Perhaps due to its competition status and star power at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Swiss Army Man was the most-talked about in terms of being a curious oddity, but in the midnight side-bar, there was a film that truly pushed the gonzo envelope. The Greasy Strangler follows Michael St. Michaels as Big Ronnie, an aging disco enthusiast who by night turns into our titular, greased-up villain. When his son Brayden (Sky Elobar) becomes aware, things get much, much weirder. The first teaser has now arrived for the Elijah Wood-produced film and it’s a NSFW, WTF-level mind-trip.
We said in our review, “From its title you sort of know what you’re getting into and director Jim Hosking delivers the goods. Uproariously and often disturbingly funny, the concept, like Yoga Hosers, sounds like it was conceived at random. Hosking admitted the concept of a greasy strangler to be nearly impossible — how would he get a good grip? — yet he commits and continues to reinvent the wheel along the way until the picture stumbles late in its third act. For a midnight movie to go that long without running out of steam and testing the audience’s patience alone is a miracle. With measured performances that are so good they read as bad, the cast and crew along with co-writer Toby Harvard know exactly what they’re doing. Fearless, explicit and over the top, The Greasy Strangler doesn’t short change us in the “WTF” department, occasionally delivering tenderness in its father-son conflict.”
Check out the teaser below.
THE GREASY STRANGLER is a surreal, midnight-horror comedy produced by Timpson Films (Turbo Kid, Deathgasm), Drafthouse Films (distribution arm of cinephile-serving Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas), and Elijah Wood’s production company SpectreVision (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Cooties). World Premiered in the 2016 Sundance Film Festival Midnight Section.
The Los Angeles-set tale follows Ronnie, a man who runs a Disco Walking tour along with his browbeaten son, Brayden. When a sexy, alluring woman comes to take the tour, it begins a competition between father and son for her attentions. It also signals the appearance of an oily, slimy inhuman maniac who stalks the streets at night and strangles the innocent, soon dubbed ‘The Greasy Strangler.’
The Greasy Strangler opens on October 7th, 2016.