Review

One of the oddest, most fucked-up, controversial and original releases of the year, Bruce LaBruce's L.A. Zombie is determined to get tongues wagging one way or the other. Superstar François Sagat plays an alien zombie... or a homeless man suffering from deep schizophrenia. It's never made quite clear, but in some ways that's the point. It received quite a bit of notoriety earlier this year when the edited film festival version (this version contains all the hardcore sex) was slapped with an "Oi! Fuck, no!" from the Australian Classification Board, thus denying its previously booked screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival. (The film screened in Locarno without a problem; I guess the Swiss and Italians are more open-minded regarding black semen and orifice fucking.)

LaBruce has always been a bit of a lightning rod when it comes to making films to satisfy the masses. In short, he doesn't. And that's what we love about him. (See our post-script below.) Sagat spends most of his time roaming the harsh streets of Los Angeles, looking for the newly-dead to fuck with his massive alien cock and bring them back to life. The cast is peppered with some of today's biggest porn stars in roles you're not likely to see them in ever again. There's a gloomy nighttime scene in which Rocco Giovanni ends up a car accident victim getting his gaping wound prodded. Tim Kuzma and Wolf Hudson appear as Reservoir Dog-suited baddies coming to gun blows over a deal gone wrong. Shot in the L.A. Riverbed, Hudson ends up getting it from Sagat on a blood-soaked mattress. (Seeing Sagat actually bathe himself in the filthy water made me squirm more than anything else in the film.) The "homeless hook-up" in grimy cardboard boxes and Eddie Diaz' head-wound fuck show some of the best sex, but my favorite scene is probably the one I've dubbed the "porn star massacre," in which Adam Killian, Erik Rhodes, Francesco D'Macho and Matthew Rush fall prey to two thugs in a hail of gunfire that has some of the most over-the-top bloodletting this side of Naomi Campbell's time-of-the-month. (Check out the shot of Killian's face in our image gallery - fabulous!) The sex is well done and the guys look great in their leather gear, too. That's one slippery foursome I'd gladly join.

There's nary a word of dialogue spoken in the film, save from some mutterings from repertory player model/actor Tony Ward and "Project Runway" designer Santino Rice, along with the two gunmen who massacre half the cast. The soundtrack propels along with takes on classical, thrash metal punk, and a moody electronic score. Shot digitally, the film is very dark at times and colors are a bit muted. However, the opening sequence in which Sagat rises from the ocean and the rapid-fire nightmarish "zombie cam" footage are a thrill. The make-up runs the gamut from cheesy (a few daytime shots of Sagat in zombie mode) to Fangoria-riffic (the wounds viscera and the black-semen spurting). I have a feeling the film looks much better here on disc than it did at any festival screening.

But L.A. Zombie is really a showcase for Mr. Sagat, whose face actually conveys quite a bit of emotion, to the point of it almost being heartbreaking. (The scene in the coffee-shop where he merely stumbles around before sitting looks fantastic.) I'm not sure this is the break-out role he needs to further his non-porn career, but his mere presence - as anyone whose ever met him or seen him on-screen can attest to - is undeniably great.

The extras included were quite nice to see as well. There's a standard photo gallery, normally useless to me but there are some great still shots to be seen. A short interview with LaBruce adds some insight into his way of working. There's also a short piece on special effects guru Joe Castro who created the film's ghoulish and bloody looks. But my favorite extras are the eight behind-the-scenes clips included on the disc. Containing interviews and on-camera quips from most of the cast and crew, these were actually very entertaining, with my favorite being clip six in which the crew try to get a signature release from an uncooperative (and clearly out of it) woman during the nighttime coffee shop scene. Apparently her name is Teresa North, and not only is she a shark attack survivor and had a friend that was hit by a Mack truck, she also claims she's shrinking and no longer wears heels. Her questioning of the in-character and costumed Sagat about "where does she know him from" and his subsequent response was fucking hilarious.

There's no question that L.A. Zombie is going to divide audiences - you're either going to find it completely fascinating and sick-as-shit fun (everyone I've shown it to thinks it's a blast) or you're going to hate it (as Variety did) and want to pluck out your eyeballs. I watched the film several times. The first time I was like "WTF?" and wasn't quite sure I "got it." Upon a second viewing however, I found it a very interesting experiment; I think the term "art porn" sums it up best. Now before you start rolling your eyes, isn't it better to give something new and different a chance before dismissing it outright? Sure, if you don't know LaBruce's work and aren't open to it, you'll find the film a crashing and/or laughable bore. That would be a shame because although L.A. Zombie is not the director's best, I found it a bent, erotic, occasionally nauseating, and even melancholy trip I'm glad I took.

 -- Keeneye Reeves

Additional notes about the director: Director LaBruce's films, while explicitly gay and containing hardcore sex at times, are not "porns" in the traditional sense. His films are story-driven features. LaBruce is best known in the U.S. for Hustler White, his sexy and sleazy docudrama on Sunset Strip male hustlers. Starring Madonna's hunky ex-boy piece Tony Ward and several real-life porn stars, it features one of the crudest on-camera fucks in non-porn history - an amputee plunges his stump of a leg into the gaping (and willing) asshole of his partner. His other films include No Skin off My Ass, in which the director falls for a baby-faced skinhead, and the mockumentary Super 8½: Director's Cut. LaBruce directed his first outwardly explicit hardcore porn, called Skin Gang, for All Worlds Video and Cazzo Film. It certainly fits the bill as both a hardcore porn and (per usual for the director) a truly controversial avante garde film. While his works are definitely not for everyone, adventurous filmgoers will find themselves in for a (nasty and delicious) treat.

 -- Erik Schut

From the press notes:
"From acclaimed and controversial director Bruce LaBruce comes L.A. Zombie Hardcore. A lone hulking creature - international adult star and model François Sagat - emerges from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Possessing the ability to reanimate the dead through depraved acts of man-sex, the creature prowls the streets of Los Angeles looking for corpses to gorge his sexual thirst. He came to fuck the dead back to life. A critically acclaimed movie on the film festival circuit, L.A. Zombie is cinematic, erotic, and pushes the envelope of art, porn, and the zombie-horror genre. This Hardcore Director's Cut contains the entire unedited adult film as the creators originally intended to be shown."