110 Volts Of Torture Review

Distributor: Alpha Blue Archives Edition Details: Standard DVD Release Specs: Also known as: 110 Volts of Torment Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

110 Volts of Torture is a relatively poor compilation from Alpha Blue Archives. There are two movies included on the disc, Shaun Costello's Daughters of Discipline, which is missing at least 20 minutes of footage and isn't in great shape and Terry Sullivan's Young Girls in Bondage, which is such a bad film I am not sure how any masters managed to survive. The disc is poorly authored as well. All of the material on the disc is on one track and one has to use the chapter menu to navigate to any particular film or loop and the time code keeps changing the time during the films.

Alpha Blue Archives has included a few extras on the disc but they are all horrible. There is a feature called “Stag Record,” which is an odd audio track that plays over the extras menu when selected that features a roving sex reporter, which I think was supposed to be a comedy but I'll be honest I couldn't manage to listen to that much of it. There are pops in the audio for this feature. There are three loops included on the disc. “Electrified” which is silent with music and in color. “Electrified” is a nasty and unappealing loop that is honestly hard to sit through. The print is murky with a smudgy picture that contains print damage and artifacts. “Electrified” runs for eleven minutes. “To Pry a Secret,” which was clearly mastered off of a video. “To Pry a Secret” is a color loop and the print contains glitches in the video, print damage, artifacts, washed out color, and a murky smudgy picture. The audio sounds as if was recorded on a hand held recorder off of a live television set. “To Pry a Secret” is a nasty loop, just like “Electrified,” which is hard to sit though. “To Pry a Secret” runs for 15 minutes. The final loop is ”Electric Persuasion,” which runs for 11 minutes. “Electric Persuasion” was made by Roxbury Press (F 628) and like the other two loops is rather nasty and vile. It is silent with music and the print offers a murky smudgy picture with print damage, artifacts, and poor color. All three loops contain a ABA bug in the lower right corner.

You can jump to the review of Daughters of Discipline or Young Girls in Bondage or just keep reading to read them all.

Daughters of Discipline is a roughie that Shaun Costello made under commission for Avon. Contrary to popular belief, Costello was never one of the Avon stable of directors despite making several titles for Avon. Costello worked for the adult film division of the Gambino crime family, who made films under the commission of Avon to be shown at the Avon cinemas.

Daughters of Discipline is a rather nasty film, which would have fit right in at the Avon cinemas, that would be hard to watch during certain portions if one didn't know that Costello faked all the nasty portions with angles, editing, and some good blood effects. He did a great job of making those faked shots look real.

The story for Daughters of Discipline doesn't make a whole bunch of sense. Ellie Devereaux (C.J. Laing) receives the death card from the sex cult that she belongs to. Ellie reminisces about how she first was brought to the cult run by Bruno (Shaun Costello) by her friend Bob (Victor Colicchio). Then the cult members prepare during the day for Ellie's sacrifice that night.

Ellie expresses her desire for much of the film to skip out on her sacrifice yet then willingly ends up going and participating. Barry Milton (Leo Lovemore) and Jeanette (Brenda Filbrick), who are other members of the cult, question whether the sacrifice will really happen, yet they too willing go and participate. Costello does use the flimsy plot to manage to introduce several sex scenes of variety, some far more tame than others, into the film.

Costello makes good use of camera angles for shooting the film to create some rather unique shots, however there does seem to be an issue with the camera staying in focus at times. His cult dungeon looks rather scuzzy and fits well. His way the cult kills their sacrifice, which I won't reveal here, is rather inspired as well.

Alpha Blue Archives has done a horrible job with this release. Daughters of Discipline is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The master that Alpha Blue Archives has used was a video source and contains glitches in the video throughout the presentation. The print that used at one point had damage, jumps, and there are artifacts present. The colors are decent. The print has been heavily cut with a run time twenty minutes shorter than the After Hours Cinema release (which is missing at least one minute and ten seconds of footage that is in this version). Alpha Blue Archives has also done a horrible job of mastering the disc. This movie, along with all of the loops, and the other movie are all on one continuously playing track. The only way to watch this movie itself is through the chapter menu. The time code also skips large periods of time during the feature for unknown reason. Unlike some of the material on this disc, there isn't an ABA bug during the presentation of Daughters of Discipline.

Daughters of Discipline is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track, which sounds relatively bad. The track contains significant background hiss along with crackles, pops, jumps, and distortion. The dialog can be heard throughout the film.

Young Girls in Bondage is, in all honesty, a giant piece of garbage. The title is even misleading. While the title is pluralized, there are only two cast members, three if you count the off camera director, of which only one is female. The credits claim that the screenplay was written by Judith Shima, however, I can't believe that there was an actual screenplay written for this film. There is no story at all. Not even the hint of a story.

The entire film consists of a woman (Susan Bond), who is released from a dog cage by a man (Dick Taylor) and then is forced to partake in various fetish acts around a house. Then at the end the director, from off camera, interviews the two about the film. The male is the one who mostly answers the questions.

The film looks amateurish and looks like something that might be made today by someone in their home with a camcorder not something that was actually made by anyone with any knowledge on how to make an erotic film or any film at all for that matter. IAFD says that Terry Sullivan made the film hiding behind the pseudonym Katrina Lee. The director appears to have been a male, from the interview at the end, unless the interview was done by the camera operator Jim Babb hiding behind the pseudonym J. Slater. I don't blame either of them for hiding behind pseudonyms for this mess. There is even a police car siren going by the house Young Girls in Bondage was filmed in during the interview segment that was kept in the film. Despite a “T. O'Flaherty” listed as the editor, I suspect that this film was probably edited in camera.

This film appeared to have been played at Avon, however it seems poor even by Avon's often low standards. I can't recommend this film for anyone.

Alpha Blue Archives has done a horrible job with this release. Young Girls in Bondage is presented in the full screen aspect ratio. The master used for the transfer is clearly a video. The transfer contains glitches in the video, artifacts, jumps, washed out color, and print damage. There is a lack of definition. And there are places where the picture darkens then lightens. Alpha Blue Archives has also done a horrible job of mastering the disc. This movie, along with all of the loops, and the other movie are all on one continuously playing track. The only way to watch this movie itself is through the chapter menu. The time code also skips large periods of time during the feature for unknown reason. Unlike some of the material on this disc, there isn't an ABA bug during the presentation of Young Girls in Bondage.

Young Girls in Bondage is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. The track doesn't sound the greatest but is acceptable and dialog can be heard throughout the film.

110 Volts of Torture is a relatively poor compilation from Alpha Blue Archives. There are two movies included on the disc, Shaun Costello's Daughters of Discipline, which is missing at least 20 minutes of footage and isn't in great shape and Terry Sullivan's Young Girls in Bondage, which is such a bad film I am not sure how any masters managed to survive. The disc is poorly authored as well. There are three loops included on the disc, all in poor shape and all nasty and vile and hard to watch. I can't recommend this release for anyone.

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