The Film (3/5)

Yes, according to this film, even hotdog vendors can even be sociopathic perverts. Bag Boy Lover Boy is a ghastly tale about Albert (Jon Wachter) a strange acting hotdog vender who gets noticed by eccentric, professional photographer Ivan (Theodore Bouloukos). Ivan, who finds Albert to be both a fascinating subject because he thinks he’s both weird and stupid, hires him to be a model. Albert is enthused about the idea of being a photographer, but to his dismay, Ivan is a fetish photographer, taking photos of women in very little to no clothing doing very odd things, such as placing plastic bags over a woman’s head or women pretending to be pigs that are to be killed. Albert, who is sincerely interested in photography for the artistic aspect, is disgusted by this; at least we are led to believe that. As it turns out, Ivan has left an impression on Albert. While Ivan is away doing a fashion shoot in Italy, Albert, who has become crafty, is bringing hookers to the studio, offering them money for photographing them, with the intent to kill them and commit sexual acts. This, as you would imagine, eventually catches up with hotdog vender turned psycho photographer Albert.

Bag Boy Lover Boy is, if nothing else, an interesting, whacky cult film.  It’s bizarre, but, also a pretty creative, original tale. What other film can you see a hotdog vendor become a twisted necrophilliac? There are several unforgettable moments in the film. For the short running time, around 80 minutes, Director Torres crams a lot of plot at a really good pace. The central character Albert will certainly hold your interest, with his strange at first, but later demented behavior. The way he murders women and committing sexual acts after they are dead or just grinding them up into ground round are really startling. 

The other characters are also interesting and trashy which makes for a successful sleazy movie for midnight movie watchers. Theodore Bouloukos as Ivan the fetish photographer is just outstanding. He has some great, great lines and is really funny during the photoshoot scenes. There are also a lot surreal scenes and bizarre imagery that intertwine with the film along with some semi-strong gore and nudity.

The only problem I had with the film is, believe it or not, the inconsistent behavior of Albert, who we are led to believe is either somewhat mentally disabled or just a friendly simpleton that can be easily fooled by others, which did not seem to be the case by the time the film ends. As the film progresses, we realize that Albert appears to be sexually frustrated. After the photography shoots with women who sexually aroused Albert, thanks to Ivan, his character goes deeper into madness, and into a psychotic sex murderer. Albert isn’t quite the fool, as we are led to believe, at least by the films’ second act. His character is a lot more complex than what we expected and is very clever when it comes to bringing his victims to the studio.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

Severin Films presents Bag Boy Lover Boy in 1080p with an MPEG-4 AVC encode and in its original aspect ratio: of 1.78:1. It looks just marvelous with beautiful colors, excellent black levels, and great textures. Daylight scenes look the most spectacular. Scenery, both indoors and outdoors look terrific; flesh tones look fine for the most part; there were a few scenes where the flesh tones seemed to be too dark, a dark pinkish look that didn’t seem quite right.

The audio used for this release is English LPCM 2.0 and it’s more than serviceable. Dialog and other noises are perfectly fine, with the sounds not all that aggressive.

Extras (3/5)

There are a few good extras for this release. Included is a trailer, an audio commentary with Director Andres Torres, Actor Theodore Bouloukos and Editor Charlie Williams along with a couple of short films called “The Student Films of Actor Jon Wachter“ which includes  “Got Light”and “The Never Starting Story”. They are both shot in black and white and are silent. The Never Starting Story has a Jon Wachter commentary

Overall (3.5)

This is a really good release from Severin Films. Bag Boy Lover Boy isn’t a film for everybody, but it’s entertaining if you wish to give it a try. The extras plus good audio and video quality make this one a winner!