THE GREASY STRANGLER
US, 2016, 93 minutes, Colour.
Michael St Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo, Gil Gex.
Directed by Jim Hosking.
There is no major reason for seeing this film – nor, perhaps, a minor reason. Its main appeal is to audiences of cult movies which tend to defy conventions in plot, characters, themes and moviemaking style.
Jim Hosking is British but has made this film in Los Angeles. He has assembled a cast, many of whom are amateurs, and his direction seems to be minimal so that many are very awkward in their lines and in their delivery. This even applies to the central character, the greasy strangler, played by Michael St Michaels, as well as to the supporting character, his son, played by Sky Elobar.
The adjectives to describe this film tend to be weird, bizarre, gross…
Whatever there is a plot concerns Big Ronnie, Michael St Michaels, the father of Big Braden, Sky Elobar. They live in dingy surroundings, the son cooking for his father who wants the greasiest possible of all meals. Each is eccentricity personified.
Dressed in pink, they take tourists on an alleged music tour in Los Angeles, the main scene taking place outside a doorway where they claim the Bee Gees composed the lyrics of one of their songs. Some of the tourist demand free drinks as promised but they refused. Others are just bemused.
Then, for no apparent reason, Big Ronnie transforms into a monstrous freak creature, naked but greasy (Big Ronnie being prone to appear naked while his son generally wears briefs). The tourists are all murdered, brutally but with some rather cheapskate special effects.
However, one of the tourist, a biggish girl, Janet, is attracted to the son but turns out to be more promiscuous than she might have thought and has a liaison with the father – both of them turning on her in disgust.
Another character, Big Paul, who resembles Big Ronnie, turns up for heart-to-heart chats.
There is a comment that 45 minutes was edited out of the film, perhaps a relief for those who really don’t like it, but the cause of anguish for those who do. However, by the end of the film, the son has become another greasy killer and they comb the countryside, seeking victims, making peace with each other, and eventually deciding to go and kill the man with whom big Ronnie’s wife has gone off.
Even some of the fans made the remark that they felt like having a shower after watching this film!
