Transgression: The Director's Cut — Transgression: The Director's Cut( DVD)

Transgression is a low budget 1990’s serial killer film, which blends in elements of kinky sleazy and haphazardly arty touches. It’s a film that swings between rewarding enough moments of shock and puzzlement, though there are frustrating pacing issues and some overly repetitive use of imagery. Here from the folks at SRS Cinema is a new DVD release of this film, offering up a commentary track and a few other extras.

Transgression appeared in the year 1994, and was filmed in & around Athens, New York. It was directed & written by Michael DiPaolo, who apparently over a fifteen-year period filmed over 2000 confessions of murders for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Between the years 1986 and 2015 DiPaolo has helmed twelve feature-length films- these take in the likes of 1987’s Where No Sun Shines, whose tag line was ‘the whores, hustlers & homeless up close and personal’, 2003’s Daddy which focused on series of bizarre sexual crimes in small lakefront community, and more recently 2011’s I Don’t Wanna Feel Nothing No More, which chronicled three generations of incest. 

The film focuses on TV report Mary Selby (Molly Jackson), who we first meet on death row- as she relates how she got this point with voice-over flashbacks. First, she gets fascinated with a leather masked killer who is abducting, then dumping women’s bodies around the city. Because of this she starts flirting with slightly tubby Mexican policeman Detective Reyes (Julio Rodriguez)- within time the pair becomes a couple. 
Due to her obsession with the case, she starts getting phone calls from the killer, then he abducts her- taking her to his ripped red fabric lair. He ties her to a chair and starts taunting her with his victims- raping then slicing their throats, rubbing their blood in her face, and similar.
 
As the film unfolds, we get a mix of taut though slightly awkwardly executed drama, gruff-voiced serial killer action taking in cuffing victims, stabbings, slashings, etc., kinky sexualized encounters, and religious imagery. The whole film cuts back and forth between the killers and victims outlook, shifting back and forth through times scales, and darting moments of leering fantasy. The cutting/ flow of the film is, to be frank a bit of a mess- but the most frustrating thing here is repeated use of the same imagery & scenes again & again- this does I guess gives the film a dizzying & disorientating quality, but at points, it does becoming tiring. 
 
I’d say Transgression has its effectively disturbing moments, darkly quirky visual touches, and rewarding droning and angular scoring. It also has its share of more puzzling/ unintentionally amusing elements- like sudden layered French dialogue, and some really hamming it up acting. Overall, it’s an interesting, if at times frustratingly flawed take on the serial killer genre.
 
 On the extras side we get a commentary track from director Michael DiPaolo- and this in-depth, intelligent and largely quite interesting track. He starts off by mentioning a Nietzsche quote and the use of a Bach early on in the film. Moving on he discusses how he sees the film as connecting together the catholic mass and serial killing. He talks about why he did the director’s cut of the film we find on this disc, and what he adjusted/ changed. He moves on to talk about the film's locations, and how he filmed them to suggest certain things. Later on, he talks about how BBFC cut the film for its VHS release in the ’80s, he discusses where he feels some of the scenes don’t work. He talks about the film’s general themes, camera use in more intense/ emotional scenes. Otherwise, we get an eleven-minute making of, trailer, and stills gallery.
 
Transgression: The Director's Cut is certainly one of the artier takes on the SOV form, and there’s no doubt Michael DiPaolo was trying to do something both interesting and intelligent with the serial killer genre. Sure, not all of it worked for me, and there are real pacing/ repetition issues here- but I’d say if you enjoy the better produced SOV fare, with artier & thoughtful ideas/ themes it’s worth giving Transgression a go.