Customer Reviews

Night to Dismember [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Doris Wishman's ultra-rare horror flick A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER finally resurfaces after years of out-of-print obscurity. This was her final film and man is it a mess of epic proportions ---- a great mess, though! A woman is released from an asylum and murders start occurring --- is she responsible? God only knows! The ineptitude and incoherency is so intense that your mind will boggle --- a narrator tries to explain everything as the film progresses, but he just makes things even more nonsensical, blurting names left and right and babbling on about past incidents that make no sense whatsoever. He also explains characters' motivations because the actors can't project them themselves. The film appears to have been shot without sound so all the voices were dubbed in later (and they don't match) as well as some dubbed in hilarious sound effects. There's quite a bit of blood and over-the-top gore and nudity, too! Music cuts in and out randomly, editing is primitive, some shots are repeated for "emotional impact" and the whole thing is just a giant mess. And it's one of the best messes ever put on film!

This new DVD from Elite is a welcome and very unexpected release --- but there was no hype, no promotion, no nuthin'. Come on, Elite, there should have been TV commercials and headline stories touting this DVD's release! Oh well. The poor film suffered the same fate on it's very rare VHS release years ago from MPI which probably only sold 10 copies. Anyway, how's the disc? Well, the film is presented letterboxed, but it appears to be faux widescreen (as Elite does on their Drive-in discs) and just mattes part of the image out for no reason except to be "widescreen". While some of it looks well-composed this way, other parts seem pretty tight (especially in the close-up gore scenes). Overall, still a very decent presentation and not something to get too upset about. There's a "trailer" which is really the original 'promo reel' used to sell the picture and contains some alternate and unused footage with different actors and a stupid on-screen narrator. It's not in the best of shape, but is interesting nonetheless. Best of all is a fun commentary track by Doris herself (!!!) and her cinematographer C. Davis Smith. Doris and "Chuck" have worked together and known each other for years so they rag on each other a lot. Doris keeps yelling at Chuck and Chuck keeps making fun of and spewing derisive comments about the film. It's all in "fun" and the two have a good time together. And it's great to hear Doris talk about her trademark elements such as the "walking feet" shots --- she shoots those just so that the editor will have something to use between shots if necessary. Wow! Doris also mentions that she would make another film if she could raise the dough --- please someone give this woman some MONEY!!!!!

My fave Doris Wishman films are Nudes on the Moon and Deadly Weapons. She's a tough New Yorker who loves to make movies and starting in the early 1960's she scraped a few dollars together, went into a nudist colony and started making movies. She's an extremely prolific film-maker of dozens of no-budget absolutely awful movies that a lot of us absolutely love. She's the exploitation queen and she wisely came up with some of the cleverest innovative ideas to make movies cheap cheap cheap. Over the years she improved as a film-maker.

Doris' Night to Dismember was barely released in 1983 and then had a quiet video release and disappeared. It's a gory horror film and Doris doesn't particularly like horror films. The movie once upon a time probably made sense but 40 to 60 percent of the original negative was destroyed by a film-lab technician who was upset the company was going under and he was losing his job. He didn't have a beef with Wishman but her film got partially destroyed. So using alternate takes and some stock footage, Doris took over eight months reconstructing the film as best she could.

The result is an incomprehensible mess of a gory horror film that features former porn star (not the singer) Samantha Fox in her first (and only) legitimate starring role.

The film has some pretty effective low budget gore effects. In fact the film is very very gory with lots of axe murders. You get some of Doris' trademarks but not quite as many as with other films. While you get the occassional strange insert shot, there's not the long shots of ashtrays to cover up mistakes or allow for the dubbed actors to finish a line that are part of some of her other films. You will see a small staircase used several times in a row as if it was a much longer stair-case and you will see lots of shots of feet, and several repeat close-ups.

The film was shot European style aka without sound and all dialogue music and effects were dubbed later. Actually the dubbing was done pretty well (for a Doris W. film anyway).

What makes this DVD a real keeper though is the commentary with Doris and the cameraman who made 17 films with her throughout the 60's, 70's and early 1980's. Doris and her camereman tease and insult each other and in between talk a little bit about this and some other films Doris has made.

If you're a Wishman fan buy this... if you aren't, be sure to rent it before buying it but I suspect if you're a fan of Ed Wood, Ray Dennis Steckler, Phil Tucker or Ron Ormond films you'll want to have a few Wishman films in your collection as well.

Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.

This is one of the last films made by the late great Doris Wishman and it is probablly the most technically inept of all of her films. No one truly expects to see stunning cinematography from a Doris Wishman flick but the choppiness of this movie almost made me seasick! Doris explains, in the director's commentary on the disc, that this film was made entirely from out takes and footage from some of her previous films due to the fact that the original negatives were destroyed. There is little to no actual dialogue in this movie other than that of the narrator and, as is typical in a Wishman film, we see many shots of the sky, feet and other inanimate objects.
The commentary track on this DVD is PRICELESS. It is a rare occassion to actually hear Doris Wishman comment on her films but when you throw in "Chuck" (the man who operated the camera for 17 of Wishman's films) it makes for a highly entertaining segment. Doris hurls insults at Chuck left and right and he plays the "Dummy" very well. At first, the viewer might be thrown off by this and might perceive Doris as a real Witch with a capital B but after awhile you come to realize that this is all a game and that their entire relationship is based on teasing each other. I would recommend watching the movie with the commentary track on first in order to find out if the movie is truly your cup of tea or not. If nothing else, you'll hear some very entertaining one liners from the Queen of Exploitation and her trusty sidekick.

I must have some kind of death wish to sit through Doris Wishman's "A Night To Dismember"...very rarely have I used the term "unwatchable" and meant it, but in this case it's absolutely true.

Where to begin? Wishman seems to have wanted to cook up some convoluted slasher-horror movie about insane girl released back into the care of her family only for mysterious killings to begin again. But what she ended up presenting was a muddled mess of catastrophic proportions, even by her standards. Apparently much of the footage shot was lost in a fire, so when the film was edited, large chunks were missing and lots of out-takes had to be substituted. Well, it sure does show.

Watching the movie proves to be a fractured, almost hallucinatory experience. Not a single shot has any location-sourced or ambient sound, all the soundtrack is made up of music, over-dubbed dialogue/narration, and slapped on sound effects. It's like watching a silent movie that has been given a hasty "make-do" soundtrack by someone else. In fact it's like watching a film with the sound off, in a room full of improv actors who are making up the lines as they go along, and bashing pots together to try and make matching sounds to go with the on-screen action. Then again, very few of the lines are actually spoken by the characters. A narration goes on for the entire length of the movie, explaining everything that is happening - however due to the incoherent nature of the film it's the ONLY way of understanding what's happening! And the music! Oh dear...Every type of stock music is laid on with a trowel, from lounge jazz to rock to gothic chimes, and none of it EVER matches the mood of the onscreen action. Maybe Wishman just threw whatever she had handy onto the turntable. And if this wasn't bad enough, the film jumps, cuts, jumps ,and jumps again, in fact every few minutes there is an abrupt change of music or lines of dialogue are abruptly cut off. And I do mean EVERY few minutes. Actually there are a few scenes when the music switches styles every 2 or 3 seconds.

There's all the usual Wishman madness such as shots of feet, hideous interior décor, backs of people's heads, someone moving position and the camera not realising they aren't even in shot any more, etc, etc. In a new level of excitement, we get close ups of people lifting slices of cheese off a dinner plate. Some scenes look as though they were shot twice or even three times - and all the shots are included in the film, so its like some horrible demonic rewind button that forces you to see everything multiple times. Oh and before I forget to mention it, about 30-40 percent of the movie is out of focus.

Ok ok, I know there are some Doris Wishman fans out there who find this all part of her peculiar charm. The only other movies I have seen by her are the two Chesty Morgan films, and both of these are hilarious and highly recommended to any bad cinema junkie. So I do see the appeal of her unique style. But watching "A Night To Dismember" was nothing more than a trial. By the time I had reached the 15 minute mark I had had more than I could stand, but by some sheer force of will I managed to sit through the whole thing. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT try this at home. Utterly, utterly, mind-blowingly bad.

An easily one of my favorite movies of all time. A member of the elite top ten if ever there is one.

People who say this movie is "bad" just don't get it. Believe me, it doesn't take a genius to realize that there are so many things wrong with this film there wouldn't be time in a capsule review such as this to list them. This film is indeed broken, by the fractured bits create something magic, something so entertaining, that the film deserves kudos, even if it's all by mistake.

