A grungy rape-revenge tale starring a 17 year old Zoë Lund (Tamerlis) from NYC native, Abel Ferrara.

Phil Prince's The Story of Prunella is a notoriously grim and ruthless affair, in fact most of Prince's output can be adequately described as "grim" among other unpleasant adjectives, combined they are a body of work that conclusively puts the "rough" in "roughie".

Starring: Ron Jeremy, Ambrosia Fox, George Payne, Cheri Champagne, Dixie Dew, David Christopher, Joey Karson and Martin Patton.

Unlike other porno directors who may exude an air of style, professionalism, care, or inject a little heart, class and tenderness into their fuck scenes, Phil Prince does not. He is the primo auteur of dirt, filth, and degeneracy with a distinct cavalier, devil may care approach to everything, from the shoot; usually shot within 72 hours, to the plots and characterisation; men are often borderline cro-magnon, grunting and huffing away whilst the women verbally complain, but don't really seem to mind all that much about being abused by them. He throws it all together on-screen without compunction and with an attitude that screams: well if that's what people are paying to see, that's exactly what you're gonna get.
To quote the man himself: "I'm not here to infect society, just to cater to needs."

The company behind such grotesqueries was Avon Productions, associated with the chain of New York grindhouse theatres; the Avon 42nd St, the Avon 7, and the Avon Love, all owned by Murray Offen, or as he was “affectionately” referred to - “Murray the Jew”. Produced on budgets that seldom exceeded $15,000, Avon Productions would crank out a plethora of NYC-grown smut from the mid '70s through to the early '80s from directors such as Carter Stevens, Joe Davian, Shaun Costello, and Phil Prince.

The Avon films were cited by the Meese Report - an investigation into pornography ordered by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and led by U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese - as being “the most extreme examples of violent, disgusting pornography”. The movies are rich in sexual deviance; BDSM, incest, rape, and torture, they are in effect the cinematic antithesis of those lauded and esteemed productions from directors who managed to achieve a modest sense of critical acclaim and helped garner a semblance of acceptability from the mainstream.

I read that the script for The Story of Prunella was bought for something like $200 from the wife of the cinematographer Phil Gries and what I'd really like to know is when the fart sounds got added, but more on that later!

The film begins in earnest with Paul (Ron Jeremy), a seemingly honest cop who's set to marry his sweetheart, the pint-sized Prunella Kincade (Ambrosia Fox). Offset against this picturesque romance are three scumbags who've flown the coop, they're now on the lam with the leader's girlfriend, Vendette (Cheri Champagne), in tow. The film switches from sweet to sour to full on home invasion territory when the convicts hold-up a passing car that just so happens to be driven by the prison warden's wife, Denise (Dixie Dew).
The crooks crash the bride-to-be's wedding shower and begin to sexually assault the occupants. Jimmy (George Payne), the apparent leader of the convicts, decides to to strike back at the warden by sodomising his daughter. Paul visits the park where the cons stole the car and finds Denise's wallet alongside their prison clothes. Now, in a race against time Paul heads to the bridal shower to save his beloved Prunella. Shakespeare, eat your heart out.

The Story of Prunella benefits from a svelte runtime, clocking in at just under an hour, the plot moves along at a brisk pace. Granted, there's no convoluted narrative structure, but there is a sudden and bizarre daydream/fantasy sequence that Prunella's mum has. It comes out of nowhere and at first I wasn't too sure if it was a flashback or if I'd missed something. Basically, Denise daydreams about having it off with Paul, a scene in which Ron mugs for the camera and pulls some of the most ridiculous expressions I've ever witnessed in a porno and could have easily netted him first prize in any gurning championship.

It's worth pointing out that Cheri Champgne's character, Vendette first meets Jimmy (Payne) by responding to an ad in Screw Magazine - yeah really - they have a torrid session of kinky sex; clothes pegs on nipples and a bit of verbal degradation, and she's immediately enthralled by him. I really dug the scene between these two, it may be the only scene in The Story of Prunella with any genuine heart or feeling. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't actually shot for The Story of Prunella either. Its inclusion was born from the need to extend the original runtime of a meagre 50 minutes without stumping up any more cash for reshoots, so the footage was lifted from another Phil Prince movie, Tales of the Bizarre (1982).

