Sunday, December 22, 2024

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: MANIA (1971) *** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

Suzanne (Penny King) is the latest addition to the home for wayward girls run by the “harsh disciplinarian” Ms. Wellington (Orita de Chadwick from Scorpion).  As soon as she arrives, a killer wearing black gloves begins picking off the girls one by one.  Could it be the creepy gardener?  Or perhaps it’s Ms. Wellington’s oddball son?

Mania is more concerned with the fucking than it is with the reveal of the killer.  Since the fucking is uniformly steamy from top to bottom, I’d say that’s a fair trade.  The first sex scene is an interracial coupling.  And by that, I mean it’s a lesbian scene featuring black and Asian actresses.  You don’t see that kind of combo very often in porn, even now.  So, for the film to start off with such a niche coupling already kind of bumps it up a notch in my book.  As a bonus, there are more “traditional” interracial pairings later in the film.  In fact, one lucky actor gets to bang a white, black, AND Asian gal throughout the movie.  I believe that’s called “hitting for the cycle”.

We also get a pretty hot incest scene involving Ms. Wellington and her son.  So, if you are into the big “I n’ I” (interracial and incest), you can probably add an extra Half Star to the movie’s rating.   There’s even a great scene where we witness Ms. Wellington’s disciplinarian skills firsthand when she spanks (and then seduces) a naughty schoolgirl.  Man, this one has something for everybody! 

That’s not even including the music (which features a non-sanctioned cover of The Eagles’ “Witchy Woman” and a Muzak version of “California Dreaming”) or the murder scenes, which are not bad, even if they are kind of brief.  The twist ending is kind of… uh… twisted too.  I just wish they showed the big reveal instead of having the characters only talk about it.  Oh well, that’s a relatively minor complaint to make about a minor classic of XXX horror. 

AKA:  School for Dead Girls.

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