Overview: A serial rapist relishes his attacks on women, but are they only fantasy, real though they may seem? A debauched classic of the roughie genre, complete with S&M fantasies that probably won’t win any awards from Ms. Magazine.

Jack Hill is the total auteur of this production, so put down your demitasse coffee cup, fasten your seatbelt, and expect the unexpected!

Blu-ray Verdict: Legendary cult filmmaker Jack Hill is screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, and co-director of this particularly striking sexploitation drama. Nick Moriarty stars as Howard Thorne, operator of a mail-order business that deals in everything from adult films to torture soundtracks on vinyl.

He’s also a serial rapist, who goes after any attractive young woman who catches his fancy. Meanwhile, at home his wife Vicky (Adele Rein) tries everything that she can think of to get him sexually interested in her.

With John Lamb (The Mermaids of Tiburon) serving as co-producer and co-director, Mondo Keyhole is an interesting adults-only entertainment. It plays as if somebody like Bergman made a soft-core film. This is because the film is not only sleazy but stylishly moody and effectively surreal as well.

The music by The Psychedelic Psymphonette merely adds to the strange atmosphere. It has a somewhat linear narrative for a while, getting more and more bizarre towards the end, with a vampire (Christopher Winters / imitation Bela Lugosi voice by trailer narrator Ron Gans) serving as Vicky’s guide to the latest in human debauchery.

The human salad bar is an especially memorable set piece. One of the hooks to the film is the whole is it fantasy or is it reality approach to the storytelling.

The acting is passable for this sort of thing. Amusingly enough, the voice of Vicky is provided by cult actress Luana Anders, who’s recognizable for her work with Corman and Coppola in the 1960s. Worth a look for followers of the sexploitation genre. [H.S.]

Bonus Features:
2025 Commentary track by Rob Kelly noted film historian, podcaster and artist
Archival Commentary by Jack Hill
Photo and Poster Gallery

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