Denny is a struggling actor whose girlfriend's dead body is found in the theater where they have been preparing for their new production. Being one of many suspects, Denny must track down the killer as others around him are found dead one by one. Can he unmask the killer before he becomes the next victim?
Mórbida Paixão, Der Mörder mit dem Seidenhaar, Pulsion mortelle, La mort en fuite, 悬着的心
USA
Source: IMDb
USA
The first film in Vinegar Syndrome’s second Homegrown Horror Set and it’s the complete opposite of the previous cheesy offerings— looking at you, you regional wonder of a movie, Winterbeast—which is a welcome change considering this is more murder mystery meets complete fucking nonsensical obscure trash covered in stylish lighting and that sweet, sweet mindfuckery to get your brain to swell up… too many half baked ideas and scenes feel rushed and out of place, something wrong in the editing department I suppose!
contains the most unforgivable dialogue and acting alike but really sets itself up as a fever dream in homoerotic wonderland with slasher and gialli elements to keep genre fans pretty damn interested—and confused!
Now this is my shit...the Nightmare Weekend of Homegrown Horrors? This was a trip! What the heck is this? More like Hanging Logic by a thread! An unclassifiable oddity that fits perfectly within Vinegar Syndrome's eclectic mix of brain blasters. Mesmerizing, inept and truly bizarre Hanging Heart is for the lovers of weirdo 80s deep cuts! I'm one of them! It's definitely for me!
If you critique this film with any sense of conventionality it will forever suffer a low rating. However! If you embrace all of the oddball flares and unrelentless confusion your mind will be taken into a cinematic chasm of mind melt magic. I went there!
The bizarre and hazy soap opera vibes, the strange almost paradoxical…
"Hanging Heart" is a 1989 (or maybe 1983?) ball of pure obscurity directed by Jimmy Lee. Not knowing the full context of Lee and his connective career with film but it looks like after this thing was made, he went into hiding until making one more feature in 2004. This is absolutely a film you have to be in the right mind to enjoy as it is completely disconnected from all train of thought. I enjoyed my fair share of absurdity but this one didn't click with me directly even though I am clearly seeing some others who find the product enjoyable.
The narrative of the film centers around our lead Denny who I guess is somewhat framed for the…
A total enigma of an obscure slasher. Like an unhinged noir-tinged thriller with deep kills, jarring cuts, and a plot that drifts from disturbing to cheesy like a dog wagging his tail in the wind. Disorienting and intensely 1989.
Danny is in a heck of a conundrum. He keeps ending up at the scene of a gruesome murder, one that's been orchestrated by a dark figure in a wig. Danny ends up in prison, the psych ward, and at the epicenter of an eternal battle with his inner demons while flailing through this bizarre murder-mystery.
As zany as it is steamy, this feels completely culled from another dimension. What makes it really stand out though is the intense homo-eroticism, sliding…
Diving into Volume 2 of the Homegrown Horrors boxset. Absolutely loved the first set in 2021 so I'm hoping this is more of the same...
Hanging Hearts is a homoerotic gialli slasher murder mystery hybrid. The acting is atrocious but fitting for this type of trashy late night cinema. This one is overlong at 103 mins with way to many dry spells and no interesting characters.
A mindfuck quasi-slasher guided by dream logic, with the maniac accosting his own face with a Ronald Reagan punchy doll. A couple of rape scenes throw off the fun a little (my desensitization knows no bounds), but otherwise some essential late-night journeying into the scary cinematic netherworld.
holy mother of nonsense—what the hell is going on in this thing? a total hodgepodge shit-show of too much too often, yet… who even cares? the feverish syndrome of psychoses are ever-present and nearly nauseating in how quickly, and vexingly this thing moves, proudly procuring a vacuum of consistency while bodies infrequently drop, and dialogue and performance never fail to fall hilariously short. completely amusing and satisfyingly stylish though, even when riddled with an astounding amount of pitfalls—some extra doses of grim derangement would’ve taken this further, but as-is, it’s kind of just an intriguingly bewildering thing to witness.
The camera pans across the room and amidst the hipster stained tables there's a brief shot of a cabinet arcade game in what is supposed to be a high class bar. It was odd. Stuck out. It was then that I knew that I kinda had to sit up and pay attention. That this was going to be a film about detail. And nonsense. Small oddly scripted out of place pieces that when strung together were meant to walk us through a visual puzzle. Fractured and disturbing realities. Auditory and visual waypoints. This is a film about moments. Excessive and blatant. The editing alone will break you. Fuck, even the sound track is incongruent. Psychotic even. "How can you explain…
"The pattern is so damn clear... the guy kills every time he gets off"
How is Denny's hair always perfect?
Hanging Heart is in a Homegrown Horrors set but it's the exact opposite of what we've been given previously. A shiny and glossy melodramatic art house thriller (you could even call it an American Giallo) with a slasher heart beating deep underneath all its late night vibes, surreal lighting, erotic overloads and artistic experimentation. Part of me thinks this was an oddball dream that Jimmy Lee had one night and he woke up the next day determined to put it onto film no matter what and regardless of if it made any sense or not. I can see this not being a huge hit with a lot of people but it's out there and strange as hell which in my eyes makes it an interesting dive into an abnormal cinematic world.
