AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Scott LeBrun Veteran cult favourite Andrew Prine excels here in one of his wonderfully warped 70's leading roles. He plays Andre, a sick, twisted freak living in seclusion in the desert, who comes upon a trio of aspiring showgirls trying to make their way to Vegas and who have had car trouble. He seems to be benevolent, but in reality is about to add them to his captives - a group of women he keeps chained up in his barn. The misogynistic Andre views these women as no more than (performing) animals, yet to add to his quirks he has a Norman Bates style mother fixation (he comes to believe that one of these girls actually *is* his long dead mother) and keeps his dear old dad, who mutated as a result of H bomb testing, confined on his large amount of property. Meanwhile, there's a concurrent story of the girls' agent (Chuck Niles) desperately trying to find them. Some exploitation fans can certainly take issue with a movie that they may feel really doesn't go far *enough*; for one thing, the nekkid-ness promised by the DVD cover is in actuality quite fleeting! That's not to say there isn't some fun to be had from the premise and some of the scenes. Our macabre ringmaster is fond of whipping the girls, will sometimes drench them in blood and sic his big cat on them, and in one deliciously creepy scene, introduces one of the girls to his pet snake. And when we finally get a look at the deformed dad (makeup effects by Byrd Holland, who also plays a small role, and Douglas White), he's a hoot to behold. The girls are all pleasing to look at (there's also a small role for busy 70's era exploitation actress Jennifer Ashley, as the flower child), but the one to watch here is clearly Prine, who, as can be expected, acts the Hell out of his role; even if he does indeed regret making this movie, one wouldn't know it from the performance he gives, the mark of a true professional. The movie is admittedly quite a gritty and rough little production - perhaps the single most fascinating aspect is realizing that it's an early directorial effort for Robert Altman protégée and independent auteur Alan Rudolph, one that it's all too easy to believe he would want left off his resume. But it's reasonably enjoyable for exploitation buffs, right down to the downbeat ending typical of so many other A *and* B movies of the 1970's. Somewhat disappointing but not too bad. Seven out of 10.

Woodyanders Simone (Manuela Thiess), Sheri (Sherry Alberoni), and Corrine (Gyl Roland) are three showgirls en route to Las Vegas who find themselves stranded when their car breaks down in the middle of the remote Nevada desert. They run afoul of Andre (a truly inspired portrayal of full-tilt intense insanity by the one and only Andrew Prine), a severely deranged Oedipal wreck misogynistic psycho who abducts lovely young stray ladies so he can use them in a menagerie for his own personal circus. Meanwhile, Andre's grotesquely disfigured mutant father occasionally gets loose and murders folks. Director Alan Rudolph, who went on to helm such acclaimed art-house hits as "Welcome to L.A.," "Remember My Name," "Choose Me," and "The Moderns," does an expert job of creating and maintaining a grim, sordid, and unpleasant tone of seething madness and depravity. The raw, unflinching violence against women is genuinely brutal and ugly stuff; this picture reaches its skin-crawling nasty peak when Andre has a large boa constrictor wrap itself around one hapless lass. Moreover, we also get a decent smattering of tasty nudity and a handy helping of grisly gore. E. Lynn's rough, but fairly accomplished cinematography astutely captures the dingy, dusty, and desolate aura of the isolated desert location. Tommy Vig's wonky, spacey, droning score likewise adds considerably to the overall harsh and unnerving quality of this resolutely foul-minded trash. Jennifer Ashley pops up as a traumatized mute hippie chick; she was mistreated by Prine some more in the even sleazier and hence better "The Centerfold Girls." The groovy theme song "Evil Eyes" and the nihilistic bummer ending totally hit the slimy spot as well. A satisfyingly mean'n'grungy serving of vintage 70's grindhouse junk.

EyeAskance The woefully underrated Andrew Prine struts through this lousy but shamefully likable mess with a casual and unaffected "yeah, but at least I'm working" charisma. In BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD aka NIGHTMARE CIRCUS, he portrays a mother-fixated psychotic who keeps a private zoo of captive women at an off-road Nevada desert property...a ruinous, weather-beaten old ranch in precarious proximity to a government nuclear testing site . The girls are a stock of resistant performers used in Prine's sadistic circus-themed psychodramas, and if that's not weird enough to win you over, there's also a radioactive mutant and a hungry black panther added to the cuckoo mix. As addle-brained 70s shockers go, this can be pretty enjoyable if expressly accepted as the unrefined trash that it is. The overwhelming dearth of professionalism will likely be met with disapproval from a mainstream viewership, but trash-curious types and those of lax standards should find it quite embraceable.5.5/10

MJM9 let's see. there is a barn, people do die, and no, the dead don't walk around naked. infact, there's no nudity in the film. at least there wasn't in the video copy that i had. i just remember andrew prine keeping girls in a barn, and some creature going around killing.