The Greasy Strangler Review
The Greasy Strangler follows a father and son. They run a disco tour together and live together in a modest-sized home. After a woman shows up on the tour, the two begin a rivalry for her affections. All the while, there is a man covered in grease murdering people around the town.
I'd write a longer synopsis, but that's pretty much it...The film spends most of its time in incredibly awkward dialogue spliced around gratuitously disgusting scenes that, sometimes, have no rhyme or reason. The delivery of this film is so dry and dead-panned that it's difficult to get through. It reminded me a lot of Rubber in its uniqueness and style, but Rubber was just a better film on all fronts.
I was at a loss for words for most of the runtime of The Greasy Strangler. It's clearly attempting some level of humor that is somehow on-target at times. I would surprise myself that I would laugh at some of the ridiculous moments put to the screen. But other times, I'm thinking...this is clearly just shamelessly dropping shock value as often as possible.
Apparently, 45 minutes was cut from the film before the final product was released...45 minutes...This leads me to a single, long-winded question...Were the 45 minutes cut from the film more of the same or stuff that made even less sense?...I'm morbidly curious to know.
Everything the film does is on purpose. It's obvious. So it's hard to judge the actors based on performances that feel bland and ridiculous to say the least. They did a great job of acting poorly...? That's the best way I can think to put it. The premise focuses on the rivalry of the father and son more than anything else, which leaves little room for the horror elements of the strangler.
I'm sure there is some artistic and/or socio-political value in this film. But I don't see it. And it certainly doesn't hold up well over the hour and half runtime. I'd had about all I could handle of the film by the time the credits rolled. It's not an easy piece of cinema to get through. But I did it...for you...so that I could say, "I probably wouldn't watch it...but the morbidly curious would certainly have a great water cooler topic for the right audience."
Horror Qualifier: 6/10
Horror Quality: 3/10
Film Quality: 2/10