JANUA-RAY: FACE OF EVIL (2003) **

I didn’t realize that Severin’s Ray Dennis Steckler box set had two of his (never finished?) cobbled together short films, Face of Evil and Slashed… hiding in the Bonus Features section.  I wasn’t going to review them initially because they’re only a half-hour long, so they aren't really a feature-length movie.  I eventually changed my mind due to the fact that so many of his pornos were only in the forty-to-fifty-minute range and I counted them as “real” movies.  (Never mind that I just watched Scream of the Blind Dead, which was only thirty-nine minutes long.)  After all, the purpose of this month-long salute to Steckler was to be as much of a completist as I possibly could (which is why I subjected myself to both Blood Shack AND The Chooper).  So, why the Hell not?

A greasy guy (Will Long) drives around LA and watches Carolyn Brandt water her lawn.  Meanwhile, long scenes from Steckler’s Red Heat play out and the editing (unconvincingly) tries to make it look like Long is peeping in on the characters from the film.  He then goes off and strangles a few women until, in true Steckler fashion, his fate is sealed in the most inane way imaginable.

Face of Evil was presented under the “Lost Films Productions” banner, which I think means Steckler released a handful of copies of it on video.  The quality is like fourth generation video, which makes everything grungy, almost like a snuff movie, which is a positive.  It’s all shot silently, and the music, which sounds alternately like incidental music from a porno, a New Age meditation CD, and a sitcom, never once fits the action, which is amusing.  

Apparently, Steckler started filming scenes of Long for a movie, but when he unexpectedly died, Ray was stuck with about ten minutes of footage he had no real use for.  Ever the thriftster, he cobbled it together with some (non-porno) scenes from his XXX flicks Red Heat and Sex Rink.  If you’ve seen Red Heat (or Sex Rink, I suppose), there’s really no reason to watch this as much of the best footage comes from that flick.  However, if you’re a big Steckler nerd and you have a half-hour to kill, there are worse ways to spend your time.  

There are a few Steckler signatures to speak of.  It was shot silently, there’s plenty of scenes of Hollywood, the completely random ending, and of course, the strangling women motif.  Of Steckler’s Stock Players, we have Long from Nazi Brothel (among others), and of course, Carolyn Brandt.  Lovie Goldmine and numerous others who are visible in the footage from Red Heat and Sex Rink also appear.