Socially retarded Caleb follows nude model Ilene home one day. He decides to sell her and her 3 girlfriends out to his psychotic male centric family to get back in their good graces after showing up at home late. When the 4 lovely ladies take a trip to a cabin, the Cuckoo Clan show up looking to party with them. BYOKAN. Bring Your Own Knives And Nubs. Add in some local country bumpkins and two cops trying to piece together a crime and you have a recipe for some kind of wild night.
Sounds like a regular horror film? Well, not even close. The opening itself is hysterical featuring a flying unicorn, girls partying, and a crying Ray Pie all set to “Bang a Gong.” Brilliant.
This is where I should mention a few familiar faces. Chris Sivertson who directed Jack Ketchum’s THE LOST co-wrote and produced this film and it shows. Marc Senter, whom I absolutely love, played the disturbed Ray Pie and is now here as some kind of a bizarre tweaker. Senter is am amazing actor, virtually unrecognizable in his laughable pink ruffle shirt, drawing a unicorn for naked girl. Even Robin Sidney who played Katherine (NSFW Pictures ), is here as Ilene, tempting Senter once again. And I love Sivertson’s style. He is so Rock and Roll. He mixes so many fashions and tones that I can never tell if his movies take place in the 50s or 90s. This film, however, was directed by Zach Passero, who I am not terribly familiar with. It was also co-written by Adam Rockoff of “Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film” fame. And I’ll go out on a limb here with a wild guess and say that Sivertson shot the “girls frolicking” scene. Just felt like him.
And speaking of girls frolicking, there is tons of flesh to be seen. In fact, the girls are fully nude for half the film. So hooray for boobies! There is a lesbian orgy scene that is pretty, but not particularly sexy. And Lucky McKee fans will be happy to know that not only does his father Mike pop up here, but his muse Angela Bettis appears on screen for about 30 seconds.
But despite the abundance of female nudity, it doesn’t come off as terribly misogynistic. I love the quote “Who’s pad is this?” referring to the cabin, but the pun referring to a sanitary pad. I am not sure if these little jokes were intentional, but I noticed and liked them myself. There were more little instances like this that I dug. Like how Caleb drew a unicorn riding a rainbow because that is how he viewed the nude model in front of him and how the art teacher ignores the real naked woman standing in front of him in favor for naked women in a magazine.
But where things fall out of place is during the “home invasion” scene, which wasn’t scary for the most part. You have 1 wheelchair bound old man, 1 retard, 1 unarmed man, and 1 man with a knife. I never viewed the female characters as being in any real danger. In fact, I could take on all those fools myself. And this is especially evident considering the gas station scene prior, which showed how strong the women were and how unafraid of men they are. Needless to say, their sudden lack of spunk confused the hell out of me. In fact, it annoyed me and made me care less if any of them were injured.
The best comparison would be to HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, in that the situation is ridiculous and you never really believe any one is in trouble, nor do you care. So the retard kind of dies and one girl runs away and the other “hostile” men barely bat an eye. The other girls are tied up and look bored; they are not even crying. I found this scene so disappointing because it had potential. Especially when you consider Sivertson’s explosive finale in THE LOST. And for you pervos out there, I’ll tell you now that there is no rape scene, although it felt like it was heading that direction.
There are also a couple cops that show up (how did they even know they were at this cabin?) and make things more complicated. Actually, the veteran cop is Tim Thomerson who sported a ‘fro and I mistook him for Fred Williamson. Oh and Will Keenan (TROMEO & JULIET) is here under a different name and I barely recognized him either.
The music is great and features Al Jourgensen from Ministry with updates on songs like “What a Wonderful World,” “Bang a Gong,” and “Radar Love.” The sound was sketchy in some parts, but that is easily overlooked.
Fevered Dreams is the production company behind this and other genre flicks like FLESH FOR THE BEAST and SHADOW: DEAD RIOT. The reason I mention these other flicks that I find a strong similarity between WICKED and FLESH, mainly that the gorgeous nude women on display are perceived as succubae that take advantage of men…but are the product of malicious men themselves. The beautiful women (literally) consume the flesh of the men and live forever and fuck each other. I’m not sure how I feel about this or what the intentions are of the male writers. Is it that the men get what they deserve for harassing these women? Or that beautiful women deserve to be hurt for tempting men in the first place? Or that women in tune with their sexuality are evil forces? I have no idea, but I believe it is a combination of all of the above. It should also be noted that Rockoff is penning FLESH FOR THE BEAST 2…
Overall, it is hard to summarize my feelings for the film. The plot is weird. It seems to mix different genres, but I can’t tell if that was completely intentionally or if it even really worked. It was part Rape/ Revenge with Witchcraft and Crime Procedurals thrown in. And I couldn’t tell who I was supposed to root for in the end. So I ended up not caring who survived. In fact, the kind of fucked up ending made me giggle. But in a good way of course.
Favorite Quote - “Suck the nub! Suck the nub!”
Bottom Line – Mixed bag of horror featuring a bevy of beautiful babes and a killer soundtrack, but a loose plot.
Rating – 6/10
Read All of Molly’s Reviews and Interviews in her Archives
