Singapore Sling

Our story involves a nameless private detective in the Sam Spade school who, I think, speaks only Greek. He is troubled, as he is searching for his long, lost love and what happened to her, while at the same time avoiding the police, since he has a bullet in his stomach. In his travels he is able to find hospitality in a home with two women, a mother who speaks French and a daughter who speaks English, who offer to help them. Soon we discover that these two women are nowhere near as nice as they seem, they’re actually two very disturbed and psychotic women, sexually frustrated and out for some blood. They play games with the detective, some sick, disturbing games, and the detective will soon have to find a way to beat them at their own game, if he thinks he has any chance of escaping.
Wow, where to start with this movie? I mean, I was not expecting this to be nothing more than a sick piece of shit, the type that I’m accustomed to when watching ultra-sleazy European horror flicks. And for the most part, it seems to deliver. For starters we have body parts and viscera flying all over the place in graphic, almost anatomical detail. But most of the sick stuff is of a sexual nature. I mean, the stuff they do to this poor Shamus is beyond anything I’d be able to take, from masturbating with food, forcing them to eat vomit, and even erotic regurgitation. Yummy.

But thankfully, this not only is a sick movie, it’s also a very beautiful film. Greek filmmaker Nikos Nikolaidis films it on 35mm black and white, and everything looks much more artistic and classy than a film like this normally aspires to. The rain looks beautiful, the dresses and set design look like something out of a period movie, and the blood and guts look black and dark, almost like motor oil. The performances from the actors involved are all great, particularly the two women, played by Meredith Herold and Michele Valley, add a strong dose of delirium, sex appeal and insanity to the proceedings. Their weird monologues about each other, switching between love and hatred, and weird flashbacks make most of the movie work. The ending will remind everyone of the classic Cannibal Corpse song, “Fucked With A Knife”, in one of the most what-the-fuck moments in the whole film.
Granted, there are a lot of ridiculous moments in the film. When the daughter reminisces about her incestual encounters with her father, the father is represented by a mummy, like the ones that came out of the Universal series. Seeing a mummy fucking Meredith Herold just looks weird. Still, this movie is one of the best films to come out of the underground, with it’s strong mix of perverse sexuality, dark humor, intense horror and the visuals of film noir, it comes highly recommended.