JONATHAN BUTCHER'S 6 Utterly Tasteless Movies

by jonathan butcher 

I’ve developed something of an obsession with bottom-of-the-barrel movie trash.

These films feature everything that the childish, naughty boy I’m still sometimes possessed by craves: blood, needless nudity, perversion, and a total disregard for anything remotely decent. Whatever your views on those descriptors may be, just remember that such films can also be a lot of fun.

Seeking out the weirdest, sleaziest films out there is a risky business, as I’m sure that our Film Gutter man Alex Davis would attest. Some are pure dreck. Others are mindlessly offensive, and even turn my jaded, iron-clad stomach. But then…

Then…

Some are sublime.

The highest levels of tawdry trash are such rare gems of cinematic vulgarity that their willingness to go the extra distance to shock and offend becomes a near-transcendent experience. There are moments when my eyes feel as though they are ready to explode, my jaw is hanging open, and I might even be considering turning the damn thing off. Then the director will go even further and what I’d found objectionable will pass beyond a limit I hadn’t even been aware existed, dragging me into some body-juice-splattered Narnia.

I’ve purposefully gone for movies that make me laugh as well as make me gag, but guardians of good taste beware: this is not a list for the faint of heart. These are repugnant, icky, ethically-bereft and politically incorrect. If you track any of these sights down, don’t go blaming me for what you find.

Let’s dive in…

Terror Firmer

There’s a scene in Terror Firmer where a “hermaphrodite” serial killer describes how their dad cut off the male genitals they were born with in order to do even worse things to them while they are growing up, thus condemning them to a life of murder and sexual derangement. When I re-watched it recently, I turned to my girlfriend, who was thankfully laughing alongside me, and spluttered, “My dad bought me this for Xmas.”

Terror Firmer is a film made by the famously disgusting Troma studio. In true “meta” style, it’s about the Troma team making a movie while being disrupted by real-life killings. I would also argue that it is the pinnacle of their repulsive output, in that I can’t imagine how they could take things further without feeling like they were trying too hard.

If you can find the uncut version, it’s a disgusting delight.

Tasteless highlights: Expect gherkin penetration, liberal amounts of poop, sexual mutilation, and an obese nude ginger man with what must be a micropenis running through the city, in a scene that seems to last for an eternity.
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Ilsa She Wolf/Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheikhs
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​I’m not going to lie: Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheikhs is one of my favourite uber-trashy movies. I’m lumping it together with She Wolf because they are both very much worth a seedy squint, but while I recognise She Wolf to be a classic, there’s just so much camp charm to Harem Keeper that I can’t help re-watching it every now and again.Despite there being no narrative consistency between the films, Ilsa’s character is the same whether she’s a Nazi commandant, a harem keeper, or a prison warden: sadistic, MILF-ishly sexy, and struggling to maintain a consistent accent.

She’ll torture any woman who fails to please her boss, and she’ll castrate any man who fails to satisfy her. She’ll stand tall as a badass femme fatale, and yet still fall into the trope of just needing to be tamed by the “right man”. She’ll permit any level of cruelty, including electrified sex toys, internal bombs (anyone seen the South Park episode with the “snuke”?), and boob-mashing vices.
Ilsa rules, and these two films are sick, hilarious, and utterly unmissable for trash fans.
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Tasteless highlights: Everything I’ve mentioned so far, plus force-feeding of female slaves so they become “grotesque fertility symbols”, fire ants gnawing through hands, and an infamous scene in which a nude woman is balanced atop some melting ice with a noose around her neck. Nasty.

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Goregasm

This is technically a sequel, but while I’ve endured the first in the series, Attack of the Cockface Killer, it’s Goregasm that gets my dirty thumbs-up.

So, there’s a killer on the loose. He’s got a weapon in his hand and a dildo dangling from his chin, and for some unexplained reason he’s slaughtering anyone who dares to practice a kinky fetish.
But fear not!

There’s a cop duo hot on the trail, one of whom seems vaguely competent, and the other of whom can barely pronounce his lines. It’s this latter fellow who is my star of the show, fluffing his words in the funniest ways and speaking to every other character as if they’re the worst smear of crap he’s ever seen. And that’s not to mention the charms of a radical feminist street gang who are out to kill every man they encounter – including CFK.

Goregasm is one of the most preposterous, explicit, and hysterically unglamorous horror films I’ve ever seen. If you’re looking for any level of competence in your movies, skip this one. But I dig it.
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Tasteless highlights: If you’re intrigued by the idea of “blade-banging”, a guy who accidentally makes love (ahem…) to his dead wife, or an extended sequence featuring a bulbous moustachioed murder victim having sex with a blow-up doll before being slaughtered, jump aboard!

