Motel Hell was on its way to be a great black comedy, about cannibals .
Motel Helldoesnt seem to have much social satire in mind.
In fact, it began life as a straight, ugly, little horror film.
But thanks to its premise it began evolving into a black comedy during production.
But when Universal dumped it for being too weird, he dropped out too.
Sad thing in all this is that the film had real comic potential.
Kevin Conner was a solid director whod helmedThe Land That Time Forgot.
found himself making exploitation films in the 70s and 80s.
It had an unbeatable tagline (It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincents fritters).
But most important of all it had a story that scared the shit out of studio executives.
Or confused them, or both.
You do that, you know youre onto something good.
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See?
Now THATS a comic premise!
Sure there are hints ofSweeny Todd,but with a real down to earth American flavor and gumption.
(And dont worry, Im not giving anything away here.
Third times the charm.)
What few jokes and visual gags remain are weak and flat.
Then it all ends with a pointless and improbable chainsaw fight.
Love a good chainsaw fight as I do, by that point its simply too late.
For its mumbly shortcomings,Motel Helldoes contain its share of sharp visual details.
The interior of the smokehouse is a combination of one of Francis Bacons early paintings and his studio.
After all, everyone who stops by the stand says its the best sausage theyve ever had.
Theyre very comfortable with what they do and see nothing wrong with it.
Those two performances actually punctuate whats wrong with the rest of the film.
The ultimate disappointment isnt so much that its a bad picture.
Its not, its competently made, theres some nice camera work.
But it could have and should have been so much more.
It might have, too, if Conner and the Jaffes had the courage of their convictions.
A reportedly vicious, ugly and shocking original script (complete with bestiality!)
In the end we got neither.
Instead of one of Farmer Vincents famous sausages, its like we were handed an empty casing.
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