I laugh every time I see this. It's just perfect in its imperfection.

So for those full of hate - please stop taking things so seriously. Lighten up, chill out, and let this film wash over you. It's glorious, terrible and wonderful at the very same time. THIS is cinema. Pure entertainment.

Rarely does a film change direction so rapidly that I wonder if I didn't doze off for a few minutes and miss some imporant plot points. Every ten minutes. Well, Mesa of Lost Women, sure, and Rat Pfink a Boo Boo to an extent, but, boy, "A Night to Dismember" tops em both hands down. Allegedly, the 'all over the place' nature of the story is due to the substantial portion of the negative being lost, although the cameraman, Chuck Smith, claims he has almost all of what director Doris Wishman said was destroyed.

The plot (if it can be called such) involves a woman (porn starlet Samantha Fox), recently sprung from a padded room, envisioning the bloody murder of her family, who live in a house where another woman slaughtered her own parents. At least I think so. All the Wishman trademarks are present and accounted for: kung-fuesque dubbing of off screen talking, feet shots, and so on. This is the only horror film Doris ever made, and she admirably tries to out Hersh the Hersh with decapitations, blood spurting stumps, a needle through the neck, a heart pulled from it's owner's chest, chopped fingers, bodies in the fridge, more fun with heads being crushed by cars or waved around the room by the handle of an axe or even set on fire. She doesn't have the panache of Mr. Lewis, nor his drive to attempt verisimilitude, but God love her, she tries like heck. Let's see you do better.

I may be wrong, but "A Night to Dismember" seems to be the only commentary Doris recorded before she passed away several years ago. It's a riot, with Wishman and cohort Smith jabbing each other playfully for 69 minutes of comedic gold. There's plenty of great dirt about "ANTD", such as how Doris basically got the money to make the film by selling a distributor on a quickly assembled trailer. Not so unusual, as many exploiteers will tell you they sold pictures based on only a poster, a few shots, or even a title! She also tells a funny story about Chesty Morgan holding up filming on "Deadly Weapons" to rush out to a bra sale!

An added promotional reel does a good job selling the film, hitting all of the gory highlights coupled with outtakes. Not positive wether this is the trailer Wishman used to obtain financing, or something slapped together for the later video release. In either case, the quality is awful, apparently ported off a worn VHS tape complete with glitches and tracking lines. Does enhance the power of the effects by obscuring them, and reminds kids what independant horror movies looked like for those of us who grew up renting them from sleazy, non-corporate video stores.

Honestly, "A Night to Dismember" is a convoluted mess, but who cares. The audio commentary is the selling point...just see the blurb splashed across the cover. I can definitely recommend this disc to any fan of not only Doris, but of psychotronic low budget films in general. Keep an eye out for the extended cut Chuck Smith has promised is not only forthcoming, but makes a thousand percent more sense than this version.

Let me just tell you this without boring you with the stupid plot. This is a perfect example of everything that could possibly be wrong in a movie. If you like incoherent storytelling, a lot of shots of people feet, and dubbing not far off from an 70's Kung-Fu film then feel free to subject yourself to this [...]. If I could possibly give this film less than one star I would.

I knew I wasn't expecting much from this movie after reading some of the reviews,but it was far worse than I thought.The narrator was annoying,as was the commentary.It wasn't even good bad,like Plan 9 or Bride of the Monster or The Astounding She-Monster.When I had it on the commentary and the guy was saying here's a good scene or this is really good,I was thinking,You have no idea what you're talking about,do you??? If any of you out there like bad movies,either rent this or stay away completely.You won't find much cheap entertainment here..I'd rather watch Monster A Go-Go instead...

this is not samantha fox the british pop singer or famous page 3 girl this is just some ex fading porn star so sam fox fans make sure that you check out the real sam fox movies
of which i know of only two one was about a football team in england where she plays a bartender and a bollywood flick from india im sooooo gald i researched these movies before i purchased them
Amazon should really review there search options to allow for 2 people with the same name

though i have heard that this samantha fox was taken to court by sam fox and is no longer allowed to use her almost trademark name

not much to say except this movie is just plain laughable! especially for a 1983? if this movie is from 1983 then thats just plain pathetic. guess it's one of those movies that you can get a group of friends together with to watch it and basically laugh about how bad it is but thats about it. think you'll wonder why you chose this movie after you watched it. i know i did