Killer Condom (1996)

Rating: C-

Dir: Martin Walz
Star: Udo Samel, Leonard Lansink, Marc Richter, Peter Lohmeyer

Based on a German comic-strip, the title really says it all: prophylactics with teeth. It’s got a nice, sleazy atmosphere, and is refreshingly frank sexually, with no deviation left unturned, as it roams the New York subculture of whores, rent-boys and transvestite ex-cop lounge singers. Boasting effects by Jorg Buttgereit, and H.R.Giger as a creative consultant, the condoms themselves are great. However, this is a one-joke movie, albeit one that lasts surprisingly well thanks to a good, deadpan performance from Samel as cop Luigi Mackeroni (a Sicilian now spouting German as a New York cop…). Despite this, it eventually runs out of steam and should probably have been shorter than 110 minutes. By the time their origin is revealed (cue dig at the religious right), you don’t really care any more — though by then it’s probably done enough to make you switch to some other form of contraception!