At a rock concert, young and innocent Odile (Jessica Franco Manera)
sees two lesbians, Elizabeth (Miranda Mariaux) and Ilona (Soledad
Marceignac) making out as part of the stage show, and she believes their
tales of actually being legendary Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her
companion ... so much so that she after a while has visions of sex and
blood pretty much everywhere she goes, and usually the two women are
involved. This all culminates in (visions of) a big orgy involving Odile,
Elizabeth and Ilona and a man, an orgy that ends in everybody but Odile
dead. Ultimately, Odile figures the only way to fight her hallucinations
is to face her fears head-on, so she visits another rock concert with
Elizabeth and Ilona giving a sexual performance, and just joins in ... This
film is dedicated to both Jean-Luc Godard and Jess Franco, and it shows:
From Godard, this film takes its negligence of a narrative plot in favour
of associative images, from Franco it takes its basic theme (innocence
corrupted) as well as its predilection of sex and crime in a nightmarish
context. Between the two filmmakers, Mondo Weirdo leans more
towards the latter, which is also represented in its credits, with most of
the acting credits being (more or less) subtle hommages to Jess Franco,
his many pseudonymes and his favourite actresses and themes. As a film, Mondo
Weirdo is certainly not for the squeamish in its relentless mix of
gory violence and (hardcore) sex - but at the end of it, one can't help
but feeling slightly disappointed, as somehow one can't shake the feeling
that the film didn't go all the way after all, that amidst all its weird
imagery something was missing. Now let me get this straight, Mondo
Weirdo is not a total failure, it's weird and disturbing enough as it
is, it just could have been more.
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