A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Let me start off by saying that there is absolutely no similarity between this "film" and the 1944 film Laura, aside from the fact that both films feature a detective, and a character named Laura. Those reviewers who are comparing both films for whatever reason are, confused. Not that there's much to understand about Singapore Sling, but…Being as every reviewer has rehashed the events that take place in this "film" I will not belabor them here. Nikolaidis has created what may well be the most genuinely weird intentionally weird p.o.s ever made. Others (Harmony Korine, David Lynch, Troma, etc) have tried and failed, making only boring dreck that people with worse taste than fans of SS could pretend to enjoy. Others (Pasolini, David Lynch, etc) because of their legal insanity, unwittingly make films that give the viewer a tiny peek at the vast ocean of lunacy that is the Director's "mind" (they don't know any better). Singapore Sling is a film that succeeds in being intentionally unintelligible, shocking, infuriating and "against the grain" for the sake of it. That's all there is to it. There is nothing more here. Nothing in the idiotic, pointless and cryptic dialogue. Nothing in the spastic, borderline drug induced performances. Nothing in the clunky cinematography, the grade school play level set design, the painfully failed comedy, the tired and poorly staged violence and sex acts….absolutely nothing. It's not good horror, mystery, or black comedy.It is excellent exploitation trash in the truest sense. There are times when it comes of as typically nauseatingly pretentious, but for the most part it seems like Nikolaidis isn't taking anything seriously. He knew the type of "film" he wanted to make and the type of experience he wanted the audience to have. In other words, he wanted to make the sickest most insane film nobody had yet seen, all else be damned. He comes close. Though, I haven't read any interviews or anything involving a "director's statement" or what have you, and probably never will, so who knows what exactly his intentions were. I can't imagine why anyone would care anyway… Check it out, if you have absolutely nothing better to do with your life.

When a friend recently passed me this film to watch,I first looked at the trailer for it,and my first impression was that it was going to be a bit similar to a movie called Johnny Got His Gun.Instead,after around the first 15 minutes of the movie,I started to realise that my guess was very,very wrong.. The plot:In a house that is right in the middle of no where,a mother and daughter duo have created a bunch of deadly games,for any poor soul that finds themselves in the house.When someone arrives at the house,the duo (who have also killed there own father/husband,and there driver) force the victim to take part in very disturbing S&M games,which includes electrocuting them with short shocks.After they have had there "fun",both of the girls slowly torture the person,until they are dead.Due to being in the middle of nowhere,and the fact that they make sure that no one ever leaves the house alive,the girls feel that there fun will never end.One day,when they hear a knock at the door,they open it, to find a man who is almost unconscious.After having put him on a bed,both of them pick everything out of his pockets,which includes a notebook.As they read the notebook,they discover that the man is a detective,who seems to be obsessively looking for his true love:a girl called Laura.The only problem is,that Laura was brutally killed by the duo three years ago.With both of them not wanting the detective to report back about what he might suspect,it is decided that they have found there new victim... View on the film:For the look of the film,writer/director Nikos Nikolaidis,has made the film feel like one of the old-time Universal horror movies,whose production went that "off track",it led the studio to lock the film away,so that it would never be seen!.This is massively helped,by the film being shot in a very crisp black and white style,which also suits the more film-noir side of the movie,that becomes much more noticeable in the second half of the film.For the screenplay,Nikos gives no breathing space at all,to help you ease in to the film.Instead,he does everything he can,so that the audience is thrown headfirst into one of the toughest hours of film that I have ever seen.In the first hour of this insane (note:not at all like a Giallo) horror-noir hybrid,Nikolaidis fills the screen with some extremely disturbingly aggressive S&M scenes,that are performed by a cast,who are impressively very focus in their performances for the whole film.Thankfully,after an hour,(which includes some moments of extreme torture and degradation, that are still stuck in my head,even after having watched the film three days ago.)the movie thankfully gives you a chance to at last breath,by going into a very noticeable film noir direction,which includes a lot of fantastic moments,such as letting the audience hear the Detectives inner monologues and unpredictably having the characters break the "fourth wall" and talk to the audience about past events.Final view on the film:One of the most original and disturbing films that I have ever seen.

The reflexive urge to label any film that flaunts its own sense of willful ambiguity as "in the vein of Lynch" is an overused cliché in the realm of armchair film criticism. And it's all too easy to overstate the paranoid influence of Polanski on films that take a maddeningly subjective approach to their characters. And it's easier yet to label a movie released in 1990, yet utilizing gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, as a satirical-noir counterpart to Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" and the black-humored psychological horror of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" But "Singapore Sling," true to its alcohol-blended title, cribs all of these seemingly disparate influences into a bizarre original that, while not yielding the most emotionally resonant result, offers a hypnotic descent into a gradually escalating nightmare. Greek writer-director Nikos Nikolaidis offers a simple setup, revealed through the title character's voice-over narration: for three years, he has been searching for a woman named Laura, and an injury (for which no explanation is given) finds him on the doorstep of a deranged "Mother" (Michele Valley) and "Daughter" (Meredyth Herold), who proceed to torture and degrade our protagonist in all manner of revolting ways. "Singapore Sling" is well aware of its capacity to disgust and provoke, but what keeps the proceedings fascinating (and watchable) are performances (particularly Valley's and Herold's) that take on an inspired madness that convinces the viewer that their actions are consistent with their unglued personalities (and not mere showy torture fodder in the "Hostel" mold). Complementing Nikolaidis's madhouse aesthetic is the black-and-white cinematography, where one beautifully-conceived shot follows the next, and gives the proceedings a paradoxically classy look, despite the sharp contrast with the subject matter. While not without pretension, "Singapore Sling" straddles the line between "arthouse" and "grindhouse" with gleefully mad abandon, its unapologetic weirdness a breath of fresh air.

The main "story" in Singapore Sling is quite openly taken from Otto Preminger's film noir movie, Laura, only interpreted as some kind of bizarre erotic torture fantasy with some pissing and vomiting thrown in for good measure. The "mother" character, played by Michele Valley, reminds me of Isabella Rosselini's performance as Dorothy Valance in Blue Velvet, whilst Meredyth Herold looks a lot like Elisabeth Shue.The lighting and cinematography are fantastic and the performances, though not exactly convincing are somewhat mesmerising in their own right. Ultimately the pace is rather slow and the satisfying twists and turns of Preminger's film are eschewed. Rather, Nickolaidas chooses to languish in the perversely decadent world of torture and sex for the duration and the story it references is pushed into the back ground and barely evident. It is safe to say, however, that the "plot" is hardly the point. It is my intuition that this reference serves only to further establish the noir world in which the director wishes the film to be situated.Though it won't grip you like a true film noir would, it is enjoyable enough if only for the tits and ass, great cinematography, and the transgressive moments of erotic weirdness and disturbing sexual violence.You should see it, if only to say that you have! A guaranteed pleasure for anyone who ever dreamt of seeing Dorothy Vallance make out with Jennifer Parker. :)