They’re Playing With Fire (1984; Starz/Anchor Bay)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: D Film: C
Sybil
Danning was trying to set herself up as the next action heroine or big sex
star, but that never took hold, but she found herself in cult works like
co-writer/director Howard Avedis’ They’re
Playing With Fire (1984) where she is unhappily married to one man (Andrew
Prine) yet decides to have a sexual affair with a teenager (Eric Brown) who she
may only want to use at first.
There is
money involved, as well as misery, but the film really goes all over the place
when a serial killer is on the loose. At
least it does not fall apart like Hot
Fuzz, but this was at the end of a long cycle of less-than-softcore skin
flicks passed off in the mainstream and as independent productions before VHS,
Beta and Cable killed that market. It is
also the end of a freer sense of sexuality without pretense or stupidity before
some censorship crazy people went wild.
The film is uneven, but worth seeing once just to see how wacky it is.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 image shows its age, but has its moments, with
flesh tones looking only a tad red at times.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is more limited, partly from the generation
down of this mix, but also from the low budget.
There are no extras, though Avedis directed semi-exploitive films before
like The Fifth Floor and at least he
is consistent.
- Nicholas Sheffo
