The Stink of the Flesh (2005)

The Stink of the Flesh is essentially a sexploitation film.  No, wait.  It is a black comedy.  No.  It is a character study.  Hm.  No.  It is a zombie film.  Argh.  Well, it's sort of all those things.  Which might be the problem.  The Stink of the Flesh works so hard to be all those things that it never succeeds at any.

The Stink of the Flesh starts with the lead character Matool (yes, just like the island in Zombie 2) roaming the deserted streets of New Mexico with nothing more than a sledgehammer and railroad spikes.  Matool has turned killing zombies into an enjoyable art form.  After a couple zombie encounters, Matool (Kurly Tlapoyawa) is captured by a married "living" couple (oh, the irony).  The couple, Nathan (Ross Kelly) and Dexy (Diva), live an alternative lifestyle where Nathan gets his jollies by watching men take the hard to the hole with Dexy.  To nobody's surprise, Matool abides.

Girls kissing girls! Insanity!

Living with Nathan and Dexy is Dexy's sister, Sassy (Kristin Hansen - Gunner Hansen of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame's niece), who is who has a mutated face living on the side of her body a la Basket Case.  I had been waiting someone to incorporate Frank Henenlotter's classic into a zombie film and it finally happened.  For better or worse.

In a shed outside the house, Nathan is keeping a chained female zombie that he uses for his own pleasure.   Crazy, right?  Who is the screwed up one in that situation?

Pretty sweet tool case you have there.

Not long after Matools' capture, two soldiers show up at the house carrying a third, mortally wounded colleague.  The mortally wounded soldier, Sepulveda, is placed in an unoccupied room and put on a 24 rotating watch while the rest of the team continues their regularly scheduled sexual exploits.  One of the soldiers begins a relationship with Sassy calling the face on her side, "disturbingly sexy".

Now is not the time to learn you are allergic to latex.

Just like Babylon, things eventually fall apart.  Husband against wife.  Soldiers against humans (with faces living on the sides of their bodies).  Living against the dead.  Total anarchy.

The Stink of the Flesh's genre bending approach is warmly wrapped in a giant blanket of "who is worse?  the living or the dead?".  And while I appreciate a new approach to the zombie genre, if they had just narrowed the scope or created a single character to root for, we could have an enjoyable, albeit low budget, film.  In the end, the view is left rooting for the zombies which, might be the point.