My Lovely Burnt Brother and His Squashed Brain (1988)

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Directors: Giovanni Arduino and Andrea Lioy

Screenplay: Giovanni Arduino and Andrea Lioy

Cast: Anne Tzakol as Jenny; Bernie Burnt as Himself; Mefi as the Dentist; John J. Bridge as Sleazy Client 1; Nick Tortone as Sleazy Client 2; Paul Delos as Sleazy Client 3

With that title, this definitely wins you over to watching it, but let's be brutal and admit that for every piece of art that has a great title, a large percentage of the films in this catagory never live up to them. (One of the few exceptions being Italian giallos, ironically in lieu to this Italian production) This is a curious case in the annuals of Italian horror schlock, made in the late eighties before the genre industry sadly collapsed; this shot-on-video production feels entirely alien to the industry, managing to be something from the underground of that country. That it somehow ended up with English subtitles is an entirely different issue to ask questions about as the film itself considering what you encounter. Admittedly, as what the likes of Bleeding Skull have proven, the site responsible for me learning of this film, a lot was released on video and even DVD especially in the USA, so you expect the unexpected. This one does have something that takes you back when the prologue to the film-within-a-film advises you to drink many "El Cheapo Beers", all whilst the film's "producer" warns you the films going to be terrible.

How the film ever got to the USA, as this has been brought up by the Bleeding Skull alumni of obscure shot-on-video/no-budget curiosities, I don't know but it's definitely the mangled results of trying to shock people and possibly drinking all the beers it recommended during its production. The most commonly accessible version, as this only really exists in bootleg, is difficult to read subtitles which complicated things, the metaphorical equivalent of vaporwave computer vision syndrome which doesn't help,, but the film in general is a maddening experience. It argues that the unpredictable improvisation of micro-budget cinema can be special but also its own worth enemy, My Lovely Burnt Brother... a mix of a story with a series of (something random) vignettes throughout which had moments I liked but others which dragged on.

The core of all this, the title, stems from a dental assistant Jennifer and her brother Bernie, a major burn victim who hides his severely disfigured face under a KKK mask, merely just to provide shock rather than the film wanting to tackle the issues of racism. He's also a heroin addict as a result of the injuries he's sustained; after dealing with some incredibly sexist pigs in her work, she finds to her surprise that injecting her own urine into Bernie than smack causes her to be able to control him, perfect for dealing with gutting those pigs.

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Beyond this, the film is a mere string of gore scenes and random incidents, random to the point the film will abruptly cut at one moment to a man castrating himself with a pair of garden shears, with the blades just off camera below, and then proceeding to eat them. None of it is more than to deliberately shock the viewer with tasteless content, and a lot of it has no direct connection to the slasher film like plot I have detailed with Bernie; instead, a lot of it feels completely improvised with a ramshackle tone, only really connected by the violent adventures of Bernie. On one hand the improvised feel can be a virtue, where there's inexplicably a murder involving flesh eating eels from New Jersey filling a bathtub, which abruptly involves a fake nature factoid about the creatures which was an inspired touch, but there's a lot that is really distracting or has no impact because its crammed together.

The rest, even in mind the version I saw was a violently damaged copy which made it harder to watch, is a mess. You are introduced to a female ex-punk rocker/improvised detective whose thoughts move out to a series of dull monochrome flashbacks about her cowboy father and who he was bumped off, which we could've done without. (Having her at his grave be thrown a guitar and starting a song that breaks the verisimilitude does lighten the mood, but could've had a better contrivance to get to it). My Lovely Burnt Brother... as a result shows that the virtue that everyone can grab a camera as technology has improved is a double-edged sword, neither a detraction against micro-budget schlock cinema as that can be inventive and inspired. This on the other hand, even if it throws in musical numbers and other abrupt material that would be fun in another context, shows what happens when there's a lack of coordination, leading to it stumbling over a lot of banality in among the glistening giblets of interest.

It also emphasises that gore is not enough, even if you have a man's face sliced like salami on a very-low budget. Instead, probably the more interesting moments of the film were when it went for pure surreal humour rather than blood or offense, like envisioning one of the potential male victims wooing a sex doll over a homemade dinner. Neither does it help My Lovely Burnt Brother... doesn't end well, leaving on an utter muddle of a finale asking who the real monsters, not exactly a film that has earned the ability to raise that question in the slightest. Its definitely a weirdo curiosity, one which has moments I liked, and its abstract in having to try and ingest this all sober let alone drink as the film itself recommends. However, My Lovely Burnt Brother and His Squashed Brain is also a title in need to have be used for a more interesting film. Also, arguably the film should be disqualified from an abstract rating for cheating, due to how it's so abruptly put together rather than purposely so.

Abstract Spectrum: Grotesque/Random/Weird

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

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