The Greasy Strangler

–+-+– The Greasy Strangler –+-+– by Martin

This film is a “proper wrong ‘un” proving that blood is thicker than water, but grease is thicker than blood!
The mark of a good film is often what you talk about after it’s finished. Was there a scene that particularly shocked / abhorred / made you laugh or had that OMG moment. Certainly there’s plenty of those in this film but does it make it a good film? Hmm… The Plopcorn guys are divided on this one.

On one hand (said Jeremy Beadle) this is a great film. It knows what it’s doing in terms of being really bad. On the other hand (the smaller one) whoever came up with the idea for this film is clearly a warped and disturbed being; it is truly difficult to believe it got green-lighted. Then to further make you wonder about how this person got to release it at the Sundance festival in 2016, oh how we would have paid to be in the room when they watched that. To bravely throw movie critics into this movie without a care shows someone who has big hairy man-balls.

The film is a story about a father and his son at its heart. Big Ronnie (Michael St. Michaels – former jet setting hair dresser to the world’s elite [clearly big speak for Porn star if ever I heard some bullshit]) and his son Big Brayden (Sky Elobar) are two highly charismatic chaps who run Big Ronnie’s Disco Walking Tour. On one such tour, a young lady (Elizabeth De Razzo) falls in love with Brayden and the fun/misery begins.

What follows is a bizarre concoction of romance and horror with a massive helping of general weirdness. Centering around Big Ronnie’s obsession with grease, murder and getting his cock out is a story of a love triangle between Ronnie, Braydon and Janet.
The movie touches on a b-movie horror theme with Big Ronnie killing several of sub characters in full on greasy strangler mode. Special mention should go out at this point to two great little characters, the hot dog stall vendor and Oinker. There is some comedy gold with these guys – check out the name of the Hot Dog stand or the statement about Oinker’s shoes. These murders are always followed by the “car wash” scene, and I doubt very much whether you will look at a car wash in the same way ever again. We ended up strategically placing our hands over the screen on many, many occasions and no doubt you will too if you are going to survive.

Alongside this is the unsettling relationship between the socially awkward Braydon and the quite bizarre Janet. This leads to the world’s most weird love triangle and some of the most uncomfortable to watch sex scenes witnessed by man.
Ronnie’s obsession with grease is unsettling at best and is a core theme to the film, which tells you a lot about what to expect. Another thing to bear in mind is the films use of repetition; intentionally forcing these scenes to keep on going much longer than needed and leaving you feeling a little uncomfortable, irate or perplexed – perhaps all three.

Now, we won’t spoil the film with too much plot but it needs to be watched to be believed. Truly this film left us thinking wtf did I just watch? This is one of those films that if you’re offended by lots of pointless nudity – you’ll hate it. If you want a film to make a lot of sense, you’ll hate it, if you want good acting an dialog – you’ll hate it. But for some of us, we will see the perverse genius behind the film and get it for what it is.

In summary, some would say that it’s eye-poppingly bad, and let’s face it, that is exactly what it sets out to be. For others, achieving the depths of discomfort and awkwardness the film elicits is genius.

As mentioned before the crew was very much divided on this film with scores ranging from to

Giving it an average does not do it justice, it’s not a middle of the road film. So we are scoring it a 3 or 9 – you watch it then you can call us Horseshit artists!
Btw, this was part funded by the BFI so it’s part British and you may have helped fund it… Hurrah!

The Greasy Strangler on IMDB
The Greasy Strangler Official Website