Review by Dan Taylor
Since the early days of ER my love of Eurotrash – more than my appreciation for any other genre – has grown by leaps and bounds. Back in the mid-80s my interest in the genre was primarily defined by the Spaghetti splatter of Fulci and the cannibal mayhem of Deodato, perhaps sprinkled with a dash of Aregnto-esque giallo. Since the turn of the century – largely influenced by pals like David Zuzelo and Bruce Holecheck at the European Trash Paradise – I've spent more time watching Spaghetti westerns, Eurospy flicks, Spanish monster mash-ups and sicko sleazefests than I can track.
Barely known to me as recently as a dozen years ago, names like Corbucci and Blanc, Rassimov and Fenech, Hilton, Klimovsky, Milan, Naschy, D'Amato and De Ossorio are as likely to enter my daily conversation as my daughter's endless questioning about the details of my latest dinner.
Which made me appreciate AMY'S IN THE ATTIC – Matthew Saliba's sleazy, sinister short – all the more.
There's a fine line between homage and parody, and Saliba – who wrote, directed and co-stars in the 20-minute flick – treads it masterfully. The flick is filled with nods (subtle and otherwise) to all manner of Eurotrash, from the prominently-placed J&B bottle on the bar and the reddish, washed-out hue of the film stock to the scratches, missing frames and the way certain lines of dialogue are left in Italian (with English subs) due to missing elements. Even the flick's "original" Italian title – COSA AVETE FATTO A AMY?–- references one of the genre's most regarded flicks.
But without a story to hang them on, all these genre trappings would add up to little more than a clever riff (or, worse, parody) that makes you laugh at the tale rather than suck you in to the game on display. Luckily, there's no chance of that as Saliba and his fearless cast push the envelope into as much perverse sleazery as you can get away with in a 20-minute short.
Gathering at the pad of the dapper Alucard (Saliba, whose wide-eyed deviltry suggests a sinister Bruce Campbell), couples Barbara (Lisa Di Capa) and Shawn (Matt Lacas), Mitch (Sebastian Fournier) and Suzy (Chastity Castro) find themselves in a sex game with the willing Amy (Kayden Rose) at its core. Egged on by Alucard, Amy is stripped, whipped, painted in blackface (!) and worse as the quartet's darkest fantasies bubble up to the surface. Pretty soon they realize that they've pushed the game past its limits...
Unfortunately, Saliba's short ends there, just as your mind takes the tale in seventeen different directions. Watching the cast (some great, some just okay) you can't help but imagine this as the opening to some long-forgotten slice of imported sleaze starring George Hilton, Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov and Erica Blanc as poor, doomed (?) Amy.
On the other hand, Saliba reports that the short garnered enough interest to warrant spinning the tale into a feature-length story and – fingers crossed – we'll find out just what they have done to Amy.
Look for a chat with Saliba in our upcoming ER: The Revenge of Print Edition, available this fall.
