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DERANGED/MOTEL HELL (MGM, US DVD) Deranged: Motel Hell: Tag-lines: 'Pretty Sally Mae died a very unnatural death! ... but the worst hasn't happened to her yet!' (Deranged). 'It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent Fritters!' (Motel Hell). Death Tolls: In Deranged, four people - including Ma Cobb, of natural causes. In Motel Hell, five onscreen deaths and a whole lotta torment. Cutting Remarks: Released in 1974, Deranged is a thinly-veiled account of the Ed Gein story, starring the convincingly insane Roberts Blossom as Ezra Cobb, your everyday mother-worshipping weirdo. When she dies as he's feeding her pea soup, he goes seven shades of mental and decides to make womankind pay. He digs his Ma up and sets about finding her some new flesh.          Tom Savini worked on the three-man make-up team here, which was headed by Alan Ormsby, who also wrote and co-directed. Unfortunately, in this cut version, we don't get to see their goriest handiwork. A controversial scene, in which ol' Ezra scoops an eyeball out of a severed head, then cuts the top of its head off and removes the brains, is completely missing here. Interestingly, this scene was left intact in the UK print (out through the Exploited label in 1998), although the British Board Of Film Classification did remove one of their eternal bugbears - a scene in which blood dribbles copiously over naked, inverted breasts.          Deranged is a decent enough little movie, with surprisingly good acting. Roberts Blossom was clearly born to play an Ed Gein-modelled character, and his female victims emote with suitable gusto as their fates draw near. Hardly a classic to be placed alongside the similarly Gein-derived Psycho or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but possibly the movie which most faithfully presents the Gein tale.          Motel Hell, the second movie in this rather cool DVD double bill package, is a sick little black comedy that definitely draws on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, while maintaining its own identity, due its resolutely warped sense of humour. Unlike most horror comedies, it also succeeds in being genuinely disturbing: Farmer Vincent and his equally twisted sister Ida drug their victims, bury them up to their necks and cut their vocal chords. The result is a human cabbage patch which is admittedly made slightly less grim by the fact that everybody makes the same gargling quacks, which are badly synched to their frantic lip movements.          Once suitably ‘matured’, the victims have their necks snapped, are dug up, chopped up and distributed among the local unsuspecting townsfolk as tasty snacks. Motel Hell is tremendous fun, and comparatively well-made, with some especially great lines from Rory Calhoun as the deadpan mentalist Vincent. It climaxes with a chainsaw duel between our man and his Sheriff brother Bruce. Vincent’s final utterance is an emotionally-charged confession: ‘I’m the biggest hypocrite of them all. In my meats... I used... preservatives’. Very amusing. Most Memorable Demises: In Deranged, young Sally Mae's. It goes on forever. In Motel Hell, three of the buried folk go simultaneously, being hypnotised by psychedelic lights, then having their necks broken by nooses attached to a tractor. Which was almost certainly never seen in a film before or since. Look Out For: In Deranged, the narrator who claims to be a real "newspaper columnist", who has a disturbing habit of walking into shot and sitting down, with Ezra in the background, stageplay-style. In Motel Hell, the kinky, swinging couple who are willingly hog-tied by Vincent and Ida, then dosed up with what they think is laughing gas. As they pass out, destined for the patch, Vincent chuckles, ‘With this gas, you smell it and we do the laughing!’. Classic. Killer Quotes: "Remember what I've always told you. The wages of sin is gonorrhea, syphilis and death!" - Ma Cobb gives Ezra some handy advice in Deranged. Meanwhile, in Motel Hell, the corniest line comes from the lead singer of rock band Ivan And The Terribles, seconds before the band’s tour van veers off the road and capsizes: "We’d better find somewhere to crash!". DVD Details: Both movies are presented in nicely cleaned-up, 16:9/1.85:1 prints. Deranged is mono, while Motel Hell is stereo. Both come with their original trailers. Sadly, the Making Of Deranged featurette which appeared on the UK video is absent here. Some more features like this would have been nice, but the two movies do offer value for money. Release Date: Out now. [Check it out at Amazon US] [Reviews Menu] [Home] © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present