Pretty sick movie. Small time crook Slue (Paul L. Smith) and his girlfriend Pearl (David Carradine in drag--seriously!) inadvertently get a stolen car with a baby in the back. Pearl wants to keep the kid against the objections of Slue. Slue treats the boy named Sonny Boy like an animal. He cuts off his tongue when he is still a child, drags him around with a chain, forces him to live in a steel shack. By the time Sonny Boy is 17 (played by Michael Boston under the name Michael Griffin) he's little more than an animal and does anything his father asks...even murder. But Sonny Boy realizes there has to be something more than this life.
Sick, disturbing, no budget film. When it has David Carradine playing a woman in drag you KNOW this isn't a normal film! This was made on a VERY low budget and it shows. The sets are tacky and the sound is frequently inaudible. The story doesn't have much of a plot--just seeing how Sonny Boy was bought up and seeing the poor man trying to cope with his environment. To make it worse Boston's performance as Sonny is just fantastic. You can see the confusion, hurt and anger in the poor man's face. You really FEEL for him so when he's attacked or forced to kill it's just heart-breaking. Also Carradine in drag is--interesting. He's in drag the entire movie and there isn't any real point to it that I could see. Still he WAS very good. Also Brad Dourif plays another psycho role and Alexander Powers is very good in the small part of Rose. It would be easy for me to dismiss this film as a piece of utter repulsive garbage--but the acting by Boston and some nice directing makes it too hard to just ignore. I'm sure the filmmakers HAD a point--I'm just not sure what it was! A 5.
Sick, disturbing, no budget film. When it has David Carradine playing a woman in drag you KNOW this isn't a normal film! This was made on a VERY low budget and it shows. The sets are tacky and the sound is frequently inaudible. The story doesn't have much of a plot--just seeing how Sonny Boy was bought up and seeing the poor man trying to cope with his environment. To make it worse Boston's performance as Sonny is just fantastic. You can see the confusion, hurt and anger in the poor man's face. You really FEEL for him so when he's attacked or forced to kill it's just heart-breaking. Also Carradine in drag is--interesting. He's in drag the entire movie and there isn't any real point to it that I could see. Still he WAS very good. Also Brad Dourif plays another psycho role and Alexander Powers is very good in the small part of Rose. It would be easy for me to dismiss this film as a piece of utter repulsive garbage--but the acting by Boston and some nice directing makes it too hard to just ignore. I'm sure the filmmakers HAD a point--I'm just not sure what it was! A 5.