The following excerpt is taken from Brian O'Hara's "Loose on the Deuce: The Prince of Porn", the accompanying article to his short documentary - The Prince of Porn (2002).

"I proposed to George that the movie could be lengthened by 10 minutes if Phil shot a scene in a jail cell with George mistreating and screwing one of those life-size inflatable love dolls. George’s eyes lit up and he told me a story about the very first thing he’d done on film – a loop where he fucked a love doll. This was kismet! Only he was wearing a sailor suit in the loop.

Unfortunately when I broached Phil with my brilliant idea he said forget about it, Murray would never pay for reshoots. But Phil was worried. He couldn’t tell Murray the movie was only 50 minutes long. So I came up with another brilliant idea. George and Cheri Champagne were both in Prunella and an earlier Avon production titled Tales of the Bizarre. So I’d use outtakes from a scene between them in Tales and insert it as a flashback in Prunella. The scene in question had Cheri playing a bored and horny unattached female who hires a call-boy played by George. He shows up, dominates Cheri, and makes her bark like a dog before he fucks her in the ass. This was mild abuse by Avon standards and at the end of the scene they almost seemed like a happy couple. In Prunella Cheri appeared as George’s girlfriend who helps him hijack a getaway car. So it made sense that she’d ended up as his gun moll. When I added the Tales flashback into Prunella it brought the movie up to 60 minutes. Then I cut a five minute slo-mo montage of dribbling dicks after they’d spewed their loads (also from outtakes). And voilà! The film was up to 65 minutes. Phil thought I was a genius. And I was beginning to think at the rate I was coming up with brilliant ideas I’d have the cure for cancer within a month."

An oddity or distinctive quirk I've noticed throughout a few of Phil Prince's movies is that some lines of dialogue are repeated on the soundtrack. It has an uncanny, confounding effect, how one is meant to interpret it? Is it just rough editing and the fact not enough lines of dialogue were recorded? or is it played for laughs? Personally, I can't tell which although I'm erring on the side of humour as throughout the film there are moments of genuine comedy. For instance, there's a brief scene in which Vendette comes to pick up the escaped convicts, only for her to tell them she got a bus.

To confuse matters again, are scenes that can be interpreted as funny that come totally out of left field. A prime example are the fart sounds, the seemingly impromptu farts noises on the soundtrack... The offbeat moment in question is a short scene where Ron Jeremy looks over at a fellow officer in the passenger seat and while the camera is on his partner there's a fart sound, it doesn't just happen once either. Jeremy then proclaims over the radio that "They're probably fuckin' the shit outta the girls right now", looks at his partner and he farts again. It's an outrageous juxtaposition of intense, urgent drama and absurdist toilet humour.

"Shut up bitch, take off your fuckin' clothes. We're gonna have a party!" - 'Quick' Jimmy Connors (George Payne)

Now, after a little digging I've actually got the answer to the bizarre inclusion of fart sounds present in The Story of Prunella and several other Phil Prince movies. I reached out to Brian O'Hara who edited most of Phil's work and later made the documentary, The Prince of Porn (2002) about the enigmatic figure behind some of the Deuce's scuzziest porno movies. Brian conclusively puts to rest the peculiar presence of flatulence...

As Brian writes in his accompanying article to the Prince of Porn documentary:

"Probably due to my antipathy towards Jeremy I decided to have a little fun when editing The Story of Prunella. In the film’s climax, Jeremy’s fiancée and the other sluts are being ravaged by the rapist convicts at the bachelorette party while Jeremy and his cop partner are racing to the rescue. You could cut the tension with a knife – more or less. So I added fart sound effects. This way every time Jeremy glanced over at his partner with anguish written on his face it appeared he was reacting to his sidekick’s excessive flatulence. Just a way for me to have fun mocking Jeremy’s acting chops. Funny, I thought. In fact, I couldn’t stop laughing as I played the scene back and forth on the Steenbeck.

