La Dernière Victime

Let's see, we got veteran UK filmmaker, Michael Winner, at the helm. A soundtrack by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones featuring Jimmy Page and Jon Anderson from Yes, and a script from noted Hollywood fear-meister Tom Holland. What could go wrong? Pretty much everything and gloriously so! I love watching this film because I can never tell if it was made to be a melodramatic satire or just a melodramatic failure. I'm leaning toward failed art. The bad acting is spread across the board but led by the entirely incapable Rachael Kelly, sporting around the screen in a variety of unflattering '80s era outfits. Ms. Kelly never once allows the viewer to lose themselves in the proceedings with her near constant histrionics. No wonder her step-father is trying to kill her! The absurd soundtrack is so over-the-top and out of place that I'm convinced that the producers threw out Jones' original score and substituted cheesy stock tracks instead. There is nothing but camp and unintentional guffawing to be had here...and that's ok. Sometimes you need a movie to riff on with your buddies like MST3K, and Scream for Help (which never received a proper release in the US) is there to help. Nice to see a new blu-ray edition on the market.