Sick-o-pathics (1996)

I actually never really enjoys this kinda super-low-budget-amateur-splatter-ironic-silly-goofy wigs-trash-kinda-movies. But Sick-o-pathics feels like a naughty, little irritating cousin that laughs at his own jokes (which consists of farts and gore) and just never can be quiet. And in this case it's quite charming, believe it or not. At least Massimo Lavagnini and Brigida Costa are better storytellers than for example another character in this biz, the ultra-boring Andreas Schnaas. But this twisted tale is actually three tales, so let's take a look...

Hello Dolly - a guy wants to have some fun, so he buys blow-up doll from the Devil (Sergio Stivaletti) at a porn shop. He goes home, finds the doll totally torn to pieces and wet of... something. Disappointed our hero goes to sleep and finds himself in the violence of the now resurrected doll, who also has a giant penis inside it's vagina!

The second story is The Poor, The Flesh & The Bag, where another unlucky fellow gets his hands on a bag of money (I guess it's suppose to be that) when he needs to pay a loan to mafia boss Renato Polselli, but finds out that the bag is actually flesh-eating monster!

And finally, the most famous episode: Aeropophagus! In this version of Anthropophagus the soon-to-be monster was stuck on the sea only with beans to eat, and that drives him mad - and gives him deadly farts! Now he roams the little Greek island, farting people to death! Among them Antonella Fulci! Our hero in this story is sent there by a crazy doctor, played by David Warbeck!

All these stories is movies, directed by the evil horror director Dare Dane (Dardano Sacchetti), who tortures the rastafari-wig-wearing ultra-violent Max O'Keest with his collection of video tapes in a dungeon somewhere in Rome!

Sick-o-pathics is a pure homemade movie. Shot with a simple video camera, not much lightning, crappy editing and friends and family in the roles. Just like a thousand other homemade movies all over the world. But where it lacks talent, it has a lot of charm and a few laughs too! It's only 50 minutes long and didn't bore me for one second. The comedy is wild and silly, childish and naive, and there's to much black metal. Gore? Yes, quite a lot - and most of it is really bad, but also very bloody and graphic. Hello Dolly is a fun story, and the only one that could have been a little bit more creepy. The doll itself feels bizarre and the rape-scene (I would like to call it that, even if it's the doll... "raping" the man) is like something from a Asian gore-movie!

But I most of the fun is to spot smal and smaller guest spots by familiar faces from the Italian genre-industry. We have Lucio Fulci and Antonella Fulci, Joe D'Amato and Luigi Cozzi, Renato Polselli, Sergio Stivaletti, Sergio Bergonzelli and the best of them all, David Warbeck!

Yes, let's talk a bit about Warbeck's part here. Clearly he's having so much fun, that I've never seen him have so much fun before. It's like a new world for him, comedy. Broad, wild, wacky, silly and over-the-top comedy. Mr Warbeck is overacting his way into stardom here and has the funniest and best scene in the whole movie. God damn, we lost him way to early...

This is trashy, crappy, silly fun. And I've heard there's an official DVD on it's way now... so I think this could be a lovely little piece in your collection sooner or later...