Every few years a film comes along so original, so weird, so disgusting, that our shit-film expert, Gary Ogden, is genuinely impressed. Fans of old men getting naked and flatulent should rejoice now…
The Greasy Strangler: A Fart Odyssey
Once, a friend of mine fell into a barrel of discarded chip fat, and it was genuinely one of the funniest things I’d ever seen – my legs involuntarily gave way and I’m 85% sure I wet myself. It all got a bit less humorous when he went to wash himself off in the river and we all thought he’d drowned, and I ended up sleeping in a nearby station because I missed the last train looking for him, but still. Turned out he’d run home. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, grease is inherently funny.
I also love the word “greasy”, especially when you pronounce it greezy. It can be applied to loads of things – hair, breakfasts, handrails on buses, your creepy uncle’s hand – so when I heard about and watched the trailer for The Greezy Strangler, I was elated. Often, movies don’t live up to their previews – it’s a rare case that I get very excited about a film’s trailer and the end product is up to scratch (obviously I’m not counting John Wick in this, you idiot).
The trailer for The Greasy Strangler is this:
Good luck following that up, I thought. But guess what? Good luck was in abundance because the full length movie followed up spectacularly. Or I should say followed through, because there’s loads of farting and shitting in this movie (one of the reasons it’s so great – there’s not enough of that in modern cinema).
Do you like films about farting and shitting? You’ll probably like this then. It has that, but it also has naked willies, boobs, wobbling arses, strangling, people eating eyeballs, loads and loads of grease, and perhaps most gloriously, a very quick glimpse of a pensioner’s arsehole. Why are we looking at the old man’s anus? Because he is doing a fart.
In case you were wondering, I should probably explain what The Greasy Strangler is about. It is about two blokes – a father and a son – who live in a weird house and run “Disco Tours” which involve them wandering around town, making up stories about landmarks and connecting them to famous funk bands. They do this wearing pink shorts and pink polo necks, which is a fucking great look, if you ask me.
The thing is, the dad is a bit of an oddball, and only eats food absolutely sodden in grease, because he is the Greasy Strangler, you see, and without all the grease, he would just be the strangler, which I think has been done before. To become the Greasy Strangler, he gets naked and coats himself in thick, gloopy slime and bandies about town, strangling people until their eyes pop out. Then he cooks their eyes in grease and eats them. You know, like your dad does.
Aside from that, other things happen, like the son gets a girlfriend, but his dad wants to get in on the action, and starts trying to steal her off him. There’s also a blind man that runs a carwash, whose sole customer appears to be the Greasy Strangler, who uses it as a shower. Then there’s a man called Oinker, who wears a rubber pig nose and makes snorting noises. Amongst all this, there’s an eclectic cast of brief supporting characters, all played by actors who can’t act, although I’m pretty sure this was done on purpose, because it’s funny.
It’s fucking stupid, is The Greasy Strangler, and perhaps annoyingly for some, it’s been completely designed to be exactly this stupid. Luckily, it works because it’s SO mental, and it has a vibe to it that I’ve not encountered before – think a classic John Waters movie, but modern. Or something. The farts, basically – it’s all about the farts. There’s also a scene where two men shout “bullshit artist” to each other for a solid four or five minutes. Doesn’t sound like too long, but actually think about two men shouting “bullshit artist” to each other for four or five minutes. It’s actually quite a hefty length of time. Didn’t stop me laughing though, and it doesn’t get boring, because at one point one of them says “horseshit” instead of “bullshit” – variety is the spice of life.
I can see a lot of people disliking this film immensely – it’s nonsensical (especially the ending, which I loved btw), it’s violent, it’s pretty much explicit in some parts, it assumes the viewer will laugh at fart jokes (correct) and it’s fully, fully vomit-inducing: there’s a bit where a man dips his whole finger into the hole where another man’s nose used to be, then sucks the fluid off it. It made me feel sick at many points, but I like the challenge of not puking in a cinema – luckily I managed to hold it in this time (not always the case – sorry Odeon Wood Green).
However, if you like the sound of all that bollocks, or have ever submerged yourself in a bath full of grease, then you’re going to have a right old laugh, like me. If you’re an avid anti-fart campaigner however, then you’re probably way too mature to indulge in this type of filth, and as such, I’ll invite you along next time one of my mates falls in a barrel of discarded chip fat, because I was a fucking waste of space last time.
It’s in cinemas from 7th October.