Waterpower Review

Distributor: Historic Erotica/Global Media International Edition Details: TLA Entertainment Exclusive Edition DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film Also known as: Water Power, The Enema Bandit, The Enema Killer, Schpritz Run Time: 66 minutes/81 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1977 Director: Shaun Costello (as Gerard Damiano) Written by: Shaun Costello (as Arthur Dietrich) Cast: Jamie Gillis, John Buco, C.J. Laing, Eric Edwards, Marlene Willoughby, Gloria Leonard, Clea Carson (Valerie Morgenstern), Jeanne Silver (as Joan Beattie), Crystal Sync (as Eleanor Barnes), Philip Marlowe (as Phil Morini), Susaye London (as Lois Turkan), Barbara Belkin, Craig Esposito, Sharon Mitchell (as Sharon Mitchel), Sally O'Neil, Shaun Costello (as Howard Steinman), Fred Keitel, Leo Lovemore (as David Jarman), Peter Christiana, Beverly Steig, Roger Caine Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD-R Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Waterpower is a bizarre film to come from the mind of Shaun Costello, well not entirely from his mind as he was commissioned by the Gambino crime family to make an enema film. Costello is the one who wrote the story featuring Jamie Gillis in the Travis Bickelesque, from Taxi Driver, role of Burt. Burt witnesses a live sex show featuring a doctor (Eric Edwards), nurse (Marlene Willoughby), and Pamela (Jeanne Silver) where Pamela receives an enema. Burt sees the stewardess (Clea Carson) he has been fantasizing about with another man and breaks in to her place, rapes her, and gives her an enema. Burt then thinks he is on a mission to clean all the whores in NYC and goes out raping and giving girls enemas as the police try to catch him.

Waterpower is loosely based off of the true story of Michael H. Kenyon, known as the enema bandit, who from 1965 to 1974 committed several armed robberies of women starting at the University of Illinois Urbana continuing around the country and ending in Chicago, Illinois, some of which involved administering enemas to the women.

As for why Gerard Damiano's name appears as the director instead of Shaun Costello has been explained by Costello. The original version of the film, the true director's cut, contained the director's name as Helmuth Richler, one of Costello's aliases. The Gambino crime family changed the director's name to Damiano's to capitalize off of his success, despite Damiano having absolutely nothing to do with Waterpower.

Waterpower, for the most part, is a gritty, nasty, and almost completely nonerotic adult film. Yet as a film it is not a failure, it is just a failure as jerk-off material. It is hard to be aroused when watching something such as Gillis jerking off while Carson expels the enema solution after he has finished raping her at gunpoint.

What Costello has crafted is a twisted tale that is accessible as any exploitation film is. The film is nicely shot utilizing many non-sex shots and street photography. While it may have been shot quickly, it comes across as having quite a bit of thought going into it. There are some editing problems, like one scene that abruptly cuts off and some footage being utilized a second time when the sisters are in the bathroom with their expulsion, but these are hard to blame on Costello considering how many times this film has been edited after he turned in his copy.

The video quality on this release of Waterpower varies depending on what version of the film you watch. This review is on the TLA Entertainment Exclusive DVD, which contains both what is termed the “Original Version” and what is termed the “Director's Cut,” not the standard mass market DVD which does not contain the “director's cut” version. Neither label is appropriate, from what I understand the director's original version has been lost, which apparently ran for about 75 minutes, and the version here termed the “original version” is the closest currently in existence to the original director's cut — although it is missing several key dialog sequences — and the “director's cut” contained on the disc would be better called the producer's cut, although it seems to be missing a few minutes of footage from the true producer's cut. The “director's cut” runs for 81 minutes and the “original version” runs for 66 minutes. The longest noted version, the producer's cut supposedly ran for somewhere between 84 to 86 minutes from what I understand. The “director's cut” has a different ending than the “original version” does, with the “original version” ending with the words “The End” over the picture and the “director's cut” has rape statistics.

Historic Erotica has presented both versions of Waterpower on the disc in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The “original version” looks very nice. It may have actually come from a film print at some recent point. However it is still mastered off a video tape for the DVD. The picture is a little soft but sports beautiful color. There are artifacts present and occasional glitches in the video. The “director's cut” is a different story. The “director's cut” appears to be a composite master with the material that is added not in the “original version” in very poor shape which was clearly sourced from a video master that was in bad shape to start with. The material that was in the “original version” in the “director's cut” is in the same nice shape as in the “original version” on the disc. The added material is murky with washed out colors and looks like an n^th generation video dub. Both versions of Waterpower on the disc are presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural track. For both of them the audio is surprisingly poor. The audio is muffled and hollow sounding, making dialog unclear and a resulting sound that ends up sounding flatter than it should, even for a monaural soundtrack. No extras have been included on the disc.

Overall, this release of Waterpower is a mixed bag. The “original version” is in good shape except for the audio. The “director's cut,” despite being closer to the producer's cut than the director's cut is a nice inclusion despite the added footage being in poor shape. At one point Shaun Costello was working with Pink Flamingo to release the closest possible reconstruction of the director's cut possible, but that seems to have never materialized. Hopefully someone in the future will release the true director's cut, along with the full producer's cut and the shorter theatrical version as well with a commentary from Costello on the director's cut and a feature on how the film came to be along with how all the different versions came to be. Until that day happens, this release may be the best one currently available on the market due to the two cuts included here.

Waterpower is a bizarre film to come from Shaun Costello that has an even more bizarre release history. The TLA Entertainment Exclusive DVD contains two versions of the film on the disc. One called the original version and one called the director's cut. Neither is, to the best of my knowledge either the original version or the director's cut. The video quality is very good on the original version and varies from very good to poor in the director's cut. As of now, The Historic Erotica version appears to be the best release of Waterpower to have come out as of yet, but hopefully someday a definitive version will get released.

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