Film Review: Bill Huckstabelle: Serial Rapist (2015)

SYNOPSIS:

Inspired by the Bill Cosby rape allegations. The shockingly disturbing stories you only heard about on the news. Now you can see it… uncut… in all of it’s horrifying terror!

REVIEW:

“The sweater gave him away.”

I’m probably a very sick person, there is most likely something God awful wrong with me but… when I hear or even just think about the title “Bill Huckstabelle: Serial Rapist” I giggle just a bit. That is pretty terrible being that the film is based on the very real charges against Bill Cosby. If you grew up in the 80’s you most likely saw “The Cosby Show” on NBC. Likewise, you might be wondering who Cosby is unless you are really into standup comedy, Jell-O pudding pops or Fat Albert (80’s Saturday morning cartoon.) Cosby is also a man who knows how to make a delicious latte with extra foam, a twist of cinnamon and ruffies -allegedly. I’m probably a very bad person because I kind of laughed a lot when I heard the line “I didn’t want to believe that America’s Dad just anally raped me.”

Now running with the premise that “The Cos” may have done some very bad things, how bad? So bad that this film is mean and I think the meanest part is that the film pretty much calls him unfunny, which if you’re a comedian that’s pretty awful. I mean having your own dungeon where you and friends endlessly rape and torture women is pretty bad too -with baby ring of course.

While Sean Weathers does a great job as Bill Huckstablle, the film on a whole is fun with a few lapses. I feel some of the editing could have been tighter and a bit of narrative felt like padding but if you’re a fan of real exploitation films such as Hershel Gordon Lewis’s “The Gruesome Twosome” you can expect things like that, they are part of the package and in some sense I feel if this were a “perfect” film with tons of lighting and cinematography by Dante Spinotti (Michael Man’s” Heat”) the film would lose all its charm. Just like if “Pink Flamingos” or “Blood Feast” had ten million dollar budgets.  Most of the actors in the film turn in solid performances including Sybelle Silverphoenix who sells it as a talk show host out to crucify Bill.

There isn’t a lot of blood or gore in Bill Huckstabelle, but the film is utterly disturbing in one of its rape scenes. Granted rape alone is disturbing, but actress Sky Claudette Soto takes it to another level that becomes gut-wrenching -and trust me you will know it when you see. I think when you’re watching something and the actors make you forget you are watching something and you just have a feeling -even if it is “sickening” they are doing a really good job.

On many levels, this film is for the fans or the low-budget, the dirty but well-conceived cheap sexploitation films. Despite the threadbare production, the film at time is extremely disturbing and funny. It has the same kind of f**ked up weirdness that reminds me of “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” In the end this movies does spell out the sad fact that if you have  money and power you may take a beating in the press, have your name dragged through the mud, have a baby ring but at the end of the day most likely you will not see the inside of a jail cell.