"GURU THE MAD MONK" (Pure Terror 50 Movies Pack, #39)

GURU THE MAD MONK

USA, 1970
Director: Andy Milligan

5,5/10

Like one Imdb-user said, this movie is a 'hilariously horrible hoot'.

"Guru, The Mad Monk", one of 5(!) films schlock-legend Andy Milligan directed in 1970, is one of the very movies I've seen in my life that are on the one hand incredibly badly made and amateurish, but on the other hand highly enjoyable and entertaining (like f.e. "Werewolf Of Washington" or "Bachelor Party In The Bungalow Of The Damned").

"Guru" looks like it was made by a few stoned film-students who had a budget of about 20 bucks or so. The costumes and the settings look absolutely craptacular, the 'effects' are plain laughable and the gore looks terribly cheap. The camera work is dull and whoever edited this, he or she was probably drunk as fuck.

Nevertheless, the simple but interesting plot (which btw is surprisingly critical of the church) is quite cool and the actors all did a nice job (although they're all completely untalented): Neil Flanagan as schizophrenic monk Guru, Jack Spencer as imbecile hunchback Igor, Jaqueline Webb as bloodthirsty quasi-vampire Olga and the beautiful Judith Israel as mother who is charged with murder.

A funny little z-grade movie, only 56 minutes long and superbly diverting.

Imdb