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The most raucous and weirdest film of the year has arrived

Your briefing on a new cult classic

The most raucous and weirdest film of the year has arrived
Danielle de Wolfe
04 October 2016

The Greasy Strangler is coming for you.

Not literally - but check your back regardless. It's a movie, but not one we can easily categorise - save to say that if you rarely venture from Netflix's more placid foothills, this may not be the one for you.

Our best attempt at summarising it goes like this: a bickering father and son duo run a 'disco walking tour' in a dilapidated corner of the US. Big Brayden, the young of the two, frets that his father may be the greasy strangler, a local serial killer who coats himself in gunk to commit his crimes. It turns out he is, and things only get more complicated when they get involved in a love triangle that’s expressed through the medium of graphic sex involving body shapes seldom seen onscreen.

Here’s the trailer:

You already know if this is the kind of thing for you or not, but regardless, here are a few bullet points of information.

  • It may seem American to its demented core, but the key creatives – director Jim Hosking and writer Toby Harvard – are British ad men. Hosking has said he sees it as a “sexy comedy.”
  • It only exists thanks to the intervention of executive producers Elijah Wood and Ben Wheatley.
  • Tapioca was used for grease.
  • There a scene where the only word said is ‘potato’ for 90 seconds.
  • It may hold the record for the most prosthetic penises used in any film, ever.
  • It’s been gettingcracking reviews.

Look, just go see it – we have to pay for the changes we want in the world, as Gandhi sort of said.

The Greasy Strangler is out in cinemas today