SHRIEK OF THE MULTILATED 1974

 

"Piece By Piece, By Piece, the Bodies Vanish in ... Shriek of the Mutilated"

One of the more bizarre offerings amid 70’s cinema bigfoot/yeti mania, SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED is the cinema offspring of low budget New York director/writer/producer Ed Adlum (who was behind the druid/gore classic INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS 1972) and the NYC sexploitation/ roughie creative team couple Michael and Roberta Findlay.  Although not living up to what one would think this pairing of inventive minds would conjure up, it’s still entertainingly deranged with retina burning 70’s fashions, the expected WTF dialogue, bright blood red splattered low-budget gore plus you get satanic rituals and cannibalism (!!) mixed in. What more could you want?

Written by Adlum & Ed Kelleher, SHRIEK shares crew members and cast from INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS (and which would make a heck of a double feature with). Adlum reached out to Michael Findlay to direct, with Roberta managing the camera chores. The couple had separated by this time and as Roberta explains on the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray commentary track Michael was too "psychologically damaged" to complete the film on his own, so she took over the director’s chair.

Opening with a prologue featuring someone wearing a bigfoot-like mask and a red robe next to a swimming pool who then chops off a victim’s head (which plops into the pool) while a giggling Michael Findlay looks on, we start with the standard Cryptozoology cinema scene of a professor lecturing a group of students on yeti-like creatures. The professor is Dr. Ernst Prell (Alan Brock) who is giving some last-minute instructions to a group of students who will accompany him on his expedition. The students are Keith Henshaw (Michael Harris), Karen Hunter (Jennifer Stock GOD’S BLOODY ACRE 1975), Tom Nash (Jack Neubeck INVAISON OF THE BLOOD FARMERS 1972) and Lynn Kelly (Darcy Brown). Most of the actors have an exceedingly small resume appearing here and in INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS except for Jennifer Stock and Darcy Brown. Brown had an interesting sexploitation career appearing in DIARY OF A SWINGER 1967, BACCHANATE 1970 (which also has a Roberta Findlay cameo) and DYNAMITE 1972.

After some stilted dialogue outside the classroom the group goes to a party which features awkward dancing and a guy with a popcorn cart making the greasiest, most nasty-looking popcorn in the world while the song “Popcorn” by Hot Butter plays (this song was missing on previous home video until the Vinegar Syndrome release).  A survivor from one of Prell’s previous expeditions shows up at the party (sporting one of the greatest comb overs in cinema history) along with his wife and he gives a drunken monologue about the fate of the previous expedition. This leads to a bizarre out of nowhere sequence where we are treated to a double murder/revenge-murder involving an electric carving knife and a toaster.

The group travels to the “remote island” (a suburban house in Westchester County NY) in a van with flowers pasted on the side which gives off some Scooby Doo vibes. Of course, they stop at a gas station along the way so the old guy can ominously speak of their destination (“Cause no matter what I say, they're bound to get there, and they're bound to get what they went there for…”). Upon arriving they meet up with Dr. Karl Warner (Thom Ellis) who sports the balding guy with a ponytail look and wears knee-high boots with way too tight pants. Warner also has the whitest hairiest Native American ever seen who works for him as a caretaker and to whom he refers to him as “my Indian” (all of which sounds like even in 1974 was highly problematic).

Warner tells the group that there is a yeti in the area as he has heard its heart beating loudly and soon the expected carnage ensues with the gore mostly consisting of severed limbs tossed about and closeups of bloody scratched faces. The yeti is shown with surprising clarity for this type of film, and it looks like the camera work is mostly based on hiding the zipper. However, this all does play into the film’s bizarre climax.

The film has that low-budget weirdness about it with long stretches of people standing around bickering and/or shouting at each other, engaging in blustering monologues to explain plot points and particular to bigfoot cinema there’s aimless wondering about the woods.

The plot features bunches of expositions and random sequences through its first one-third or so and to its credit it does tie most of them into the films multi-layered conspiracy climax (one facet of which is made obvious to viewers and involves a “native dish”).

Roberta Findlay’s camerawork is sometimes very impressive with a nice autumnal feel to the film although we never feel like we are in anyplace remote starting with the iron girder and concrete bridge that accesses the “remote island.” Roberta is one of the more fascinating characters in the 1960’s NYC sexploitation world. She started working with then husband Michael on his infamous “Flesh” trilogy and SNUFF and later in the seventies was one of the few female directors working in hardcore/adult. Along with her excellent take on Polanski’s REPULSION with A WOMAN’S TORMENT 1977 there are a few interesting horror films in her filmography including ORACLE 1985, BLOOD SISTERS 1988, and PRIME EVIL 1988.