The Vicious Sweet, Scream Queen Bound

Oh to be a scream queen! There have been so many classic ones that this blog has enjoyed. The Hammer films gave us Caroline Munro and Ingrid Pitt. The 1980s gave us Jamie Lee Curtis and Barbara Crampton. These sultry actresses will always have a special place in the horror fan's heart...especially for us guys. Admiring them and their performances shows respect and perhaps a tip of the hat to true feminism. But wait! Just like the plots of their films, not every fan out there is balanced...hence an unhealthy obsession takes over. Hence 1997's "The Vicious Sweet," directed by Ron Bank.

Tyler Phenix (Sasha Graham) is the world's premier scream queen. Her fans adore her and low budget horror film makers seek her out. She screams well, and dies well...usually in various states of undress.  Zombies and slashers are her film companions. Uh oh, the beautiful Tyler is 30 and as she looks back at her life she feels empty and worthless. Suicide seems her best option. Ironically she is saved by a insaniac fan. He chloroforms her and drags her into a mysterious cell. Tyler will spend much of the film in her undies, handcuffed to a bed, tormented by her new insaniac master, Grimaldi (Bob Licata).

Grimaldi knows everything about Tyler including...well you'll see. Parts of Tyler's past are so horrible she has tried to block them out, but Grimaldi will have none of that. The more painful and humiliating the past event, the more intense the masked Grimaldi is about exploiting it for his bound prisoner. As Grimaldi insists he wants to save Tyler from herself, she has reason not to trust authority figures. Now Tyler tries something perverse. Reaching back to a shameful time in her life, before slasher films, the half naked and bound scream queen uses her sexuality to try to seduce her insane keeper. As Tyler's past is brought back, monsters from her films take the role of her past tormentors. Whatever the outcome, Tyler Phenix will be changed forever...if she survives.

Just what elements of her sordid past propel Tyler into this nightmarish journey? Is this even real, did Tyler in fact take those sleeping pills, and is she merely being dragged to Hell? Is the horrific past life of Tyler more of a horror film than the ones she made with zombies and slashers? The ending is epic in this psychological horror/thriller that may be termed gratuitous exploitation by more high-minded critics. For a wonderful performance by the beautiful Sasha Graham, and an unsettling movie experience, see "The Vicious Sweet."