In 1966 Richard Speck had himself quite a killing spree, 8 nurses in a row with the excuse that it just wasn't their night. In tasteful and proper fashion this unsettling exploitation riff came just a year later, brought to us in inimitable early pinku style by the great Koji Wakamatsu. Ill advised nurses find a watcher outside their boarding house and invite him in to spy upon their companions lesbian passion not realising that the guy is totally unimpressed by lesbianism (or indeed women in general) and soon come to realise their mistake. Established by an opening montage of breasts, eyes and dead smiles the audience can see that Boy (as he is solely called) feels nothing for the female form but little prepares for his murderous tendencies, nor the clammy, helpless horror of the piece. Trapped within their house, isolated by the constant howl of wind and sea, made helpless by their massed, selfless desire to survive, to not ruffle their captor lest any action lead to another death, their numbers fall despite their righteousness and its harsh to watch despite the relative lack of graphic material, the sheer unfeeling menace is all that counts. Juro Kara is grimly effective as Boy, plagued by visions of mockery yet without any self knowledge, a disturbing blank savage and well backed up by the various actresses, characterised simply as Nurse A, B, etc. with one pulling off a particularly potent moment as she desperately tries to reason through the situation. The shooting is generally static, lots of long shots and very little dynamism, conveying an effective hopeless claustrophobia that works well with the performances, all contributes to a locked in fatalistic ambiance that is just perfect. It all feels cold and sincerely misanthropic if not naturalistic (those apt to pointlessly pick holes will likely have a field day), committed to its dark vision, this definitely aided by the stark black and white cinematography, a very much dead and gone palate all the more effective for being spiked by a couple of splashes of lurid colour to show us the bloody extent of what we have seen. There isn't much depth to this one and the ending does spin things out into pretentious territory by aiming for broader social significance but the bulk of the film is as good a study in focused misogyny as I've seen in a while and it has nudity to boot which is a definite plus. On the whole a definite good 'un with two or three stand-out scenes, not for the casual viewer but a thumbs up from me.
Review of Violated Angels
