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Reviews
Guru, the Mad Monk (1970)
An amazing film
Guru the Mad Monk was one of a rash of films writer and director (among other duties) Andy Milligan made around the cusp of the nineteen-sixties into the seventies, his output as numerous as it was shoddy. Believe it or not, this was one of his more accomplished efforts, possibly because it did not hang around much longer than an hour, so there was little padding, it simply got in, did what it had to do and got out again. But that is not to say there is no padding, and the larger portions of the action were Milligan's cast standing about talking his wordy dialogue, if they fluffed their lines, not to worry, he would not only keep the camera rolling, but would include the muffed take in the final product into the bargain, allowing audiences to see what amateurs he had recruited.
Quite why he would wish to highlight the poor standards of his work is something of a mystery - it could be that he just did not care about standards - but these shot in a couple of corners (corners of a church in this instance) flicks were not crafted to impress anyone of their artiness, they were present to make a small profit and provide a cheap thrill to anyone sitting in a grindhouse or drive-in patiently waiting (or sleeping) for a proper movie to be shown. In the days before digital cameras has democratised filmmaking, if not talent, there were auteurs dabbling in low rent projects purely to feed the appetite for schlock, not out of love but because there was money in it. Milligan on a substantial budget is an interesting prospect, but it never happened, and exclusively he was dumped in the most impoverished sex and horror items of his own manufacture.
The plot here was both too complicated to do justice in within this short space of time, and not really worth doing that anyway. But Milligan's trademarks were there nonetheless, the bleak view of human nature translated into a need to punish his characters, moral and immoral, indiscriminately, a god with no tolerance for the weaknesses of humanity, simply the relish that he could make people his playthings, not unlike Guru does here. The special effects were frankly pathetic, with shop dummy hands pressed into service when such appendages needed to be cut off or have nails hammered through them, gimmicks so obviously fake that they became a statement of the artificiality of the entire enterprise. Carl manages to free Nadja, but at what cost, as she is imprisoned in an upper room while awaiting Guru (who talks to himself in the mirror) and his promise to let her go. Meanwhile a vampire shows up, as does a one-eyed hunchback actually called Igor. The real mystery was: did Milligan care about any of this? Was he merely a hack, or a wounded artist in reduced circumstances? Many find his work too boring to contemplate, but it contained a curious, droning allure.