The Greasy Strangler

And the award for most consistently messed up, incomprehensibly bizarre, totally bonkers and disgustingly greasy movie ever made goes to….***drum roll***… The Greasy Strangler, directed by Jim Hosking, the man who gave us the incredibly warped 'G for Grandad' segment from ABCs of Death 2. Cue applause from fans of f••ked-up cinema all over the world…

The Greasy Strangler stars Sky Elobar as Big Brayden, a tubby lank-haired loser who still lives at home with his father, Big Ronnie (Michael St. Michaels), a grease obsessed disco tour guide who, in his spare time, likes to coat his naked body with oily goop and strangle people until their eyes pop out. When Brayden meets and falls for Janet (Elizabeth De Razzo) during one of his father's tours, Ronnie does his best to spoil the burgeoning romance.

It would take an age for me to list all that is wrong (or right, depending on your point of view) with this film, but I think that I only need to mention that old man Ronnie has a massive pointy pecker that he proudly displays at most opportunities in order to illustrate my point. Even his purple disco suit has a special netting panel to keep his todger in plain sight. If this kind of shock tactic appeals to your sense of bad taste, then dive on in, 'cos there's plenty more where that comes from.

This was a movie that when I started to get into podcasts, the name would pop up. I knew this was more of a movie that non-mainstream horror fans watched. It went on a list of movies to check out, but hadn't gotten around to it. All I knew was that it was outrageous. I finally gave it a viewing as part of the Summer Challenge Series for the 2010s over on the Podcast Under the Stairs. The synopsis here is Ronnie (Michael St. Michaels) runs a disco walking tour with his son, Brayden (Sky Elobar). When a sexy woman takes the tour, it begins a competition between father and son for her love. It also signals the arrival of an oily strangler who stalks the streets at night.

Now I'm going to start stating that this is a weird movie. We are following mostly the father and son duo of Big Ronnie and Big Brayden. Brayden wakes up his dad with coffee and Ronnie states that no one takes their coffee oily. This grosses out Brayden and Ronnie states that his son probably thinks he's the greasy strangler. As it sounds, this is a serial killer that prowls the streets at night, covered in lard and choking his victims to death. This causes Brayden to think his father is joking.

As the synopsis states, these two have a walking tour where Ronnie tells those that partake about the history of different buildings and disco legends that have a connection to them. The first tour we get to see doesn't go well. Ronnie is temperamental. When an Indian tourist, played by Sam Dissanayake, asks about free drinks they saw in the brochure. This upsets Ronnie. A Senegalese and Scandinavian tourist who are also with them join in a chant for free drinks. These other two are Abdoulaye NGom and Holland MacFallister. Ronnie ends the tour early in anger. There is another member, Janet (Elizabeth De Razzo), and Brayden apologizes to her.

Later that day, Brayden relays that he is going on a date with her. Ronnie doesn't believe it and thinks that she is going to break his heart. He tries to convince his son not to go, but it doesn't work. Ronnie decides he will try to steal her away from his son instead. This creates an odd competition between the two.

Ronnie is also the greasy strangler. The first victims we see him attack are the foreign guests on the tour. Ronnie is covered in lard and he uses a local carwash to clean himself after he's done. It is run by a friend of his that he used to go to disco clubs with by the name of Big Paul (Gil Gex). I should point out that he's blind.

When Brayden's best friend of Oinker (Joe David Walters) is murdered by the greasy strangler, he decides to solve the case of who this serial killer is. Ronnie tries to break his spirits by seeing Janet and he also poses as a detective to dissuade him. Brayden will find a part of himself he didn't now he had and possible lose his humanity to solve this mystery.

Now I'll be honest, it feels like I'm deepening this movie more than what it really is with that recap. This movie just has an odd, surreal feel to it. It really is more of a comedy with some really horrific aspects to it. The interactions between Ronnie and Brayden are odd with the dialogue they are reciting and how they're reciting it. While chatting with Jake while doing Side Quest Podcast about this movie, which was partially what they were going for. They are repeating the same dialogue over and over to make it feel almost as mundane as every day conversation. I'm going to warn you here, this movie isn't for everyone and to take it farther, I think most might not enjoy this.

With that established, this is absurd. The tour this father and son do doesn't seem like it would make money. They claim history of all of these buildings and there really is nothing to back it up. This is partially what upsets Ronnie when challenged by the Indian tourist. I actually don't believe a lot of what he's saying. He tells Janet at one point he had a wild night with Michael Jackson. Brayden informs her it was really a Michael look-a-like that was a male prostitute. Ronnie is full of it in my opinion and just feeds lines to everyone.

