THE DISCO EXORCIST
DVD. Wild Eye Releasing.

The latest in a stream of retro-flavoured exploitation movies to emerge in recent years, The Disco Exorcist manages to outdo higher-profile efforts like Hobo with a Shotgun through a winning combination of grubbiness and bad taste.

From the director of Nun of That, the film follows the adventures of late Seventies swinger Rex Romanski (Michael Reed), who hooks up with bar conquest Rita Marie (Ruth Sullivan), only to find her a little too possessive and psychotic. When he drops her in favour of porn superstar Amoreena Jones (Sarah Nicklin), Rita uses her voodoo powers to put a curse on her love rival, turning her into a psychotic demon that runs riot at an orgy and can only be stopped by the rite of exorcism.

Director Richard Griffin has smartly crafted an effectively trashy pastiche here. As much sexploitation as horror (the nudity is pretty relentless!), the film mixes gore and boobs with a few digs at Seventies disco culture to create a fun, deliberately crude slice of neo-grindhouse. Complete with fake film scratches and ‘missing scenes’, the style might be a bit clichéd now, but few of the other grindhouse tributes have managed to capture the feel of the grubbier end of Seventies sinema so effectively. And if some of the performances are a bit on the wooden side - well, I guess that's not too far removed from some of the films being referenced here either.

Insubstantial, certainly; but The Disco Exorcist is also a lot of fun, especially if you like your low budget horror liberally laced with gratuitous nudity. And there is a suitably salacious commentary track included too!

DAVID FLINT

BUY IT NOW (USA)