Going for the direct approach to sleaze, Daniel Murphy, Tom Komisar and the set of directors at HM&M Films have created a small cult following with their DIY-styled approach melded with grindhouse-style offerings. Offering the chance to exploit their enhanced skills from their previous works, their popular series of home-invasion films in the 'House of Whores' franchise shows the group changing and evolving for the better.
The first entry, House of Whores from 2015, sets things in motion with a psychedelic warning for an opening that soon launches into the movie proper. Young girls Rachel (Lindsey McIntire), Ashley (Maella Cai Vane) and Kayla (Linda Schrader) attend a video shoot thinking it to be the work of a young pornographer intending to break them into the business when a deranged trio of clowns, Slasho (Tom Komisar), Shago (Daniel Murphy) and Smasho (Paul Arnone) unexpectedly show up. Taking over the video shoot, they immediately impose their will on the group by forcing them to partake in a series of violent and deranged sexual antics for their own perverse amusement.
This one immediately turns out the intentions of the franchise. For the most part, forcing people to become aroused for a forced sexual act that introduces props and toys into the mix, abusing people with used tampons or throwing around all sorts of bodily fluids into everybody's faces, the extremity in this one runs incredibly high and continuous throughout here which is matched only by the ferocity of their intentions. Not only is it intense to witness them throwing that around liberally but to see it alongside their waving power tools in private parts or seeing them bringing their own brand of perverse justice to the group which adds an extra sense of dementia to the proceedings that doesn't offer this one any sense of safety or predictability. There's truly no telling where it's going to go next and it adds that extra dimension to the film as a result, alongside the whole point of this being a true home invasion as the original setup allows this one to turn into a deranged and sadistic game.
It's the technical side of things where the film fails, as there are too many cartoonish sound effects that pop up in scenes of supposed torment that ruin the bluntness and effect of the scene. While appropriately lightening the mood of the intended sequence, their shocking impact would've been felt a lot more effectively here had this one been kept to a more realistic setting without the sound effects of sped-up camera tricks. Sometimes it works, as it does in the silent-film parody with the cue-cards popping up for their dialogue but other times it actually makes things less shocking by being so goofy and silly. The obvious budget limitations show up from time-to-time, but it's not nearly as detrimental as the other issues. (** 1.2/5)
The second entry, House of Whores 2: The Second Cumming from 2016, carries on in much the same way as part 1 only with a more professional polish. Having been abducted by the group, lone survivor Rachel (Lindsey McIntire) finds herself thrust into the role of Skanko alongside the trio of Slasho (Tom Komisar), Shago (Daniel Murphy) and Smasho (Paul Arnone) as they conduct their efforts as a group now. Invading the home of girls Candy (Cheyanne Summer) and Mandy (Montana Skylar) alongside their keeper Father Nelson (A.C. McCray), they find themselves subjected to another round of their own perverse and depraved antics.
Although it tends to be more of a professional outing, this one seems like more of the same like the original. Once again, the opening birthday party interruption features the group appearing at a celebration and immediately partaking in their usual antics which sets this one off on the right note, it becomes evident that this will be somewhat of a retread of the original which becomes much more apparent once it gets to the main house featured here. The different torments they inflict this time around while in the house are kept to a slightly more obvious realm for what happened before until it breaks out an incredibly inventive and cruel device that fits into the theme of things quite nicely. This one manages to fix one of the major issues from before in that it appears a lot more professional in appearance than before as the still-apparent comical sound effects and weird editing visuals offer a drop-off in quantity and is replaced with a more coherent narrative that captures a pretty fun idea.
Exploring the concept of a TV show with interstitials showing a bloodied topless nurse in a dungeon dismembering and playing with a corpse, the talk-show gags they engage in where they further torment their tied up victim or showing their exploits around the town traveling to the house all manage to give this not only more length but a decidedly more experienced feel to the film. However, this also manages to expose the one main problem with this one in that there's almost no story at all here. Due to all the intermissions and breaks to the other featurettes within the film itself, it takes a while to get to the actual invasion and it's not nearly as involved as it could've been due to these segments that take up tons of the admittedly brief running time. That's compounded by the ending where it features more of the bloodied nurse dancing around suggestively which gets in more nudity but doesn't do much else but connect it to the original as these segments tend to lower the amount of time it could've had on the actual invasion. (**/5)
The third entry, Slaughterhouse: House of Whores 2.5 from 2018, offers one of the most compelling and enjoyable entries in the franchise. Stopping off at their favorite restaurant, the killer clowns Slasho (Tom Komisar), Shago (Daniel Murphy) and Smasho (Harry McCane) witness Tiffani (Courtney Clark) being stranded on the side of the road. Finding the home of her employer Dick Dickerson (Stan Traylor), they join up with Skanko (Lindsey McIntire) to stage yet another of their infamous home invasions where they set about righting the wrong of his behavior with their own perverse brand of depraved justice.
Unlike the other entries in the series, this one works quite well due to the fact that there's somewhat of an actual story on display here. Rather than bog this down with the usual interludes and other such segments, this one tends to focus merely on the group invading the house and offering their torment and depravity for nearly the entire movie which is what allows this one to become quite fun. Given a more rational storyline that gives them a reason to interfere with the family and invade the house rather than feature the same interstitials and segment breaks that are usually a part of the series. It still features them, but at least this time it has a more engaging story that's the main focus throughout here which is where this one really scores from their initial break-in which features the one members' early appearance at the house to the deranged strip-show they force the neighbors into in front of everybody that really turns into a rather expected series of depraved actions. They fully force enough depraved antics here with the full intention of exploiting the home-invasion angle which once again manages to feature a lot of interest in the way it plays out because of that factor as they set about tormenting and torturing the others which includes a lot more sexually-based antics than before.
Given the professional look and sheen here that helps to enhance matters that much more, there's a lot to like here that manages to somewhat overcome the main flaw featured here in that the shortness of the effort is greatly emphasized by the intermission segment of the bloodied nurse once again dancing around and tormenting a victim in a bloodsoaked dungeon. While thankfully not nearly as frequent as other efforts, the fact that it still interrupts the flow of the film with the deranged nurse dancing away in the middle of the film that really serves it's purpose to display the sleaze yet doesn't do anything else for the film. That brevity is really the only thing that holds it back much. (**/5)
On the whole, this is a remarkably consistent series of efforts that offers up plenty of fine exploitation-goodness for those that like to dwell on the extreme side of things. Some of the content and behavior here is quite extreme in a deranged sense which makes this a challenging series to get through, so only give into this one if you've got a taste for this kind of material.
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