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Bloodsucking Freaks

With the most wonderfully lurid title on the list, you’d perhaps expect this one to push beyond the boundaries of good taste, wouldn’t you?

Well, you’d be right.

This straight-up exploitation flick tells the tale of an unhinged theatre show that treats its audiences to a delectable feast of real-life torture and death.

I’ve heard arguments that this film’s alleged mean spirit makes it tough to enjoy, but I disagree. When there are some truly nasty films out there that lack even the slightest shred of humour, it’s hard to find the adventures of a delightfully camp theatre director and his giggling dwarf assistant offensive.
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Tasteless highlights: The dentist scene is deservedly notorious, with its teeth removal, skull drilling, and brain-sucking with a straw. But you’ll also find nude feral cannibal women, predicament bondage where the sufferer is flogged while holding the rope for a poised guillotine blade between their teeth, and a wonderful final shot featuring a severed penis being nommed down like a hot dog. Delicious.

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The Greasy Strangler

This is an odd one. Whereas I like (or even love) all of these films, this is the only one that I would describe as being genuinely well-made – which is funny, considering the fact that most viewers would probably be baffled or infuriated by its apparent incompetence.

The Greasy Strangler was my film of 2016. It has an eccentric, madness-inducing soundtrack, purposefully repetitive non-jokes, deliciously off-kilter casting, and highly stylised art direction – and for what it is, it’s a flawless movie.

Every line is quotable. Each camera shot, costume, and character is memorable. Every preposterous scenario, even the head-scratching finale, is in keeping with the world of the Greasy Strangler, which I’m convinced was birthed by some kind of demented genius.

So, there’s a strangler on the loose, and not just any kind; the extra-greasy kind. But in many ways, the killing isn’t the focus of this grot-fest, as it looks more closely at the bizarre love triangle between a grease-obsessed geriatric, his shy son, and the woman they both fall for.

If you’re on the right wavelength, you’ll find this to be one of the most disgustingly charming films you’ve ever seen. If not, well… you’re missing out.
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Tasteless highlights: Everything. Just watch it.

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Pink Flamingos

No list such as this would be complete without Pink Flamingos, which in many ways made trash transgressive before anyone else did (though someone please correct me if I’m wrong!). Directed by John Waters and starring the divine Divine (RIP), this is a gut-churning exploration of the limits of decency – and as you might imagine, there aren’t any to be found.

Two grotesque families compete for the accolade of “Filthiest People Alive.” After a glorious vomit-show of rebellious taboo-breaching, one family wins. Then the ever-wonderful Divine eats a real dog turd. In a nutshell, that’s the film.

What draws Pink Flamingos apart from your average gross-out experience is that there’s style and a tongue-in-cheek intelligence lurking in the background. This is subversion for subversion’s sake, and transgression incarnate. It is a rejection of all ethical norms and I can barely imagine the impact such a rebellious film would have made at the time of its release.

Make no mistake: Pink Flamingos is at times tough to watch – particularly if you see it uncut, and witness the real death of a chicken during a sex scene (yes, I said that), which is unpleasant even when you know that the crew apparently cooked and ate it afterwards.
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Tasteless highlights: A man’s rectum dilating to the beat of Surfin’ Bird, the egg lady (if you watch it, you’ll understand), incest, cannibalism, murder, rape, foot sex, and plenty more besides.

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​(Dis)honourable mentions

• The Human Centipede series. This goes in particular for the third entry, for its amusingly all-out assault on what is acceptable in a movie. Nasty highlights include the prison warden’s jar of edible clitorises, and a scene where a guy cheers someone’s violent attack on with the phrase “Death fuck! Death fuck!” Use your imagination to picture what could be happening here, if you haven’t seen it.
• Ebola Syndrome. The delightful tale of a man who contracts the Ebola virus while doing what he definitely shouldn’t, and finds that he is simply a carrier rather than a sufferer of the disease’s symptoms. This gives him the chance to spread the disease far and wide, in the most objectionable ways possible. Even more morally repugnant than She-Wolf, this one is as vile as they come. But it’s still kind of funny.
• Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. This one wasn’t quite “horror” enough to include in the list, and was too similar in humour (or non-humour) to the absurd Greasy Strangler, and no way near as good. However, there’s a scene where four boys/young teens poop on a grown man until the bath in which he lies is brimming with their faeces, so I just had to mention it.

What else should I have included on the list? What rancid gems did I miss? Let me know in the comments!​




 


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​FILM REVIEW: ​INKARNACIJA (INCARNATION), DIRECTOR: FILIP KOVACEVIC