After Murray and Phil screened the finished movie at the lab I got a phone call. Phil said Murray was ranting and raving about the farting in the car.

I played dumb: “Farts? Are you sure it isn’t just the tires screeching?”

“No! Jeremy’s partner is farting at him!”

I continued to play dumb, saying it must be a mistake made at the audio mix. Phil gave up, let me off the hook, somehow placated Murray. And the farts stayed in. Not that Murray was gonna put up the bread for a remix anyway."

According to O'Hara, the farts are "a continuing motif" and made it into several of Phil's movies that passed through his Steenbeck. The sound effects even made it into the "muck men" scene in Spookies (1986), the infamous cult horror movie produced by Michael Lee which Brian cut the sound effects for.

It could then be considered another quirk, or rather a calling card to know - definitively - that you're watching a Phil Prince movie, or at least one edited by Brian O'Hara! I asked Brian what the deal was with the repeated dialogue, citing the Jeremy line: "They're probably fuckin' the shit outta the girls right now" as an example; the same audio is played in two different scenes, his response was: "Well I can't say I actually remember - it was 40 years ago - but a line like "They're probably fuckin' the shit outta the girls right now"... It would be my sense of humor to repeat that every five minutes if I could get away it."

"Momma's gonna die!" - 'Quick' Jimmy Connors (George Payne)

Ron Jeremy does his thing, hedgehog pinch et al, along with an abundance of facial expressions in and out of the boudoir. However, Jeremy is greatly outshined and upstaged by the raw talent displayed by George Payne. The man is a powerhouse, stealing the show and bringing such an intensity by channeling an impressive amount of "wild man" energy in his scenes that's nigh on impossible to match.
It could be argued that Payne actually outdoes himself with the height of vehemence he reaches in The Taming of Rebecca (1982), another Prince outing and "sister" film to The Story of Prunella, an absolute dirtfest that stars Sharon Mitchell and features an excruciating scene where the business end of a safety pin meets a chicks' nipple. Yikes!
Oh and you can spot Phil in a blink and you'll miss it role as an idiotic newbie prison guard who informs the warden that the convicts have escaped.

There's an undeniable residual influence from the then emerged rape-revenge cycle that seeped into the plot, but it does away with convention and lacks a final act of revenge, perhaps imploring one to use their imagination for what could happen once the film fades to black. At times I felt reminded of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972), it may have something to do with a group of cons running amok and getting sick kicks from their perverse behaviour. Hell, even Last House was originally conceived to be a hardcore film, and I can't be the only one who would love to know how that would have turned out.

The final act and ending is notably bleak; watching Payne scream a string of obscenities at the diminutive Ambrosia Fox while the two other crooks and Vendette are engaged in their own acts of depravity in just about every corner of the room. The climax, so to speak, is devoid of a happy ending and there's no attempt at a pleasant resolution, or a morally justified act of retribution (spoiler: Prunella grabs a gun and blows her brains out in front of Paul), it goes a long way to truly cement the film as a work that pulls no punches. Phil was oft accused of "going too far" and The Story of Prunella is no exception. It's fast, grubby, nihilistic, cold, and irredeemably sordid.

For those who desire more insight into Avon Productions and the work of Phil Prince, check out Brian O'Hara's The Prince of Porn (2002) documentary, it features a Q&A with Phil as well as the players, and those involved behind the scenes. It also has invaluable and hilarious outtakes from several of his features, including The Story of Prunella. Click the title of the documentary for the link & the password is: letmesee

Bob Kelljan's rape-revenge flick, probably best known by the more audacious title, Rape Squad.

Cirio Santiago's brutal and mean-as-fuck rape-revenge flick, Naked Vengeance.

This week's title card is for the moody, unevenly paced rape-revenge film Demented, featuring Harry Reems in a non-pornographic role. 

Sixth edition of the Film Diary; covering films I've watched within the span of a week, accompanied with a short review and rating. For those familiar with this routine, skip ahead, for anybody new to the blog, I will try to churn these out as quickly as possible, but there's never enough hours in the day. These reviews won't appear under the index of reviews as I prefer to keep that reserved for more lengthier entries.

