 |
| Images courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome |
Singapore Sling (1990) is the film equivalent of a leather harness worn underneath a frilly party dress. On the outside, with its beautiful and opulent cinematography and sumptuous mansion setting, it feels like a stuffy arthouse piece. Once you lift the skirt, however, you see that the dress owner isn't wearing any underwear, and the last thing you remember is her high-heeled shoe upon your neck.
The film sets the stage with its moody black-and-white noir photography and a chilling, stormy evening. The scene is set with a Mother (Michele Valley) and Daughter (Meredyth Herold) battling the elements as they struggle to bury a lifeless body in a shallow grave outside of their mansion. A detective (Panos Thanassoulis) pulls up in his car, but he appears to be wounded from a gunshot. He hardly has time to take in the situation before he passes out from blood loss. The Daughter is intrigued by his presence, and both women drag him inside their house for safekeeping.
Unfortunately for the Detective, Mother, and Daughter are raving mad and possessed with murderous urges and an unquenchable sexual thirst in equal measure. The duo spends their time killing and mutilating whoever they can get their hands on, which includes the previous occupants of the mansion. Their surroundings are a mess, filled with expensive furniture and refuse, as they live like hedonistic savages. Incest between mother and Daughter is heavily implied, and the addition of the Detective as a new plaything has excited them considerably. The Daughter gives him a nickname, Singapore Sling, after discovering a recipe for the cocktail on a note nestled in his pocket.
After a straightforward opening act, Singapore Sling dissolves into a sweaty, sticky nightmare full of every kind of body fluid imaginable. The Detective was searching for a woman named Laura, who he trailed to the mansion, but instead, he finds himself held captive by the women's perversions, as they go between sexually assaulting him and torturing him. Underneath all of the transgressive material is a dark streak of black comedy, especially concerning the flighty and twitchy Daughter who flitters around the house in a horny haze.
The women occasionally break the fourth wall and address the audience directly, gaslighting them about what is happening. They lie to us and the Detective, blending reality and fantasy until nobody knows what is real anymore. The entire movie is role-playing; everyone is pretending to be someone else, and they switch roles with *each other* too, trading back and forth who is the villain and the "hero." Is one of the women Laura? Maybe. She says she is sometimes, but other times, she says she isn't. The Detective is used as a sex toy, an accessory. He can leave…but he doesn't. Why? Who knows. He doesn't know either; he's lost his mind, too.
As a narrative piece, Singapore Sling is confusing and abstract, but it isn't trying to tell a coherent story as much as it attempts to establish a mood. Derangement and perversion permeate the atmosphere; sex is in the air, and in the end, death rules supreme.
Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray Extras:
- Region Free Blu-ray
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- "Directing Hell" (80 min) - a documentary from 2011 exploring the work of Director Nikos Nikolaidis
- New interview with Marie-Louise Bartholomew, wife of director Nikos Nikolaidis (12 min)
- New interview with actress Michele Valley (12 min)
- New interview with actor Panos Thanassoulis (9 min)
- New interview with cinematographer Aris Stavrou (5 min)
- 20-page booklet with an essay by film scholar David Church
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- Newly translated English subtitles