 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Greasy Strangler • Year: 2016 • Country: USA • Director: Jim Hosking • Main cast: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo • Runtime: 93 minutes • Production company: Drafthouse Films, Rook Films, SpectreVision • TRAILER |
This is the kind of movie that I could be writting about for pages and pages. But I can’t, because I have limited space here and because the less details I say about it the better. Because when I saw it at the Sitges Film Festival 2016 last month, I had no idea what to expect, I just didn’t know what it was about. In fact, I thought I was going to see a normal slasher film. But that wasn’t the case, you can be sure about it.
Together with Hardcore Henry (2015), for me these 2 were the best movies at the festival. Strange that at a fantastic and horror film festival like Sitges my favorite movies are an action madness piece and… how to describe The Greasy Strangler? Well, this one. Let’s go into subject.
Produced by Ben Wheatley (the man behind Sightseers (2012)) and Elijah Wood among others, this is the first film of writer director Jim Hosking, whose previous and most noticeable work until date was the segment “G is for Grandad” in ABCs of Death 2 (2014). Together with his usual writer Toby Harvard (yes, a descendent of the founder of prestigious Harvard University) came up with, let’s put it this way, this parody of horror and slasher films. The movie was advertised as “the most WTF of the year”. Well, I don’t really know exactly what that means, but for sure The Greasy Strangler has some moments that have never been seen on the big screen before. Shocking? Maybe. Disgusting? Nah, not really. Funny? Well, for me, absolutelly!
I think the film script, specially in the matter of how the whole story is structured, is very smart and effective. When you see the film, pay attention to the first dialog between father and son because that is setting the basics of what the movie will be about. All the conversations are as fresh as ridiculous, but at least they have no ups and downs. Also, the images and music fit perfectly with the story. The soundtrack created by Andrew Hung is like another character on the set. Simple and weird, the songs serve as great transitions from scene to scene.
Although there are not many supporting roles, any single one of them have its personality and purpose. And every one of them should deserve a film of its own. The casting choices are superb. But we can’t forget this is the story of three main characters, a family conflict, a love triangle under the shadow of the murderings committed by the mysterious creature that is the greasy strangler. The chemestry between the three main actors Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar and Elizabeth De Razzo, and the great and fun relaxed atmosphere that one can feel that was on the filming set, is what keeps this movie alive.
So after all said here, it is clear that The Greasy Strangler is not a movie for everyone. Probably it will have more haters than lovers. Many many much more haters. But if you are lucky to be one of the kind who love this sort of humor, then your luck is shining bright because here you have a gem that can change your life forever, at least for a few months. I still quote some of the lines of the movie in my everyday basis, or walk around singing The Greasy Strangler tunes. This film has everything needed to become an instant cult classic. This will appear for years and years in many top 10 lists, for good or for bad.
I’ve read the first cut of the film was about 2h15, and they edited out about 45 minutes. Well, I really hope when it comes out on DVD, it has plenty of extras!! I want to see more!! And when this piece comes out for home entertainment, I will be the first on the line to get my copy. My friends tell me I’m obsessed. Well, I just loved it a lot, and I want to have it with me to enjoy again it every now and then, and to share it with the most people as possible. Maybe I am obsessed fan, but I don’t think that hurts anyone. And I could go on and on talking more about The Greasy Strangler, but that’s it, review over. Take it our leave it.
One final thing, although I always add the trailers for the films we review here in this site, I would totally recommend you not to watch this one. Because you can’t compress in 2 minutes what this movie is about. There is no point in seeing some of these scenes out of context. It wouldn’t do you any good. So yeah, our audience is free to do whatever they want, but in this case this is my warning. After that, ENJOY!
RATE: 8/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4381236