Another varied selection this week; rural SOV horror, revenge capers, a killer robot Santa Claus, wild '80s Indonesian supernatural horror, remakes galore, and more. Read or don't.

Films watched between Monday 12/12/2022 and Sunday 18/12/2022.

Monday 12/12/2022
Video Violence (1987)

Director: Gary P. Cohen

Shot entirely on a VHS camcorder, Video Violence is part of a different age of low-budget filmmaking. Admittedly, I don't watch very many shot-on-video horror films. If I'm totally honest I really struggle to see past the picture quality, I find it extremely distracting and detracting to the experience; a crazy thought because I grew up watching movies and cartoons on VHS or taped off late night TV. Video Violence is gory and wholly dreadful; it's camp, hokey, but also manages to be rather charming. If you're looking to dip your toe in the low-fi world of SOV horror, this along with Black Devil Doll From Hell (1984), The Abomination (1986), Things (1989) (I know, I know, allegedly one of the worst movies ever, but c'mon you're here for a reason!), and The Burning Moon (1992) are fairly fun places to start.



Tuesday 13/12/2022
Rolling Thunder (1977)

Director: John Flynn

Sat down to rewatch this and to get Emily's opinion. She dug it. It's been a long-standing favourite of mine; I will never get tired of watching William Devane as Major Charles Rane taking on a gang of outlaws along the Texas / Mexico borderlands. "It's your time, boy!"

I wrote up a more lengthy review you can check out here.



Wednesday 14/12/2022
Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)

Director: Joe Begos

I think I might be a Joe Begos fanboy... Though I don't think that's a controversial statement nor anything to be ashamed of, he's consistently made outstanding genre film for the last 10 years. Beginning with his directorial debut Almost Human (2013), a sci-fi horror film about alien abduction. His latest effort, Christmas Bloody Christmas, is kind of like a festive Terminator (1984); featuring a toy store's animatronic Santa, a repurposed ex-military unit no-less, running amok and terrorising a small town. During the finale Emily kept screaming "NOOOO, IT CAN'T GET UP AGAIN", but it seems very little can keep a killer Santa down! I was screaming for him to stop trashing the hipster record/video store. Also features more killer synth music by long time Begos collaborator Steve Moore. I actually rated this one three and a half stars, but because I don't do halves on the blog and as it's the season of giving, I'm bumping it up to a whopping four stars.



Thursday 15/12/2022
Mystics In Bali (1981)

Director: H. Tjut Djalil

This...this had been on my watchlist for many, many years; I'm almost certain I remember reading about it on the blogosphere, though I can't recall who's blog. At last the wait was over, a copy of the Mondo Macabro DVD fell into my eager hands. What a feast of black magic madness (a great name for a doom metal album) from Southeast Asia. Borrowing from both Southeast Asian folklore and Balinese mythology; more specifically the legends of the Leyak and the Penanggalan, a nocturnal vampiric entity that hunts at night for menstruation or blood from birth. Its form is a flying head with trailing internal organs that swing around underneath. Totally wild Indonesian cinema, the second I saw the head detach from the body and fly off, I fell in love with this. I cannot recommend it enough, essential viewing.



Friday 16/12/2022
Rabid (2019)

Director: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

I'm still a bit on the fence about this one. One part of me truly believes that you cannot remake the work of certain directors, David Cronenberg is undoubtably one of them, but another part of me really likes the fact that the Soska sisters took the plunge and made a movie about a woman's transformation, with you know, a woman's perspective. Unfortunately the resulting film is a lacklustre re-imagining that happens to fall just a little short of interesting, and in my opinion without Marilyn Chambers, you're already missing a major component of Rabid. The film succeeds in the body horror department; I'll keep it vague to avoid any potential spoilers, but specifically there's a scene late in the movie where somebody has mutated and fused to a wall. It's like something out of Resident Evil, utterly hideous! I initially rated this on Letterboxd as two and a half stars, but since I don't do a half system on here, I'm downgrading it to two.



