Who payed the critics

A Disappointing Continuation

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I saw this film last night on the LOGO network. As I suppose I should have expected, the show ran longer than the time LOGO had alloted for it, so I didn't get to see the whole thing -- my DVR cut it off early. I have to say, nevertheless, that I was having a great time watching it! The notion of killer condoms terrorizing New Yorkers is just too damned funny! The effects are hokey to the point of ridiculous -- the condoms are alternately cute and muppety or terrifyingly huge and ferocious. Too silly. The performance of the lead character, a a police Inspector, is actually quite good. He plays a rough-hewn gay cop looking for love in all the wrong places. His friend Bob (Bobette) is a former cop turned drag queen. And the love of the Inspector's life is -- well, you'll just have to see for yourself. All of this, plus an international conspiracy to purify mankind...

Based on a comic book by gay German artist Ralf König, Killer Condom is a deadpan horror / comedy that pokes fun at religion and politics while blatantly flaunting its pro-homosexual stance.Sicilian born Luigi Mackeroni (Udo Samel, star of Herzog's Kaspar Hauser and a coupla Michael Haneke flicks among other things) is a hardboiled, chain-smoking (even in the shower), trench coat-wearing detective patrolling the filthy, crime-ridden streets of New York… he also happens to be a flaming fag and has one of the biggest cocks around.A string of crimes develop involving men's cocks being ripped from their persons in room 308 of the hooker infested Hotel Quickie. Mackeroni is assigned to the case and soon discovers - not before losing a testicle, I might add - that a wave of razor-toothed "killer condoms" is behind the violent penectomies and sets out to exterminate them and take down to whoever is behind their creation. In between hunting for the fanged rubbers Mackeroni still finds time to fall in love with the hotels local rent boy and constantly fight off Babette / Bob, an ex lover and cop now turned drag queen hooker.I gotta say, I honestly expected more of Killer Condom, I mean, when I heard that Jorg Buttgereit and HR Giger were behind the design and special effects I was looking forward to a low budget German splatter-comedy and this is anything but. It's more of a campy horror / crime comedy with elements of film noir and very little blood. Although, there are some genuinely funny moments such as when Mackeroni's partner gets all leathered-up and goes undercover in a gay bar where he gets p!ssed on (offscreen) by a big hairy "bear" or when Mackeroni is asked why he doesn't go for women and replies "I like firm male asses, not pissflaps!".The title and cover art of Killer Condom look far more promising than the actual film, which is in essence a campy comedy. That aside, Killer Condom is still worth picking up especially if you dig schlock horror.

Killer Condom is the kind of movie that goes below the belt of B-movie (though above the Z-movies that Troma usually churns out like butter), and somehow through its German-made/set in New York ways it's actually watchable. Or, to put it another way, it's what the VH1 channel might dub as 'awesomely bad'. You know the kind of awesomely bad movie- it's when something is up on screen that is really despicable and horrid and, as others have pointed out, trashy, but at the same time it's also done unpretentiously in its quasi German art-house sect. I'd almost imagine if Wim Wenders had to fill a quota for Lloyd Kaufman by gun-point this might be it. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just an idea for a movie that gets cross-bled with a gay love-story involving a cop- Udo Samuel as Luigi Mackeroni (yeah, the only Italian-name pun that has surpassed what Nintendo did for Mario)- who in the midst of investigating multiple cases of a certain creature of the picture's title taking away genitalia, is in the cross-hairs of not only a male love-triangle with Bob (err, Bebette), but also a random guy that always calls him 'Cop'. That he stills pines for Sicily doesn't help matters, especially with something personal of his, which I dare not reveal, that he loses early on in a very inane, odd way.Director Martin Walz is adapting from a comic book apparently, but I wondered when watching it if how much was taken from the book and how much he just threw in on his own cognizance. It's a stupid movie, when you think about it, but it's the kind of stupidity that I actually don't mind watching, at least in 80 minute doses. And at times individual scenes take on a kind of brilliant absurdism that's a combination of just seeing the condom go to town (and just move around in general), the reactions from those around it with either disbelief or malaise that no one really gets what's going on, and the Gay material that goes past making fun of itself and almost becomes endearing in its all-too-what-the-hell ways. Don't look for logic here, is what I'm saying, particularly in the last twenty minutes as the filmmakers go to lengths to explain how the killer condom phenomena occurred, even as it comes closest to justifying Giger's involvement in the project (there is an uncanny relation to this and some of the Alien movies, particularly with what's almost a 'Queen Condom').Killer Condom is many things, but great art likely wont be one of them. But unlike some other horror movies that have terrific titles, this one wasn't as much of a disappointment as it could have been. At the least Samel is consistent with his character's tough but sort of sensitive character, and what's laughably dumb about it goes alongside the director's more lofty visual ambitions. As it says on the front cover, it's both a Troma video release AND an entry into the Berlin Film Festival.

No, not necessarily...as KILLER CONDOM goes on to prove, that the fine line dividing mainstream comedy and good old-fashioned tasteless exploitation, has all but vanished.At the "Hotel Quickie," a New York City hotel/brothel, mostly male hookers and tricks are falling prey to a slew of razor-fanged prophylactics. Yes, castrating "carnivorous condoms," which, actually turn out to be man-made creatures concocted by a man-hating, ultra-conservative, religious fanatic psycho to wipe out homosexuals, hookers and other unsavory "perverts!" A grizzled, gruff and gay cop, who loses his "right nut" to one, is on the case.Other than running the gamut of penis and testicle synonyms, this vulgar, often side-splitting, deadpan horror/comedy does an fairly decent job satirizing politics, religion and sexual taboos and serves as a focused, pointed and blunt look at the gay lifestyle (and the stereotypes it creates) from a refreshingly pro-gay agenda--a first in the world of horror. It's surprisingly well made, directed and acted, too, with big time cult movie potential. The video is subtitled and unrated. Very much recommended (if you're open-minded)!