Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Steineded How sad is this?

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Aaron1375 I saw this film as an episode of Mystery Science theater 3000 as I am sure 75 percent or more people have. This Ed Wood film was not like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Glen and Glenda, this one is a bit less known. To be honest, I only thought he did the two movies! That is not the case as he has apparently made a whole lot of films and most of them are pretty bad to say the least. Though I always find it strange that the gang from the satellite of love riffed so many of his films, but never did riff Plan 9 From Outer Space. My only guess as to why not is that one would be too easy. This film is one of his films looking at crime and such which seems to be one of his favorite type films along with horror. This one he literally seems to attack the pornography industry frequently using his police characters to condemn it and such and I kind of find this ironic in that one of the last films he did was Necromania which is at least a soft core porno itself.The story in this one has gruesome murders in a park and it all somehow ties into the local adult film industry. The police are trying their best to not only solve the murders, but to destroy the adult film industry responsible for the crimes. Which is a stretch to say the least as the killer in this one sees a picture then goes to kill the female. I do not know, I have never had the urge to kill someone based on seeing a naughty picture. I mean, if the guy had a wife would he kill her if she got naked? So the whole concept of the film is preachy and though the film is centered around the adult film industry there is very little skin being shown. The shoots they do show has a person filming random girls in poses. Pretty sure that would be just as effective using a camera.This made for a pretty funny episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as most of the Ed Wood films do. The film is preceded by yet another hygiene short as they seemed to do a lot of those as they apparently made a lot of those back in the day. I also enjoyed watching Frank go crazy and try to blow up Deep 13 because he watched to many movies featuring explosions! All in all a rather good episode of the show, but Ed Wood films give the gang a lot to work with! So this film pretty much tries to stress to the viewer that porn is bad and that it is responsible for all crime in the known universe. Pretty much like people who claim drugs are all bad while they drink a cocktail, just someone trying to jump on a bandwagon of waving their finger and trying to feel they are doing some good. Then later they make a film that is basically what they are condemning. Ed Wood and his films are a bad lot, but for my money, Coleman Francis is a lot worse!

bensonmum2 Even by Ed Wood's standards, The Sinister Urge is a miserable movie. Everything you would expect to find in an Ed Wood film is here – a ridiculous plot, bad acting, stilted dialogue, poor editing, and bad set design. Most of the "action" takes place behind a desk on an all but barren set as two policemen drone on an on about nothing. There's one scene that must be seen to be believed involving a "taxpayer" who shows up to demand to know what the police are doing. They give Mr. Taxpayer a good lecture about the dangers of pornography and how it leads to all sorts of other crimes including murder, kidnapping, jay-walking, terrorism, and ripping tags off mattresses. It's a hoot!But as I've said before when discussing Ed Wood's movies, even with all the problems, there's a love for the art form that you can see just under the surface. Ed Wood wasn't the most gifted filmmaker and he often worked in less than stellar conditions, but there's no denying his love of movies. He just didn't have the wherewithal to make a "good" one.

thepringlegame its true, this film is one of the worst i have seen yet that Ed Wood did. i will never get that hour and 11min back. once again there was the on going repetition of police, baddies, women in distress, cross dressing and insightful wisdom from our elders. however, the stock fotage was minimal so big up. i am beginning to realise that once you've seen one Ed Wood film, you have as good as seen the rest. it makes me wonder why people who knock his films continue to hunt down new ones. it makes me wonder why i still watch them. i think Ed Wood was a man who lived, made films, lived his life happily and then died probably happy despite being an alcohlic and penniless. to be honest i don't think he cares anymore, why should we?

madsagittarian What a night. The stuff of which legends are made.In 1995 in beautiful downtown Toronto, when Tim Burton's mighty biopic ED WOOD went into second-run, one of our rep cinemas had a never-to-be-forgotten quadruple bill of films by everyone's favourite cross-dressing auteur. JAIL BAIT, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS preceded this, the final programme of the evening, and perhaps Ed Wood's final masterpiece (well, for his "legit" non-porn movies anyway). From the expected pimply nerdy geeks to one dignified old gentleman who said that they SHOULD have given Mr. Wood a star in front of Grauman's, this, the least seen of all of Wood's pictures from his "classical" period, was a real crowd pleaser.THE SINISTER URGE is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in the films of this precious Gonzo genius, or, like myself, who have a strange attraction to works made by people who eke out an existence way way way in the back alleys of Tinseltown. This riotous "expose" is classic Edward D.: long scenes which don't go anywhere (including an extract from his uncompleted JD epic- HELLBORN), priceless dialogue which waxes profundity about everything and nothing, and a strange attempt at morality while also delivering whatever exploitation elements that unsuspecting people paid to see. My favourite bits include: 1) the long scene where the two hardworking cops out to bust the porn ring must explain to an anonymous taxpayer who comes to the station, and tell him exactly why they are spending his hard-earned tax dollars on such a seemingly trivial matter; this scene wouldn't even pass the green light in a pre-production meeting for an educational film, however with typically Woodian panache, the taxpayer leaves afterwards shaking his head in amazement over the great public service these man are performing. Once again, within his ridiculous subplots, Wood slyly inserts bits where you realize how subversive his scenarios really are. The ever-critical writer-director is simultaneously praising and damning these intrepid cops for a seemingly superfluous service-- remember, only two years later the US government spent a huge wad of the taxpayers' money to decipher the lyrics to "Louie Louie" because the song was considered to be corrupting the minds of impressionable youngsters.2) the director's cameo appearance; since one of the main subplots concerns some knife-wielding loony who attacks women in the park (apparently looking at semi-clad girls in magazines drove him to his social deviance), the two cops talk about sending an undercover male officer in drag to the park and foil the psychotic pervert (right here, the audience knowingly began to applaud), and in the next scene, there is Mr. Wood in a dress and mop wig trying to ferret out the guy in the park. A cameo appearance to save some money instead of hiring another bit player? In most likelihood, a good excuse for the eccentric auteur to insert his personal baggage-- a Brechtian cry for identity.3) a bizarre climax, featuring a decapitated head in someone's bushes!Man, they sure don't make them like this anymore. Seeing THE SINISTER URGE is like a breath of fresh air. As much as PLAN 9, GLEN OR GLENDA and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER are important works of this pioneering independent filmmaker, the stories about their creation, and their dialogue is cited so often that perhaps they no longer seem new. It is great to see this, and also JAIL BAIT, and appreciate the charms that even his under-hyped works have.