Use of Audio
In keeping with the 70’s theme, the music of this movie was very appropriate. In fact, the entire opening credits sequence features a man wearing what looks like a goat head mask with a pentagram painted on his chest, and carrying a skull staff dancing around a bonfire to 70s disco music. The disco music re-emerges several times later on in the film during several shot montages, which add a good deal of humor to the film as well.
Like every B-movie worth its salt, Pleasures of the Damned also features very, very bad voice-over. This is always funny to watch; however since it is supposed to be an Italian movie one might assume that the actors lip movements won’t match the voice-over dialogue. Instead, the viewer can clearly see that the actors are speaking in English, and the voice-over has just be added later to emulate a B-movie. In my opinion, this is another thing that brings the film down from the whole “Italian film” theme. While it’s not practical to ask ones entire cast to recite their lines in Italian, it might have been advantageous to ask them to try to use any Spanish words that they knew instead (as Spanish and Italian are very similar), or just to mouth any random words that came to mind. Though this may have been difficult for some actors, I doubt it would have effected the film at all, as bad acting would only have helped to enhance the film.
Use of Budget
For a feature-length film – even if it is a B-movie - $3,000 is still a pretty good price. As far as the filmmakers are concerned, I think they came close to accomplishing their goal of trying to emulate a bad 70’s B-movie. It’s an added bonus that they could take a lot of liberties with equipment and technical quality, and actually end up making a better-looking film.
My one complaint, however, is the one thing that I’ve been re-hashing throughout this entire review: more effort should have been taken to make this film look as though it actually was shot in Italy in the 70’s.
Lasting Appeal
With the more recent success of TV shows like “Mystery Science Theatre 2000,” the films of directors like Ed Wood, and of Tim Burton’s movie by the same name, the B-Movie has found itself a niche in American filmmaking, as well as a whole new fan base.
However, most mainstream movie watchers won’t voluntarily see a B-movie, unless it also happens to feature the silhouettes of three smart-mouthed individuals known as Mike, Crow, and Servo. Pleasures of the Damned does have the extra plot twist of being a “banned movie,” but unfortunately it just doesn’t look like one. And so, like most B-movies, it starts to get tiring after a while. However, I think for those that are enthusiasts of this particular genre, Pleasures of the Damned will be able to find a very loyal fan base.
Overall Comment
By making the claim that Pleasures of the Damned was originally shot in 1979, then banned by the Italian government until the 1990s when it was “restored” to how its director originally intended it to be, this film immediately becomes more than just another B-movie. And if the audience can be suckered into believing that this is the case, then the film is a success. However, there are some very obvious moments that give away the fact that Pleasures of the Damned was not shot in Italy in the 1970’s, but rather in modern times. And though the film does live up to all the clichés of a bad B-movie – which for a while is quite funny – in the end it really is just another B-movie. If more attention could have been given to actually making it look like a twenty-year-old film, I think it would have been a far more successful finished product.
