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| Images courtesy of MVD Visual |
VCI Entertainment is sadly among my least favorite boutique
releasing labels working today. With
exception to their UHD double-feature of Dark Night of the Scarecrow films
and Horrors of the Black Museum, their generally lackluster
picture/sound quality and scant extras presently posits them in the early Fox
Lorber DVD era in the pantheon of boutique label wars. That said, some interesting releases do still
come their way in spite of the usual indifference to quality control and their
latest venture comes in the form of what’s being called the Psychotronica
Collection line. In a term
originally coined by critic Michael J. Weldon over the American independent
science-fiction film The Psychotronic Man, it referred to a subgenre of
films characterized by their low-budgets, free-for-all creativity that were typically
overlooked by the critical community.
Soon Weldon began publishing the Psychotronic Video magazine and
the term psychotronic itself became sort of beloved among genre fans who
reveled in their high camp and regional production values that gave audiences a
sort of outlaw cinema experience.
In a curious move on the part of VCI Entertainment, they’ve
begun a Psychotronica Collection series of Blu-ray titles centered
around the drive-in sleaze kitschy sort of grindhouse cinema groups like Something
Weird Video and now Vinegar Syndrome seem to sweep up into their
respective cult catalogues. However, for
reasons only VCI Entertainment can speak to, the second volume of their Psychotronica
Collection line is being released nearly two months before the first volume
is even slated to come out. Why release
them out of order? Whatever the case, VCI
Entertainment claims the transfer of the film, Mondo Keyhole, has been
restored in 2K from the uncut 35mm camera negative. However upon actually watching the transfer
which briefly bugs out into a green video signal for half a second, it looks
primarily tape sourced rather than a film scan.
No matter, fans keen on how cult drive-in legend Jack Hill got his start
as a progenitor of strong female characters in an exploitative male-dominated
world will absolutely want to snatch up Mondo Keyhole, a rape-revenge
roughie with ample just desserts and just enough Halloween party debaucheries
to propel this scuzzy exercise into a grungy stratosphere shared by such
kindred fare as Thriller: A Cruel Picture or Ms. 45.
Co-produced and co-directed by Mermaids of Tiburon (slated
for Psychotronica Vol. 3) producer-writer John Lamb and written by Jack Hill,
Mondo Keyhole follows the nighttime exploits of Los Angeles based serial
rapist Howard Thorne (Nick Moriarty).
Skulking the streets and alleyways at night and sometimes day, Thorne
attacks any and all women he can though he himself begins to wonder how reliable
his perspective is with some of the assaults possibly being imaginary. Ignoring his junkie heroin-addicted wife
Vicky (Adele Rein) who throws herself upon Howard constantly only to be met
with perpetual rejection, Howard largely works as a porno filmmaker almost outing
himself as an attacker who gets clumsy and careless when he tries to make a
move on Cathy Crowfoot, dubbed ‘The Crow’.
A tough karate-trained former victim who turns the tables on Howard in
an elevator, she joins forces with another victim and they soon begin plotting
their plans for sweet revenge. Meanwhile
his wife Vicky attends a Halloween party replete with a human fruit salad
banquet, costumed partiers jumping together into a swimming pool filled with
shaving cream and a Dracula-like partygoer who seems like the gatekeeper of
some kind of Hellscape.
While rough around the edges from a technical end and not
nearly as shocking as a film concerning this kind of criminal activity has
appeared in other subsequent rape-revenge dramas, Mondo Keyhole as an
early peer into the themes and fixations of Jack Hill is absolutely worth a
look. Shot by Jack Hill who also edited
the film, it uses a wide variety of handheld camerawork and curious techniques
including but not limited to Dutch angles skewing the perspective. The soundtrack is credited to The
Psychedelic Psymphonette and ranges between funky groovy bordering on a
dance film including an original track titled Don’t Be Afraid. Performances across the board are mostly
fine, what you’d expect from a regional roughie like this with Nick Moriarty
doing his best to make the narrating antagonist into a threatening dangerous
presence. Adele Rein frolics around
naked for much of the film including a memorable scene of her pressing herself
against a mirror in plain narcissism.
Though the real reason to watch this is for Cathy Crowfoot who emerges
perhaps as one of the very first original strong female characters fighting
back against nefarious men.
Featuring reversible sleeve art, both a new commentary by
Rob Kelly and an archival commentary with Jack Hill & Elijah Drenner and a
Psychotronica poster gallery, Mondo Keyhole isn’t a strong release but
for Jack Hill completists is a welcome offering nevertheless. The picture quality leaves something to be
desired but again despite the seemingly false claims of a 2K 35mm print scan, I
didn’t care. It was very easy to lose
one’s self in this early Hill provocation while also glimpsing the genesis of
who would develop into maybe the most feminist male-exploitation filmmaker of
his time since Russ Meyer. VCI
Entertainment is not my first choice of company to start getting into this
evolving Psychotronica line given their track record and the empirical evidence
of this very videotape-y looking transfer, but as a Hill enthusiast I put up
with the technical shortcomings. Not a
masterpiece but as an early gestation of the director’s characterizations, sly
social commentary and ability to generate a compelling narrative with little to
no financial means at hand, Mondo Keyhole for what it is kind of rocks!
--Andrew Kotwicki
