FLESH FOR OLIVIA

Produced by Zoe Moonshing (billed as Cherry Moonshine) Directed and Written by Bill Hellfire Edited by Johnny Crash Director of Photography - Joey Smack Olivia - Misty Mundae Claudio - Dean Paul Melody - A.J. Kahn Alice - Julian Wells Laney - Zoe Moonshine (billed as Cherry Moonshine)

There are moments of Bill Hellfire's FLESH FOR OLIVIA that I could have sworn were taken from other productions. One appears to be LUSTFULL ADDICTION and another looks like it's from ROXANNA. The only purpose I can think of that these scenes would be borrowed would be to add to the disjointed schizophrenic vibe that radiates through this sexual romp as if it were Three Mile Island during the meltdown.

Misty Mundae reprises her role as Olivia, one she previously played in SILK STOCKING STRANGLER, a movie I haven't seen. Unlike other Misty roles, where she seems to play variations of victims, Olivia is a sexual predator who spends all her time seducing and strangling her victims with a....well...silk stocking. The act is both emancipating and effiminizing. Olivia takes this most erotic of feminine lingerie items, which generally lends to a woman's sense of sexual dominance by her ability to stimulate her would-be partners, and she then uses it to snuff the life from her actual same-sex partners.

These acts are all performed in front of a mysterious figure named Claudio, who pays Olivia for these live snuff shows. He appears to have Olivia under his yoke, but the irony is that his voyeuristic tendencies reveal a sexual inadequacy where he can't fulfill his own fantasies. He's forced to watch as Olivia does what he cannot, at once castrating himself and empowering Olivia. By appearing to enjoy the acts, Olivia only reinforces this theory.

It's clear Olivia is a disturbed woman. Which is why I'm left wondering how much of her narration-laden flashback is accurate and how much is distorted by her detached sense of reality. The movie opens with Olivia frantically trying to scrub a stain out of a carpet, reminiscent of the insane Lady MacBeth, and it's then that she reflects on everything that led her to this moment. From her first kill to the woman who could very well be her match, Olivia recounts her days in the snuff trade. Borrowed moments from other titles released by Seduction Cinema appear out of place with their often stylized cinematography contrasting with Hellfire's rudimentary sense of composition. This clash is what immediately gives the movie its uneasy, schizophrenic vibe.

Had the protagonist not been a woman, it would be easy to label OLIVIA misogynist. Outside of the main character, all the women are victims. Ruby LaRocca is a junkie killed by overdose. Katie Jordon and A.J. Kahn are reluctant and weak-willed participants in the sex shows. Julian Wells is the closest the movie comes to a strong female supporting character and her indiscriminate sexual appetite leads her to the receiving end of Olivia's silk knot.

From the few other films I've seen directed by Bill Hellfire, it's apparent that he isn't simply content with making fetish productions, which is how I originally saw his BIZZARE CASE OF THE ELECTRIC CORD STRANGLER, another film where asphyxiation played a key role. As with THE DEVIL'S BLOODY PLAYTHINGS, Hellfire spends the majority of the downtime focusing on the characters rather than just stringing along his exploitation moments. Hellfire is also the sort of director who wears his influences on his sleeve. Where PLAYTHINGS felt like a Polanski film, FLESH FOR OLIVIA feels like a Nick Phillips' production, a thought reinforced by the opening narration that gives a sense of story to the disjointed moments.

FLESH FOR OLIVIA is more typical of the sort of releases that ei Cinema would put out under their Shock-O-Rama line. While the sex is plentiful, the dark edge takes away from any inherent eroticism. Hellfire has a knack for taking gorgeous women, getting them naked, and making them appear unappealing simply by focusing story elements on their psychosis. Of the directors who have released films through ei/Seduction/Shock-O-Rama, Hellfire is by far and away the most subversive.

The dvd release contains only the feature and a vault of previously available trailers. Not a comprehensive package, but you really want to see this one for the movie and not the extras.

www.mistymundae.com
Factory 2000
Seduction Cinema

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