THE SADIST WITH THE RED TEETH (1970)
aka Le Sadique aux dents rouges Directed by Jean-Louis van Belle
DVD-R
THE FILM
Belgians are known for their mastery of languages and impressive multicultural tact. Now I understand. With so much time spent on greasing the noggin, who has time for orthodox filmmaking? Jean-Louis van Belle certainly didn't.
I'm not from Belgium, so what you see is what you get. Le Sadique aux dents rouges (The Sadist With The Red Teeth) is a Belgian production from director Belle (Perverse et docile, Pervertissima; guess what those are about!) that speaks French and confiscates acid. It's an experimental, rough-hewn horror film that falls somewhere between George Romero's Martin and Nick Millard's Satan's Black Wedding, but arrived before both. This also marks the first time I've seen a drummer play-synching along to a Wurlitzer beatbox. Perfect. Forget the fact that the print carries no subtitles; blood-red teeth, transparent spider eyes, and tornado stock footage just about have it covered.
Daniel has just been released from a hospital. From now on, obsessive repitition is his game. Vampires, vampires, and more vampires. With his beautiful fiancée Jane in tow, Dan walks the city streets and daydreams that he's a bloodsucker, imbuing encounters (softcore lesbian photo shoot, date to the movies, trip to the dentist) with splashes of fake blood and plastic fangs. Or maybe he's just a nut. We never find out, but after an elderly vampire converts Dan-O to the real deal, everybody gets a taste of what's been going on in his mind. The costume party writhes, the organ beats beat, and tragedy soon simmers.
The bouncing psych score. The disturbing imagery. The spookhouse-lite inserts. The boggling stock footage. The Sadist With The Red Teeth throws all of that canned heat together and keeps it that way. Like magic. A random mix of strange camera effects and ambiguous occurences constantly question where the film's own reality sits. Is Daniel really a vampire? Is it all a dream? Do capguns really work just like real ones? That erratic confusion is a fitting set of digs for the weirdo presentation. In turn, the film becomes a low budget, reckless feast; drugstore vampires, hallucinogenic nightmares, and loads of watery stage blood all convene into 75 minutes of unguided spookiness.
Once in awhile, the longer stretches of dialogue had me thinking of my pillow, but that's a given. I don't speak French. International aptitude is so overrated these days.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Better than you'd expect for such an obscure film. The letterboxed print shakes and throbs, but the picture is pretty clear. The colors are washed in blues or nothing at all (faces sometimes appear to be swathed in puke colored make-up). Emulsion scratches make themselves at home. The mono sound was loud and fuzzy. Compression artifacting was not a problem.
EXTRAS
Non.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Sadist With The Red Teeth ran its fingers through my hair and made me spin. I liked it a lot. If you have a few extra bucks and a taste for cheap, experimental weirdness, take a chance.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 05.11.06 | 
Non-sadist with the white teeth
Sweet Jane
Scrapbook fun
Daniel's nap
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