Review of Pervert!

Introduction

Clearly influenced by Russ Meyer, the auteur of cult movies and worthy of the nickname `King of the Nudies`, Jonathan Yudis co-wrote, co-produced and directed this bizarre film that, like many of Meyer`s, almost defies description. That said, the plot, such as it is, follows the travails of James, who visits his father in the desert to work and become a `man`. His father, Hezekiah, recovered from the death of his wife, is now shacked up with the young and voluptuous Cheryl, played by Mary Carey and spends his time making sculptures of women out of meat. James learns that a pervert is around with murderous intentions - the question is who, or even what, is it?

Mary Carey is the only recognisable name amongst the cast, due to her lengthy career in adult movies. She briefly gained worldwide fame when she ran for the office of Governor of California in the contest in which Arnold Schwarzenegger emerged victorious.

`Pervert!` is Jonathan Yudis` feature film debut and it was made `on the cheap`, so anyone watching this expecting a technically accomplished film with high production values is going to be very disappointed.

Video

Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, the film, especially the exterior shots of the desert, looks very good.

Audio

Both the DD 2.0 and 5.1 soundtracks are perfectly fine, although occasionally the dialogue is somewhat muffled.

Features

Extended Lesbian Scenes - running at just over 2 minutes, these are boring and not as exciting as the title suggests.

Beyond the Chasm of the Hypervixens - Making Pervert! - This is a decent `making of` in which Yudis explains how the film came to be made, talking about casting, funding and the importance of 30 seconds of reflection at the beginning of every day.

Deleted Scenes - Left out with good reason and not particularly illuminating, these aren`t even accompanied by a commentary to explain their omission.

Photo Gallery - This has to be manually navigated and isn`t really worth the effort.

Bloopers - Blooper reels are either funny or they`re boring. This is the latter.

Trailer - As trailers go, this is quite impressive and does a very good selling job of the film.

Conclusion

I`ve never made a movie, so don`t know how arduous the process is, but some directors, such as Orson Welles, John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich, took to it like a duck to water and made classics with their debuts, whereas others` debuts have not gone quite so well.

John Yudis said he did not intend to make an homage to the films of Russ Meyer but wanted to make the best film he could, wrote a screenplay with his friend Mike Davis and scraped enough money together to make it. The promotional material left me in no doubt that `Pervert!` is a film aimed at fans of Russ Meyer`s work, so I was constantly comparing it to the films of one of my favourite cult directors.

This comparison works to the detriment of `Pervert!`, which isn`t as technically adept, funny or outlandishly weird as Meyer`s films of the same vein, so it seems like Yudis was trying to ape the movies of `King Leer`, rather than create something original.

I remember seeing the trailer and thinking that it looked great and `Pervert!` was something to look forward to. Sadly, it feels disappointingly like a `Meyer Lite` picture, in the shadow of Russ Meyer`s `sex and death` films and you`d be better off watching `Supervixens`, `Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens` or `Up!`.