I always liked this movie, but my first viewing gave me strong Rocky Horror vibes with Brian De Palma’s stylistic camerawork poured over it. I watch it every few years, and even now that I’ve grown out of De Palma, the movie and musical references are what keep me returning. Rocky Horror perhaps is a close reference, but the two films are very different in their aims. This is more of an attack on the way pop music has evolved over the decades, but repeatedly hides sinister intentions. The songs are catchy, but so are diseases and both can make real life hard to breathe in. While stealing from Phantom of the Opera, changing the venue to the “Paradise” is part of the sick joke. It’s a paradise built on death and corruption, where the classic Hollywood dream of “going out a youngster and coming back a star” is the lure for two businesses that chew up the innocent.
The film is flawed throughout, but it’s also full of life and energy thanks to De Palma’s visual bravura. The sets, lighting and camera turn The Paradise into a Carnival. The humor is campy, the songs by Paul Williams are memorable, and the violence is very 70s. Some of this put me off initially, but now it’s why I keep coming back. Now I love every moment of this weird little movie.
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