Friday 16/12/2022
Barbarian (2022)

Director: Zach Creggar

Emm and I missed the theatrical run of this and subsequently caught it on Disney+ (horror...Disney...what?!). To succinctly sum this movie up in one word it would be "refreshing". Yeah, yeah, yeah we've seen stuff like this before, I hear you cry, but sometimes a movie just stands out, it grabs your attention and fills you with intrigue and wonder. I really dug this, I loved the opening, the Hitchcockian switch-up and misdirection. It was refreshing. A lot of fun to be had with it, I was waiting to see if Justin Long's character would redeem himself, or if he truly is a total scumbag at heart. The inspired flashback sequence to a Reaganomics era Midwest USA comes completely out of left-field, complimented with a 4:3 aspect ratio; all of a sudden I feel like I'm watching Gerald Kargl's Angst (1983). I really really liked this, no bullshit and only an ickle wickle bit of hyperbole. Check it out.



Saturday 17/12/2022
The Apology (2022)

Director: Alison Star Locke

Watched this with Emily on Shudder, during one of those manic, spoilt for choice "what do we watch?" moments. What we discovered was middling, but interesting suspense flick, that keeps you intrigued long enough that you want to see how it's all gonna play out. It kind of toys around with the tried and true conventional exploitation/(rape-)revenge tropes, but ultimately the pay-off is a little weak and unfulfilling. The two leads, Anna Gunn and Linus Roache, carry it with their strong performances; this piece could work on a stage, in fact it may even work a bjt better on a stage.



Sunday 18/12/2022
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Director: Alexandre Aja

Alexandre Aja's second finest picture. A stunningly brutal and gory remixing of the Wes Craven classic, and perhaps in some ways this is has an edge over the original. You all know the score, it was spawned during that weird 2000s period where every major horror title was getting remade whether we wanted it or not. We even checked them out, thinking how bad could they be? Well while some were bad (The Amityville Horror (2005) Halloween (2007), Friday the 13th (2009)), others actually made for a pleasant and welcome update of their older counterparts. The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), and Dawn of the Dead (2004) are 3 better examples of worthy remakes from this strange epoch. Make sure to watch the unrated version for all the splattery goodness.

I've had the genre of "XXX" on the blog for some time now, initially it was used as a "short-cut" to reviews for European exploitation films that feature inserts of hardcore pornography, or more specifically Joe D'Amato erotic-horror escapades. I'm looking at you Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) and Porno Holocaust (1981) !
But, being no stranger to 1970s & 1980s XXX flicks, particularly "Roughies", I thought it's high time to talk about one, although I'm admittedly no authority on the genre!

So squeeze yourself into those daisy dukes, slip your gumboots on, dust the cobwebs off that pitchfork, and get an eyeful of THE FARMER'S DAUGHTERS.
Zebedy Colt's 1976 filthy farmyard roughie, and boy oh boy is this a grubby reminder of how extreme classic porn could be with numerous scenes of humiliation, gang rape, golden showers, and forced incest. It's a confounding mélange of hicksploitation, rape/revenge & absurdist comedy, and what about that poster, eh? Glorious!

Starring Gloria Leonard, Susan McBain, Philip Marlowe, Marlene Willoughby, Nancy Dare, Zebedy Colt, Bill Cort, John Black & Spalding Gray.

Shep (Zebedy Colt) and Kate (Gloria Leonard) are farm owners, and are the parents to three comely daughters. Martha (Susan McBain), Jane (Nancy Dare), and Beth (Marlene Willoughby). The film begins with the sisters peeping through their folks' bedroom window to discover their parents knocking boots. In the course of this initial sex scene between Zebedy Colt & Gloria Leonard I nearly spat my beer out laughing, as right before he erupts over Gloria's fuzzy muff, Colt groans with a put on hayseed accent, "Oh I can't take it, I just cum". His delivery of the line coupled with the frantic banjo-ing soundtrack is comedy gold. Bloody marvellous!



Amused by what they've witnessed, the sisters decide they want to try it out for themselves. Chasing down the nearest available male, Fred the farmhand (Bill Cort), one of the gals takes up her seat on his face while the other two suck & fuck him 'til he's shooting ropes; presented to you in a competently edited, multi-angled sequence. But, the chicks aren't finished, oh no, one of the sisters sucks up Fred's goo and spits it in his face. Poor ol' Fred is then tied up, has his ass whipped with a flyswatter, before all three of them proceed to verbally abuse, and piss all over him. They further threaten him to never tell their parents about their peeping.

