Discopath

Discopath (2013)

Runtime: 81 minutes

Directed by: Renaud Gauthier

Starring: Jeremie Earp-Lavergne, Francois Aubin, Sandrine Bisson, Catherine Antaki

From: Durango

My apologies for last night but I spent the day catching up on sleep and doing other things so it wasn't a time for movie-watching, and I put up such a short message as I was literally almost out the door to go out and about.

Yep, this is another review where I copy and paste from Letterboxd then expand upon things. This was something I watched on Xbox Video earlier in the evening as it's been a long while since I've used the service. This is a Canuxploitation movie as it's from Canada (Montreal, to be exact). Here's the plot description from the IMDb:

"The mid-70's: a timid young New Yorker leads an uneventful life until he is fatefully exposed to the pulsating rhythms of a brand-new genre of music: disco. Unable to control his murderous impulses that stem from a traumatic childhood experience, Duane Lewis transforms into a dangerous serial killer exiled to Montreal."

I believe it was late last year on a horror website where I first heard of a movie set in 1976 (then 1980) about a young man who due to a wacky death involving his dad and musical equipment, whenever he hears disco music he snaps and becomes a killer, and it has the awesome title of DISCOPATH. My hopes were high it'd be cool as it's a groovy premise and I heard it compared to Joe Spinell's Maniac, which is a high bar to jump over.

Alas... I can't help but be disappointed by the movie, despite seeing some praise for it elsewhere. The film starts off in New York City and after he kills a young lady, he flees and he pretty much picks Montreal at random. Thus, after that, most of the movie-which started off in English-becomes subtitled as much of the rest of the dialogue is in Quebec French. That was... different.

Now, I did enjoy the settings and there are some hilarious fashions from the time period, there are some nicely done shots and some cool moments. The score was alright enough and you do hear actual disco songs. I don't know the titles of the French Canadian disco diddies but there's Walter Murphy's Flight '76 (a disco version of Flight of the Bumblebee), KC & The Sunshine Band's I'm Your Boogie Man, and KISS's I Was Made For Loving You (I'll always laugh that KISS did both that and another disco song known as Sure Know Something). Bizarrely, a few times you also hear what certainly sounded like a goofy ripoff of Threshold, the 1 minute instrumental from The Steve Miller Band that's before Jet Airliner. Odd.

Unfortunately, with the merits I listed already, I still only have to rate it as being a bit below average. It's the story and script which sink things.

Things don't make a lot of sense and there are some REALLY stupid moments. Characters do infuriating things, whether it's just them being complete A-holes or their actions making no sense. The story-especially once it reaches Montreal-becomes both inert and confused, and I started to lose interest. There's a wacky thing where the killer uses hearing aids to make himself deaf... yep. Maybe I am rating it lower than I should but I was disappointed because I thought the general premise was rad and I thought it could have been pretty bitchin'. Instead you get an off and on movie which of course has to have an ending that makes no sense at all.

But, at least it has some cool posters... also, as I am me I have to note that some of the women in the movie were pretty hot and they were definitely my type and I enjoyed seeing one of them shirtless and the other one rollerskating in a purple outfit with her asscheeks hanging out!

I'll return tomorrow night.