FRISK

Dennis is a god. He’s got charm oozing out of his round pectorals, a square jaw without a wisp of facial hair, and a stare to make most anyone submit to his masculinity. Even his overwhelming desire to murder for sexual pleasure would make him the perfect poster boy for an All-American classic. There’s just one hiccup: Dennis is gay. His serial killer daydreams are concentrated on the young, attractive men he brings home, though he hasn’t actually killed anyone yet. He is quite open with his friends about his fantasies, but they think Dennis is just acting out an extreme roleplay fetish. It’s time for Dennis to leave the world of fantasy and pop his murder cherry.

When FRISK premiered at the Frameline Film Festival in 1995, it seemed the queer audience wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Tales circulate about a mass walkout from The Castro with exiting festival attendees yelling at the movie screen, and the film is still banned from distribution or showcase within the UK. Some people have labeled the film "controversial." Almost all of the main characters are unrepentant sociopaths, and the erotic fantasies are rendered with an uncritical eye toward violence, blood, and torture. With the attack on queer rights and people on the rise in the world, and certainly at the time of the film’s original premiere, it’s not hard to see why a film featuring some of the worst queer people alive would ruffle some feathers.

Revisiting the film 31 years later, I found Todd Verow’s adaptation of the Dennis Cooper novel to be unapologetic, viscerally kinky, and undeniably erotic. A film exploring some of our most monstrous desires, with a fresh new hunk destined for the butcher’s block every ten minutes, is not for everyone. I loved it. I found the film’s embrace of intense fantasy to be a giant middle finger to anyone asking queer people to be respectable—a liberating act of cinema by and for gay people. Also, Parker Posey as a sadistic, sexy killer automatically elevates this to the upper echelons of queer cinema. Lucky for you, you don’t have to take my word for it. Fantastic Fest is pleased to present the North American premiere of the restoration of this queer video nasty. (AUSTIN KING)