Andy Warhol's Bad

If ever a movie set out to live up to its title... Baker runs a home electrolysis parlour as a front for a dial-a-murder organisation: she puts her clients in touch with lethal girls who will assassinate unwanted offspring, relatives and other enemies. The New York streets are already so full of violence that the crimes pass virtually unnoticed, but the movie makes a point of lingering over its sadistic details; everything is as grotesque as possible. At the same time, it's played as much as possible like American TV soap opera, complete with its repetitions and stretches of tedium. The main plot centres on Perry King and whether he'll be cold enough to kill an autistic child. In terms of its own frames of reference, the movie is competent enough to almost transcend criticism, but its humour proved way too sick for most English critics.