Sonny Boy | Blu-ray Review

Shout Factory unveils a neglected cult item with its recuperation of Sonny Boy, a tawdry late 1980s obscurity with some awesome WTF grotesqueries. Although its creators, both then and now, insist on the narrative’s notable subtexts as an allegory on child abuse and toxic familial allegiance, the film is never quite elevated beyond its grindhouse elements. Notably, David Carradine stars as a redneck transvestite (whose gender identity remains undefined) as the caring part of a vicious hillbilly couple who raise a kidnapped orphan to kill and rob members of the local rural community. Its lurid set-up should definitely interest cineastes who can appreciate a bit of tastelessness in their exploitation films, but Robert Martin Carroll’s provocative directorial debut devolves into a surreal fairy tale with an undernourished finale.

In 1970 New Mexico, small time criminal Weasel (Brad Dourif) murders two tourists staying in an isolated motel, not realizing there’s an infant in the back of the stolen car. Reporting to his boss, Slue (Paul L. Smith), Weasel delivers the goods. To Slue’s chagrin, his transvestite girlfriend Pearl (David Carradine) insists they keep the child. Raised in a cage, the boy is trained to kill on command. Eventually, Sonny Boy (Michael Griffin) wishes to break free from bondage.

Even with its origins rooted in grossly exaggerated news headlines of the time, Carroll’s film had difficulty generating interested distributors, and Sonny Boy took several years to reach theatrical release, where it came and went in 1989 without generating much attention. Carradine tried to sell the film as a mixture of items such as Bonnie & Clyde, Bringing Up Baby, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, each of which Carroll’s film arguably has a passing resemblance to. A final shoot-out doesn’t come near to matching the greatness of Arthur Penn and it shares Rocky Horror’s fantastical worship of the beautiful masculine monster, which is perhaps Carroll’s greatest fault.

Michael Griffin makes his screen debut as Sonny Boy, but he always appears a bit too polished for a cannibal who lives in a ramshackle cage and devours raw chickens. We’re supposed to believe his tongue was cut out on his sixth birthday and he’s accustomed to extreme brutality, but he’s always photographed as well-groomed and gym fit. Often shirtless with fashionably teased tight blue jeans, his teeth and fingernails are enough to distract from the grisly possibilities of the film’s second half (if Sonny had looked like the adult version of Larry Cohen’s Its Alive baby, perhaps this wouldn’t have been the case).

Instead, we’re left to salivate on the deliriously strange supporting cast members, such as Paul L. Smith (best known for Midnight Express) as Slue, the incomparable Sydney Lassick (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), and the usually bizarre cult staple known as Brad Dourif. But nothing compares to the presence of David Carradine as the soft-spoken Pearl, uttering his ridiculous lines in nonchalant, sometimes self-aware tones similar to Kevin Spacey doing an SNL skit. The lack of characterization makes Carradine’s performance a bit too problematic to champion it as a progressively queer portrait, but it’s too compelling not to witness, including when he croons the film’s theme song “Maybe It Ain’t,” which the actor wrote himself.

Carroll, who would only direct one other feature, owes more to the template of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein mixed with Raising Arizona than the brazen Rocky Horror, and Sonny Boy’s plot begins to feel a bit too basic once its title character grows up and decides to follow his own desires (in fact, it’s a template still being used in various narrative’s today, most recently in 2015’s Chappie).

Disc Review:

Shout Factory impressively restores this obscure oddity in 2.35:1, and the production value certainly assists the film’s 1970 period feel. Picture and sound quality are both excellent, and two separate optional commentary tracks are available (from writer Graeme Whifler as well as director Robert Martin Carroll). Beyond a theatrical trailer, the item is sans bonus features.

Final Thoughts:

Lovers of the bizarre will definitely appreciate this forgotten oddity, and Sonny Boy is absolutely not-to-miss for fans of David Carradine.

Film Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