18 December 2007

Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy

Maniac Nurses Find Extasy
United States - 1990
Director – “Harry M. Love”, a.k.a. Leon Paul De Bruyn
Troma Entertainment, 1997, VHS

It’s always a crapshoot with anything distributed by Troma because they’ll pick up some pretty flaccid garbage, but there’s occasionally some gold in there too. Maniac Nurses has elements of both.
Relaxing after the (unsuccessful) operation, one of the assistants performs a prolonged striptease while the rest of the ladies, much like myself, stare slackjawed, as the narrator elaborates on the various types of “white trash” they once were, and how they all became despondent sadistic hedonistic nurses. “Their whole life is one big suicide attempt, a suicide attempt in luxurious surroundings.” A lesson in morality to be sure, driven home by the spiraling hypno-cam. Ilsa’s failure to please the golem-like living Barbie doll Sabrina leads to deep feelings of guilt which can only be assuaged by a topless (at last) whipping session, and a camper-hunting expedition. The latter results in much of the aforementioned gore, and a coup attempt by Greta, Ilsa’s assistant, who reveals (via narration) the origins of Sabrina and the mystery of the Elvis tattoo birthmark, which in the final on screen tally is all too much for her fragile mind to take, and she goes of the deep end.In fact, without the hilarious bargain psychoanalytical voiceover, and a few drinks to keep this trainwreck of bloody naked sillyness remotely linear, it might have been almost too much for me too.

The monotonous voiceover narration starts almost immediately and gives the subsequent absurdity a bizarre, mindbending Weekly World News/surrealist feeling, which is punctuated by paroxysms of remarkably effective low budget gore.

What we know is that Sabrina is the young “lolita age” plaything of Ilsa, (no reference intended right) the head nurse (of 4 total) at a “clinic” which specializes in sadism. Sabrina lounges catatonically in her undies, stroking herself and a low quality war comic with a gleaming revolver while the voiceover explains how twisted her brutal surroundings have made her.
Unable to pleasure Sabrina out of her psychosis, Ilsa gets the idea to turn a new victim into a “robot love doll”, a bloody affair made bloodier by one of the assistants hacking the corpse apart with a chainsaw.
Alternate Covers:
Of all four, only the last features people who actually appear in the film.
Highest Quality:
The attention to detail should be a hint as to the quality of the film contained within.

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