The Unhinged, Subversively Gay 1975 Spanish Film- The Killer Of Dolls

            Thank God for Blu-ray/DVD company Mondo Macabro, continuously unearthing crackpot films from around the world. Well, they’ve come up with a lulu this time- on October 22 they are releasing a Blu-ray of a rare 1975 Spanish film- The Killer Of Dolls directed by Michael Skaife with a truly unhinged, unforgettable lead performance by David Rocha.

            The movie is about the twisted inner world of androgynous psychopath Paul (David Rocha), who lives with his parents who are groundskeepers of an incredible Antoni Gaudi-designed park in Barcelona. (Typical of the Franco censorship at the time the film had to be set in “Montpellier” France because the censors couldn’t have a psycho killer in Spain. Even the names are changed to less Spanish-sounding monikers).

Paul has just been kicked out of medical school because of his aversion to blood, but delights in surgery experiments on a batch of dolls he has hanging in his “playroom.” Paul bonds with a chubby looking boy who comes to the park daily with his Grandfather who enjoys smashing dolls and setting things on fire. Paul connects with the bratty kid’s anarchy and rage. Part of Paul’s aberrant behavior stems from the fact that when he was a child his mother, grieving over the death of a daughter, dressed Paul like a girl and made him play with dolls.

Oh, did I forget to mention there’s a series of murders occurring to women who sneak into the park after dark with their boyfriends? A mysterious figure wearing a doll mask and a woman’s wig is doing the stabbing and dissecting.

Living in the park is the wealthy Countess Olivia (Helga Line). Paul brings her cut flowers and she invites him to spend the night at her house intent on seducing him, but he locks his bedroom door as she angrily bangs on it while he prances around the room in his underwear. Paul decides he wants to lose his virginity with the Countess’s young daughter Audrey (Inma de Santis) instead. The husband of the Countess shows up later in the film clutching a fluffy little dog and asks the servant to get him a “date” with Paul, to which the servant responds that Paul is his wife’s lover and his daughter’s boyfriend. “How annoying,” replies the fey father.

Paul is usually seen in and out of his clothes or in the buff. Even walking in the park his shirt usually pops completely open eventually to reveal his chest. He struts around in his underwear and is repeated shown stark naked, orgasmically writhing around in the shower. It happens so often that it becomes jarring.

Very little is known about the director- Michael Skaife, even in films about Spanish genre films. He was an actor, and did an earlier horror film- Necrophagus, that won an award at the Sitges festival (the fact of which caused a scandal). The director does appear in the beginning of the film tearing dolls apart and introducing the film. Included on the Blu-ray is a fascinating two-part interview with the affable film historian Dr. Antonio Lazaro-Reboll– the first part is on Spanish Horror in general and the second part more about The Killer Of Dolls. The film is an “anomaly” according to Professor Lazaro-Reboll– there are elements of the Italian “giallo” but it also has musical numbers, copious male nudity, dream sequences and other bizarre underpinnings. The plot never moves logically and things just happen that are so jaw-dropping and whacked-out you never know what the hell you’re watching.  The Professor compares the movie to Eloy de la Iglesia films like Apartment On The 13^th Floor (1972) which has an overall gay sensibility. And the 1961 film Diferente, a strange film about a gay dancer- with all this surreal and excessive weirdness that occurs in The Killer Of Dolls. There’s a great new interview with actor David Rocha also on this Blu-ray discussing the making of the film.

            Shot in “Gevacolor”- a weirdly heightened saturated color scheme that the Indian film industry primarily used. The acting too is also heightened- Rocha is so intense and over-the-top it pushes the film in an almost an avant-garde direction. There’s lots of gay subtext too- one scene was shot in what was a popular gay cruising park- not to mention lots of other subversive elements interjected that flew over the heads of critics at the time who were just plain perplexed by the film. Rocha’s real-life sister Lupe plays Paul’s alter-ego who enjoys taunting him in mirrors. Rocha’s handsome model brother pops up as a hippie in the park investigated by the police.

            Sadly, the film was never imported out of Spain. One can wonder what the director’s career might have been if audiences in France, London or America had been able to turn on to it at the time it was made. Duped bootlegs have been circulating for years but this print is gorgeous (even with the opening declaimer about the iffy film elements).

Now here’s your chance to see one of the most bizarre, transgressive films you’ve never heard of.