Crazy Lips
(Venture Region 1 DVD)
(1965)
review by Suspiriorium

Certain horror films get caught up in a specific style and run way too far off the course of sanity and beyond any level of coherence. Crazy Lips, with its irrelevant title and equally distant storyline is one such movie. I knew nothing about this film prior to its purchase, and after the first viewing I concluded that I would rather slaughter my own cats than sit through another showing of this rubbish.

Similar to films like Living Hell and Evil Dead Trap, Crazy Lips takes a "full on assault" approach to horror, exposing the viewer's senses to every conceivable malady and atrocity possible. Unfortunately, the rate at which these events unfold (too rapidly) and the lack of cohesion within the storyline discredits any props that could be given to the film. The Miike-esque antics of the film are initially amusing, but Director Sasaki overstays his artistic welcome when the onscreen nastiness draws from the effectiveness of what could have been a decent plot. The story involves a family (mother, 2 daughters and a son) who's lost their father to a prison execution and now searches for their son who is a prime suspect in a series of brutal school girl murders.

The youngest daughter, Satomi, seeks out the help of a spirit channeller in hopes that she can contact her lost brother and clear his name with the police. What began as a nice little ghost story then turns into bedlam, as the channeller moves in with the family and orders her lackey (Abe) to sequentially rape the 3 women of the family. Between the pathetic rape scenes of the film lies certain points of extreme gore and violence, capped by Satomi's Carrie-like powers to telekinetically kill her foes. Unfortunately, these scenes get overshadowed by yet another group thrown into the mix, a bumbling duo of CIA agents who inform Satomi that the Channeller is using her family to resurrect an ancient demon.

By this point in the film the misfortune of the family is spread through the television to the audience as Crazy Lips spirals into plotline oblivion. Even sobriety couldn't make sense of this film as tasteless acts of necrophilia and the repetition of the US's national anthem flooded the screen. The Dead man sat confused, reluctant to take his eyes off the screen hoping that the movie would revert to its former state of comprehension. But alas, Crazy Lips just kept getting crazier.

To my surprise, the unfortunate demise of the film was not the worst aspect of its release. As part of a sickly extras offering, an interview with Director Sasaki attempted to shed light on the reasoning behind this atrocity. Watching this man describe how he felt that Crazy Lips was a "successful erotic horror" was almost as ridiculous as believing George W. Bush has a set of balls and a brain to call his own. The Director's take on the film made me laugh almost as hard as Ren Osugi's performance as the Colonel, which by the way is the only reason this movie gained 1 1/2 Skulls!

So my prognosis of this film is rather simple: Crazy Lips has herpes, and as your Doctor I suggest putting the condoms down and not even fucking with this film.