Widely considered one of the meanest, most vicious and disturbing roughie porno features to ooze across celluloid in the splendidly sleazy 70's, Shaun Costello's "Forced Entry" sure ain't a pretty picture. Legendary hardcore star Harry Reems gives a frightfully intense and convincing performance as a dangerous deranged Vietnam veteran who works at a gas station. Reems embarks on a ferocious misogynistic rape and murdering spree, breaking into his female victims' houses and having his rotten wicked carnal way with them prior to killing the unlucky ladies in cold blood. Reems makes his first victim (tasty full-figured brunette Jutta David) perform fellatio on him and then slits her throat. His second victim (well played by the lovely Laura Cannon of "Fleshpot on 42nd Street" fame) doesn't fare any better: Harry savagely sodomizes her and proceeds to repeatedly stab her in the chest after he's finished. This particular sequence is positively brutal and hence extremely hard to watch. But Reems finally meets his match in an irritating pair of giggly stoner hippie chicks who are too wasted on drugs to find poor Harry even remotely threatening.
Director Costello rubs the viewer's nose in an unflinchingly graphic and sordid avalanche of raunchy sex and raw violence. Costello further throws the viewer off balance with his stark, stripped-down style, inspired use of unnerving sound (helicopter and machine gun noises blare away throughout along with plenty of bizarre chanting and full-bore profanity), authentically grubby New York City location shooting, genuine black and white documentary footage of ghastly Vietnam war atrocities, and a few nice touches of bleak irony (Reems wears a baseball cap with the American flag on it and works at a gas station called "Joe's Friendly Service"). (Costello also pops up in the movie as some guy who does just what you think with Harry's first victim.) Jayson Black's rough, scratchy 16mm cinematography adds substantially to the brooding, fetid, overwhelmingly seamy scuzzshow atmosphere. Ruby Runhouse and Nina Fawcett are both simply dreadful as the dippy hippie chicks, but fortunately compensate for their awful acting with a hot lesbian sex scene. That criticism aside, this fiercely ugly and unsettling knockout packs one hell of a strong and lingering gut punch.
Director Costello rubs the viewer's nose in an unflinchingly graphic and sordid avalanche of raunchy sex and raw violence. Costello further throws the viewer off balance with his stark, stripped-down style, inspired use of unnerving sound (helicopter and machine gun noises blare away throughout along with plenty of bizarre chanting and full-bore profanity), authentically grubby New York City location shooting, genuine black and white documentary footage of ghastly Vietnam war atrocities, and a few nice touches of bleak irony (Reems wears a baseball cap with the American flag on it and works at a gas station called "Joe's Friendly Service"). (Costello also pops up in the movie as some guy who does just what you think with Harry's first victim.) Jayson Black's rough, scratchy 16mm cinematography adds substantially to the brooding, fetid, overwhelmingly seamy scuzzshow atmosphere. Ruby Runhouse and Nina Fawcett are both simply dreadful as the dippy hippie chicks, but fortunately compensate for their awful acting with a hot lesbian sex scene. That criticism aside, this fiercely ugly and unsettling knockout packs one hell of a strong and lingering gut punch.