Synopsis
the MAD doctor is in.
Mrs. Van Houten has shown signs of losing touch with reality, and her husband discusses possible treatment with Dr. Caligari, who says Mrs. Van Houten has a disease of the libido.
Directed by Stephen Sayadian
Mrs. Van Houten has shown signs of losing touch with reality, and her husband discusses possible treatment with Dr. Caligari, who says Mrs. Van Houten has a disease of the libido.
Dr. Caligari 3000, Dr.カリガリ, Доктор Калигари, 卡里加里博士, 卡裏加里博士
Like voguing in high heels on a treadmill with eye clamps forced to watch an endless loop of DEVO videos while drops of lysergic acid fall into your eyeballs every 15 seconds. Watching it again tonight with grandma.
This caught me completely off guard - I'm by no means an exploitation scholar but I've seen a couple art-damaged cheapies and they all tend to run out of steam after half an hour or so, but this retains a genuinely unnerving body-horror power and a wicked sense of humor all the way through. Oozing wounds, gross sex dreams, and a couple of truly terrifying serial killer soliloquies ("when the broth goes red..." yikes!). This is legit.
Unending torment! Sex fits! Erotic trauma! Diseases of the libido!!
Classic “gay people are evil” camp. I’m obsessed. The colors…the outfits…the atrocities…the flesh
I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life rewatching this over and over and over again. Between Cafe Flesh and this, Stephen Sayadian is just like…one of the most inspirational and underrated filmmakers of the 20th century. Gotta continue to work my way through his films and going to be just ripping him off for the rest of my life. Stephen Sayadian is my father and we are from the same planet. Planet Gay Hell. Look I wasn’t going to say this, but fuck it…this scene really turned me on in a way that I haven’t been turned on in over a decade.
more than maybe any other film of the 80s, merges the aesthetics of music videos, adult film, contemporary art and horror cinema into something decidedly abstract, kinky and very funny — basically the type of day glo nightmare full of giant tongues, cannibals and body horror that I want to immerse myself in as often as possible (and now I can, easily, via the new 4K restoration which is stunning)
This may be some bad medicine but I kind of like this junk.
So clearly this isn't for everyone and I'll try to frame it as a film that talks to the audience much like MST3K with a staged backdrop and pieces that remind me of "Forbidden Zone" with this esoteric quality that mainly features a doctor who may not want to cure nymphomania nor cannibalism but this does curate a bizarre comedy with dynamic characters giving us esoteric monologues that really have to be heard with there sharp dryness of humour.
Yeah it's a little long even for it's short running time but if you want something off the rails and yet still engaging for being different than open up this new cabinet of discovery cause I am sure this doctor is always welcoming new patients for those who are afflicted of standard film disorder.
Excitement is the essence of life. When it’s over, you’re dead.
- Dr. Caligari
Yeah, five stars. That's right, bitches.
What can I say? I guess I just really have a thing for German expressionism, avant-garde surrealism, and sleazy trash aspiring to be high art (or perhaps high art that's slumming it). Yeah, this thing looks like the kind of wet dream that Tim Burton would have, after marathoning a bunch of Lynch and Cronenberg. It's a Freudian nightmare that resembles what Final Flesh might have looked like if it had actual production values. The kind of thing that crawled out of a pit filled with writhing, undulating flesh and feverish sexual energy. The kind of shit Frank-N-Furter jacks off…
I wanna live in the land of green slime, pee-wee's playhouse doors, shoe sucking crts, giant tongues, dickless scarecrows, and tentacle cakes. Absolutely adored the set design. Need Dr. Caligari to experiment on me
An erotic avant garde fever dream that's just as absurd as it is stylish. With imagery reminiscent of a deranged Peewee's Playhouse but taking place on some nightmarishly twisted planet. And instead of the zany Peewee creatures shouting the word of the day they are all out to pleasure you in various ways. Giant prosthetic tongue creatures, monstrous dildo hands and throbbing set pieces galore.
Mrs Van Houton is a sex obsessed woman who's having worsening symptoms of highly sexual delusions. When her husband fears she's losing touch with reality he brings her to an experimental facility led by Dr. Caligari. Brain swapping, strange injections and all sorts of sexual hijinks are her specialty.
That's about as much as I could decipher from the plot to be honest. From scene to scene its a hypnotizing kaleidoscope of surreal set designs, horrific abominations and kinky debauchery.
A mesmerizing atrocity that feels like a mixture of Croneberg and Tim Burton.