(Spoilers) Wes Craven's 1972 feature debut "Last House on the Left" stormed onto screens with a vengeful ferocity few films have ever matched; not only did Craven's epic re-structure Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" against the chaotic Vietnam era--it also weaved elements of jaw-dropping humor, the generational divide, an out-of-place musical score (performed by star David Hess), and extremely personal violence into an unsettling Molotov Cocktail. This firebrand also influenced the likes of William Fruet's "Death Weekend" (1976), Meir Zarchi's "I Spit on Your Grave" (1979), and Ruggero Deodato's "House on the Edge of the Park" (1980), among countless others. "Naked Massacre" is definitely one of the more obscure "Last House" imitators, but comes closest to matching the grim discomfort of Craven's film, even finding more overt threads of socio-political commentary for us to chew on.
Cain Adamson (the Hess-ian Mathieu Carriere) is an American soldier heading home from Vietnam, but is dumped in Belfast (in the middle of The Troubles) with no contingency plan; he befriends a similarly stranded Vietnamese, is accused of homosexuality by an old hooker, and decides to take a house full of young nurses hostage in hopes of getting enough money to return to the states. But it turns out Cain has an ulterior motive--he is a raging, violent misogynist who subjects his female victims to torture, humiliation, and murder. Like "First Blood," "Naked Massacre" is another film that doesn't present veterans in the most positive light, and its exploitation of that stereotype is a flaw.
The film does not dwell on any extensive exposition of charactermore or less, we're left to know victim and victimizer through their actions and scattered bits of dialog. In a conversation with the Vietnamese, Cain reveals that he had sex with his sister; also, that his best friend in Vietnam got sent home before him, and impregnated his wife; and that one of the women in his life told him he was "born for hell" (echoed on a forearm tattoo) because he never attended church. Interestingly enough, these shadings of character only provide an incomplete portrait of an Everyman-turned-Madman, and by the time "Naked Massacre" reaches its close, we are still left wondering "why." Similarly, the 8 nurses are presented in a static mannersome are quickly dispatched, while others are subjected to slow torment: a lesbian-curious couple, a pregnant girl, the mature 'leader,' the catatonic. There is a grim realism to these performances that garners our sympathy and hope.
As the film's setting and era suggests a time of political turmoil, the imagery of violent insurrection in the streets of Belfast, accompanied by grisly TV-news footage of bloodshed, is appropriate. Cain's background as a veteran, coupled with his hatred of women, adds another layer to the multi-faceted levels of madness within (an American who fought in Saigon, now jettisoned to another violent section of the world); his relative indifference to the violence around him (and, indeed, the ability to perpetuate violence) is indicative of his own desensitization. His character is not a simple psycho, and while the subtler nuances of his psyche go unexplored, Cain's uncontained misanthropy brings to mind characters from Gaspar Noe's filmography (The Butcher in "I Stand Alone"; La Tenia in "Irreversible"), and is just as unpleasant to watch.
But like the films of Noe, "Naked Massacre" (exploitation-title pedigree be damned) is more than meets the eye. Whereas "Last House" juxtaposed gritty lower-class America against upper-middle class, and reflected the extremes that each side was capable of, this film brings a cultural displacement to the mix; not only is interpersonal violence portrayed in graphic detail, but the more impersonal and faceless cultural conflict raging in the background. There are several scenes that are poignantly disturbing in their subtlety, and also show the deeper effects of violence at large: a nurse kneeling next to a man shot dead in the street by insurgents; an explosion that levels half a church; andperhaps the most jarring imagea policeman carrying a milk jug across a floor busy with chalk outlines and spilled blood, indifferently feeding a cat while watching a news report detailing the massacre.
As directed by Denis Heroux, "Naked Massacre" offers a lot more than the exploitative thrills its title promises. Like "Last House," this is tough viewinga film so unpleasant and oppressive that any prurient thrills are non-existent. Yet at its core, it is a thing of social, political, and intellectual significancewhile most will dismiss it for its unsettling violent and sexual content, more adventurous viewers will be rewarded.
Cain Adamson (the Hess-ian Mathieu Carriere) is an American soldier heading home from Vietnam, but is dumped in Belfast (in the middle of The Troubles) with no contingency plan; he befriends a similarly stranded Vietnamese, is accused of homosexuality by an old hooker, and decides to take a house full of young nurses hostage in hopes of getting enough money to return to the states. But it turns out Cain has an ulterior motive--he is a raging, violent misogynist who subjects his female victims to torture, humiliation, and murder. Like "First Blood," "Naked Massacre" is another film that doesn't present veterans in the most positive light, and its exploitation of that stereotype is a flaw.
The film does not dwell on any extensive exposition of charactermore or less, we're left to know victim and victimizer through their actions and scattered bits of dialog. In a conversation with the Vietnamese, Cain reveals that he had sex with his sister; also, that his best friend in Vietnam got sent home before him, and impregnated his wife; and that one of the women in his life told him he was "born for hell" (echoed on a forearm tattoo) because he never attended church. Interestingly enough, these shadings of character only provide an incomplete portrait of an Everyman-turned-Madman, and by the time "Naked Massacre" reaches its close, we are still left wondering "why." Similarly, the 8 nurses are presented in a static mannersome are quickly dispatched, while others are subjected to slow torment: a lesbian-curious couple, a pregnant girl, the mature 'leader,' the catatonic. There is a grim realism to these performances that garners our sympathy and hope.
As the film's setting and era suggests a time of political turmoil, the imagery of violent insurrection in the streets of Belfast, accompanied by grisly TV-news footage of bloodshed, is appropriate. Cain's background as a veteran, coupled with his hatred of women, adds another layer to the multi-faceted levels of madness within (an American who fought in Saigon, now jettisoned to another violent section of the world); his relative indifference to the violence around him (and, indeed, the ability to perpetuate violence) is indicative of his own desensitization. His character is not a simple psycho, and while the subtler nuances of his psyche go unexplored, Cain's uncontained misanthropy brings to mind characters from Gaspar Noe's filmography (The Butcher in "I Stand Alone"; La Tenia in "Irreversible"), and is just as unpleasant to watch.
But like the films of Noe, "Naked Massacre" (exploitation-title pedigree be damned) is more than meets the eye. Whereas "Last House" juxtaposed gritty lower-class America against upper-middle class, and reflected the extremes that each side was capable of, this film brings a cultural displacement to the mix; not only is interpersonal violence portrayed in graphic detail, but the more impersonal and faceless cultural conflict raging in the background. There are several scenes that are poignantly disturbing in their subtlety, and also show the deeper effects of violence at large: a nurse kneeling next to a man shot dead in the street by insurgents; an explosion that levels half a church; andperhaps the most jarring imagea policeman carrying a milk jug across a floor busy with chalk outlines and spilled blood, indifferently feeding a cat while watching a news report detailing the massacre.
As directed by Denis Heroux, "Naked Massacre" offers a lot more than the exploitative thrills its title promises. Like "Last House," this is tough viewinga film so unpleasant and oppressive that any prurient thrills are non-existent. Yet at its core, it is a thing of social, political, and intellectual significancewhile most will dismiss it for its unsettling violent and sexual content, more adventurous viewers will be rewarded.