Delving more into Ronnie, he's also a horrible father. I do believe that he had Brayden a bit younger and had to give up things in life. I think he resents him. Since Ronnie thinks more of himself than what he should, that is why he goes after Janet for validation. Even though a lot of things he says and does are funny, it is pretty sad to see what he says to as well as does to Brayden. There is some serious mental abuse that is going on here. I can see why Brayden has the low self-esteem.

Shifting from here, I do want to go to this serial killer of the greasy strangler. It is absurd, but the concept makes sense. When I told Jaime, she looked at me funny. What I thought about first was the serial killer from Stephen King's The Dead Zone. The lard that is on him would make it harder to fight. It also might make it harder to keep your grip when choking someone to death. Regardless, it is a wild idea and I kind of just enjoy it for that.

Since I've talked a lot about the characters, I'll go next to the acting. St. Michaels is wild. I know him originally from The Video Dead. It is fun to see that he's back into acting. Elobar is weirdly odd as his son. De Razzo and Gex are also pretty solid. What I should point out here is that no one is good. They're not playing characters that are normal. This is by design. What I'm going to say is that they work for what was needed. I can't fault them if they're supposed to play it awkward as that works.

Going along with how weird things are, I want to go to the effects. You can tell that St. Michaels is wearing a suit of sorts when he's the greasy strangler. I'm fine with that personally as it would be difficult to grease him up for long stretches. It works for me. They do go odd at times with the effects as well, like when someone's eye balls pop out. They're going over the top with it which fits the tone of the movie. What I do want to give credit for is the cinematography. I think they add character there and it was really well done.

Then finally I want to go into the soundtrack. I'm going to be honest with you, I love it. It is probably my favorite part of this movie. It helps the vibe they're going for. The music just hits a spot for me that has love for 1970's films. I don't necessarily think it falls in that same category, but my love for weird music from this era is probably why it works. This will a soundtrack I seek out for sure.

So then in conclusion here, I will reiterate this movie won't be for everyone. It isn't played straight. This is an odd comedy that is horrific in some of its nature. Not all of the comedy works for me, but I will admit, I did legit laugh out loud at some things. This is just a different type of movie. The acting is odd, but that is what they were going for. The effects aren't great, but much like the soundtrack, it fits. I can't recommend it to everyone. If you like schlocky films, I think you can really appreciate this one. I'm not the biggest fan that they set out to make a movie like that, but I can respect what they're doing here. This is just over average for me though.

Imagine if Napoleon Dynamite and Junji Ito's Glyceride somehow had a baby - the offspring would be The Greasy Strangler.

In this un-thriller, a thoroughly unattractive father and son navigate their strained relationship while dealing with a rash of murders in their town that have been committed by a not-so-mysterious killer who carries out said murders while coated in a thick layer of sopping, crusted grease. Don't worry about gory effects making you feel ill during this film, those are hilarious. The copious amounts of K-Y jelly and other unidentifiable greasy substances throughout the film do a fine job of squicking the viewer out instead. Despite the stomach-churning visuals, the script, delivery and several sight gags contain enough surreal humor to make this film enjoyable for those who are partial to that kind of thing.

If you have a weak stomach, I do not recommend eating snacks like pizza or anything with a lot of olive oil during the course of this film.

I tried describing this film to a friend. It's labeled a horror comedy, but I didn't find it scary or funny. The latter is not meant to be an insult, because there's a definite unique style that would work for some people.

The most apt analogy I can make is that it's a live action Beavis and Butthead world done by the cast of Shameless.

Characters that would be considered as a weird outlier in any other work seems to be par for the course here. Everything is weird, awkward, and unsettling but not in a creepy way.

I rate it a 6 because after I was done watching all I could really say was "Yup. I watched that." but it's very easily either the best film you'll ever see, or one of the worst, depending on what you want from it.

A middle-aged social misfit is forced to confront the possibility that his abusive father is the local serial killer in this outlandish black comedy. This is not the easiest film to warm to with deliberately over-the-top performances, repetitive dialogue and the two male leads constantly wandering around nude, however, the pure wackiness on display has a certain charm. There are also several very funny moments as Michael St. Michaels keeps complaining "you probably think I'm the greasy strangler!" when everyone from hotdog vendors to his own son refuses to put more grease on his food, and as he dons bizarre outfits without giving a second thought to how he looks. Not all of the jokes work, with far too much toilet humour in the mix, but it is an amusing film from start to finish with all its weirdness. What's more, the film even spins an at-times touching tale of father and son coming to understand and appreciate one another in the backdrop. This is certainly not a movie for all tastes, but in between the pitch perfect electro funk music score, the imaginative costumes and the surprisingly decent makeup effects, there is a lot here to like. The film admittedly goes a little off the deep end towards the end and gets a little too weird for its own good, but this might otherwise be the most refreshingly unusual horror-comedy since 'Otto; or Up with Dead People'.