The choice dialogue during this scene is near-pure poetry...
"You better just keep on dreaming honey cos you ate this pussy but you never gonna fuck it!"
"And you fucked this pussy but you ain't never gonna eat it!"
"We sucked your cock, and next time we gonna bite it off!"

Through the golden torrents raining down from above, Fred gargles his revenge, "You bitches, I'll get even, I swear I'll get even!".



The aforementioned scenes do offer a brief, albeit perverse dose of comedy and lightheartedness, before the narrative veers in a grim direction. Once the girls have finished emptying the contents of their bladders over Fred, we cut to three escaped convicts, George (Spalding Grey), Butch (John Black) and Pat (Philip Marlowe). We know nothing about these dudes, it's the first time we're introduced to them, and it looks as though they're having a rotten time in the wilderness. They're clad in dishevelled clothing, looking like they haven't seen a bar of soap or hot water in weeks. Pacing through the forest, acting paranoid, and drinking from streams. Their luck changes when they overhear and follow the sounds of the sisters mid-coitus with Fred, for a second time. The editing is a bit choppy here and I must admit couldn't understand if they got back into it with him, or if the film is far more intelligent than I'm giving it credit it for, and we're meant to believe the cons are in-hiding just outside during that first scene with the girls and Fred.

The power-play roles are now reversed as the sisters become the observed, with the cons now becoming the peepers who get a few ideas of their own.



The three men waste no time in taking over the farm. We're witness to a short home invasion where the cons find a rifle and take it for their own. Furthermore, in a back-room they discover Shep and Kate fucking on a deep pile shag rug, pardon the puns. The guys overpower Shep and throw Kate onto a nearby bed. George and Butch take turns with Kate, and I'm pretty sure Philip Marlowe body doubles for Spalding Grey here, which is bizarre because he does his own performing in a later scene. Underpinning this scene of gang rape is a really ill-fitting piece of cheery violin-heavy country music. Yee-haw.

With rifle in-hand the cons take the family hostage and if it wasn't already clear in your mind, it becomes stunningly obvious in the following scene why there are three daughters AND three convicts, as one of the cons decides to play a perverted game of 'Simon Says'. Cute. The girls are forced to service each man with their mouths before a grubby blanket is spread out on the grass for further fornicatin'. It's only when Fred appears at this most opportune time that there's a shift in power, not for the better. Fred is still pissed off about the piss-shenanigans and is out for revenge. I'd happily detail every single scene of debauchery during the last act and the finale, but I actively encourage you to find a copy of this scuzz-fest and behold them yourself!



The film achieves a few pleasant frames here and there, but is predominantly shot with medium and close ups, save for a handful of satisfying zooms. My biggest gripe is with the pacing and as a result an amount of scenes do have a tendency to outstay their welcome. I mentioned that there's some slick editing during several of the sex scenes, but it's during the climax things go absolutely batshit and I strongly believe in the case of the latter, the desired effect is lost from sheer excessive repetition. Sometimes less really IS more.

The acting is exactly as you would expect from a picture of this calibre, Marlene Willoughby is as always, an on-screen delight, check out those tatty daisy dukes! Zebedy Colt appears a little dazed and confused in this when compared to his off the wall role in the Death Wish (1974) "inspired" Sex Wish (1976), which was released later in the same year as this. Spalding Grey brings a memorably unique, unsettling way of pausing while delivering his lines throughout the film. I can't tell if it's purposeful to make his character appear like a truly off kilter degenerate, or if he's just reading the lines bad. Either way it's unnerving and effective.
"Never say no, to a, desperado. We're just going to, play, a few games..."
"You're calling the shots...friend...I had to take a leak anyway"

It's scuzzy, it's immoral, it's repulsive, it'll make you want to take a long shower afterwards, but most of all it's a lot of fun. You'll never see anything like this again. Cock-A-Doodle-Doo, indeed!