma and a opening credit sequence that tips the hat to John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). More so than any low-budget visuals what takes the piss out of the film is the bad acting, there's a lot of it, with awful foreign accents that certainly don't do it any favors. That aside, there's some god pulpy low-budget fun to be had with this, I don't think Glenn Danzig has a bad-eye for cinema, he's clearly a fan of the euro-cult stuff from Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava and the erotic weirdness of Jean Rollin, but it's just not that great in it's execution. I can appreciate the effort, I can see the influences, but I cannot say it's that great. However, I will say I am looking forward to his next effort, for a first film this is not that bad at all.
Audio/Video: Verotika (2019) arrives on Blu-ray+DVD+CD Soundtrack combo from Cleopatra Entertainment framed in 2.39:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. Things looks good if a bit on the video-y side of things, the image doesn't have a lot of depth but it's nicely detailed throughout and colorfully lit-up with atmospheric lighting.
Strangely Cleopatra continue to go with the compressed audio on their Blu-rays with only 2.0 or 5.1 Dolby Digital with optional English subtitles. That said, the mixes are fine, everything is decently balanced and dialogue is cleanly delivered, though the accents are awful. The soundtrack has some cool cuts from Danzig and Ministry among others, which definitely would have benefited from an uncompressed audio option.
The three-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a flipper tray housing the Blu-ray, DVD and CD soundtrack. I appreciated that all three discs have different artworks on them, all being excerpts from the artwork that adorns the sleeve and accompanying slipcover.
Special Features:
- Image Gallery ( 3 min)
- Trailer (1 min)
- Bonus CD Soundtrack:
1. Danzig - Eyes Ripping Fire
2. Ministry - Dancing Madly Backwards on a Sea of Air
3. Jyrki 69 - Close Your Eyes
4. Vile a Sin - Crimson Lust
5. Fantôme - Je Suis a Toi
6. Pink Velvet - Allez Prenons Un Autre Verre
7. Kore Rozzik - Can't Stop Won't Stop
8. Switchblade Symphony - Gutter Glitter
9. Vile a Sin - The Return
10. Studio 69 - Il Est Juste la
Watching Verotika (2018) I was reminded of attending a punk show with a friend in the mid-90s. We were standing at the side of the stage talking about how my guitar playing was progressing, I had just started playing, he noted that I had great taste in music, and that I should totally start a band. He asked why I didn't, and I laughed, pointed to the stage where the band had been playing crappy covers for the last half-hour, and were currently mangling The Misfits "Who Killed Marilyn?'. I sad, "That's why, I don't want to be the dipshit ruining a good song". I never did start a band, but the point of the story is that the band put out a demo not long after, it was awesome, full of totally cool three-chord punkers, they had gotten a lot better, while I never tried and didn't go onto do anything with that guitar. No one is great first time out of the gate, not usually, and while Glenn Danzig is a phenomenal song writer with a career that spans forty-years, I am sure he wasn't that great the first time he jammed in his mom's garage with Jerry Only and the boys. This is his first film, it's a new medium, and the I hope he keeps it up, I'm definitely interested to see what comes next, even if this film is not that great I can at least see the passion and the potential.
More Screenshots from the Blu-ray:
