Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter (2000)

BOMB (out of 4)

If you're thinking this Jess Franco film has anything to do with the Manson murders then you're going to be disappointed. However, you'll probably be disappointed no matter what because this is another softcore film from Franco's One Shot Productions. There's no story here but instead various images "inspired" by de Sade. Lina Romay masturbates, has sex and various other things throughout the 80-minute running time while two other women also mess around. A complete and utter mess of a film that isn't worth anything. I've seen over a hundred Franco films but this one here is near the bottom.

I don't know the exact circumstances of how this ever got made, but I'm sure (I hope at least) that even Franco didn't really like what he made (or was forced to do?). Whatever the case, giving this a second point is just because it's way out there. It doesn't start off bad ... for a couple of seconds that is. Until you realize you are in an almost 10 minute credits/introduction circle - for a 60 minute movie! To call that sane would not be a stretch, it would be a lie.

There is a lot of experimenting going on (as there is a lot of nudity and touching and other things that are either titillating or not for the viewer). None of those experiments really spark and the nudity does not close the gap the lack of story leaves behind. It almost feels like an exhibition that could be shown as a slide show at an erotic museum or something, but does not qualify to be called a "movie"

Using new footage and out-takes ripped from his other One Shot Productions films, director Jess Franco attempts to make a Marquis De Sade anthology but somehow manages to cobble together incoherent bits of sexiness, crassness, ugliness and tedium. Quite obviously the least effort amongst his One Shot Productions films, it's widely understood that this is the one film Franco made for his American company that had no real involvement from his new producers - and it shows. Without the steadying hand of producers Peter Evanko or Kevin Collins, Franco is left to his old devices of zoom lenses on flabby butts and repetitive loops of images and sounds. There's no story, just images set to music that apparently was supposed to suggest a mood. Instead it merely suggests that now is a good time to take a nap.

Director, heal thyself. Viewers, stick to either the old Franco classics or to any of the other One Shot Productions films from his oeuvre.

Way back in the early 1970s, Jess Franco, prolific Spanish director, helmed some divisively eccentric films. I love most of his output, but it was often difficult to imagine what some of his artistic choices actually meant. Better just to accept them and enjoy the ride ...

Thirty years later, when Franco's budgets and exposure had diminished, 'enjoying the ride' has become more of a challenge. One Shot Productions, predominantly run by fans to allow Jess to continue making films, gloried in their cheapness, as their moniker suggests. Franco's long-held disinterest in what happened to his films after he had finished making them has surely reached its zenith at this time - he doesn't consider any audience outside his own 'world' anymore, it seems; like many One Shots, this seems to be made by him, for him.

Here, under two of many aliases Clifford Brown Jr. (as Director) and David J. Khunne (Writer), he mixes new footage with out-takes from previous productions for the company, often featuring slo-mo video-images of female flesh - his 46 year-old partner and muse Lina Romay providing much of it - and marries them together with much repeated narration from the words of The Marquis De Sade and some effective, but unconnected, paintings by Alfonso Azpiri. The results are typically odd, with no obvious point to them.

'Helter Skelter' comes as a bonus film on the DVD release of Franco's 'Broken Dolls'. Much as I love much of his output, this is pretty much impossible to watch all the way through. With these One Shot Productions, sometimes it is tempting to fast-forward through the lengthy flesh and sex scenes; here, that's all there is.

Billed as 'Part One: Pleasure and Pain', there were never any subsequent chapters. My score is 2 out of 10, mainly for the score and Azpiri's pictures.

I don't believe the other negative review. I am a Jess Franco fan. I bought the Broken Dolls/Helter Skelter DVD. I suffered through Broken Dolls. I found Dolls to be one of the worst Franco movies. On a level with Justine and Virgin of the Living Dead. But Helter Skelter is great. It just exudes coolness. It has great visuals. Analia Ivars is totally hot. I could look at her for hours. And that is what Helter Skelter does. It dwells on lusty vixens bodies. It's very sensual. It doesn't have much of a plot and that is what Jess can do best. Take his obsessions to a new level and just focus on what he loves: sex and violence. It reminds me of his classics "Macumba Sexualis" and "Eugenie: History of Perversion". Helter Skelter has a great mellow experimental Jazz soundtrack and weird voice overs from De Sade. Highly recommended!