HoopTober 8: Mosquito Takes Mandragon

Movie 36
2nd of 2 films set in the woods

I buy so many discs, it's alarming how long it has taken me to slit open the wrapping on my William Grefe box set. Good grief. Also, I bought this set knowing next to nothing about Grefe - such is my Pavlovian response to Arrow tapping the doggie dish.

So, assuming they give all the films the same treatment, this is an interesting approach from them. Because this movie was not at all scrubbed up to the level one would expect from a blu-ray release. I can only assume this is a conscious choice - that they are trying to preserve that grindhouse feeling, with all those scratches and cigarette burns in the print.

I'm not sure how I feel about it - I do quite like that look to these films, but it just seems kind of wrong. Actually, I have a bigger issue with the sound quality. This one really was terribly muddy, to the point I had to put the subtitles on to make sure I understood what was being said.

Anyway, to the film itself. I was genuinely surprised at how well made this film actually is. OK, I know it's hardly Kurosawa, but Grefe seems to be a perfectly competent technician. And the script, while a little thin on plot, is pretty well written too. And the actors are all totally fine. I don't know, I guess I expected something a bit crappier. This is not a bad thing!!!

I liked the intro Grefe gives where he just says something like "Well I like hanging out in the mountain scenery. And I really like dirt bikes. So I made a movie about those two things." This is the beauty of exploitation cinema folks. If it feels good, do it.

Just don't trust the old weird dude - he might want to be your friend, but he's so crazy, he might do anything...