Legendary exploitation filmmaker Doris Wishman fumbles her way through this inane ode to the slasher film. It's an oddly interesting mess. One does have to give Wishman credit for trying to make something out of nothing, with a bunch of ridiculous scenes and a whole lot of truly terrible acting connected by a voice-over narration. The splatter is absolutely wonderful in its utter tackiness and excess, the music is often wholly inappropriate, and there are a sufficient amount of scenes and moments that are sure to have cult horror aficionados laughing out loud. (A case in point? That decapitation sequence.)Porn star Samantha Fox is the only "actor" here of anything resembling name value, as she plays Vicki, a young woman fresh out of an insane asylum. It seems that her brother Billy (William Szarka) is trying to send her right back there, and while this is going on, horrific axe murders take place. The intrepid detective on the case, O'Malley, provides all the exposition with his narration.Wishman also co-edited this, along with Larry Marinelli, and one can only imagine how that process must have gone down, with the two of them assembling *something* resembling a story out of a bunch of spare parts. One good thing is that "A Night to Dismember" is often just surreal, and incompetent, enough to be utterly fascinating in spite of itself. It could conceivably bore some viewers, but others will undoubtedly find it quite funny, and endearingly dumb.Five out of 10.

This diabolical abomination is the patchwork of mishandled material, and I can't fault director Doris Wishman for trying to make something out of nothing. It was equal parts painful, frustrating, not to mention bizarrely watchable at times. I do consider myself a gore aficionado and an enthusiast of weird cinema, so to say that 'A Night to Dismember' was a total waste would be a falsity. This is the first time that I can remember seeing a decapitated head roasting in a fireplace! How could one not enjoy watching porn star Samantha Fox, starring in this film as a recently released asylum patient, gobbling ham! You get a heart pulled from a chest, a head squashed under a car tire, and fingers hacked off! The grisly shenanigans include a gash in the forehead of a victim from the use of the dreaded ax(..and, my favorite would have to be the scene where the murderer has trouble shaking the head from the ax!). This does have the same bloody charm of a HGL production(..sharp implements slowly burst skin, with methodical blood flow). A lot of random people fall to the ax-wielding maniac, who chops without abandon.It's especially a treat to experience Fox's "method" performance. Part of the plot has Vicki(Fox)tormented by her sister and brother so she would return to the hospital(..it is feared that Vicki would take sis' boyfriend away from her!). The private dick who narrates the film(..I guess this is a homage to film noir while also providing Wishman with an outlet to explain details to the audience)is shown ogling Vicki, with her enjoying his eyes on her quite joyfully(..that is when she isn't asleep).Pretty grisly nightmare sequence where Vicki's sister dreams of being stabbed multiple times in the throat, head, and torso(..we see the knife and ax sometimes penetrating flesh). You even see the aftermath of a ghastly eyeball gouge. And, there's nothing quite as resounding as a lingering shot of a dead, mutilated body in a refrigerator. As you'll see, special dedication was given in regards to the grue. Certain sound effects and pieces of music can be quite obtrusive and downright jarring, but something about this works appropriately with the dopey nature of the finished product. There is an amusing sight gag at the end with Uncle Sam I admired quite a bit. Revelation proves that deranged behavior runs in the family.

I must have some kind of death wish to sit through Doris Wishman's "A Night To Dismember"...very rarely have I used the term "unwatchable" and meant it, but in this case it's absolutely true.Where to begin? Wishman seems to have wanted to cook up some convoluted slasher-horror movie about insane girl released back into the care of her family only for mysterious killings to begin again. But what she ended up presenting was a muddled mess of catastrophic proportions, even by her standards. Apparently much of the footage shot was lost in a fire, so when the film was edited, large chunks were missing and lots of out-takes had to be substituted. Well, it sure does show.Watching the movie proves to be a fractured, almost hallucinatory experience. Not a single shot has any location-sourced or ambient sound, all the soundtrack is made up of music, over-dubbed dialogue/narration, and slapped on sound effects. It's like watching a silent movie that has been given a hasty "make-do" soundtrack by someone else. In fact it's like watching a film with the sound off, in a room full of improv actors who are making up the lines as they go along, and bashing pots together to try and make matching sounds to go with the on-screen action. Then again, very few of the lines are actually spoken by the characters. A narration goes on for the entire length of the movie, explaining everything that is happening – however due to the incoherent nature of the film it's the ONLY way of understanding what's happening! And the music! Oh dear...Every type of stock music is laid on with a trowel, from lounge jazz to rock to Gothic chimes, and none of it EVER matches the mood of the on screen action. Maybe Wishman just threw whatever she had handy onto the turntable. And if this wasn't bad enough, the film jumps, cuts, jumps ,and jumps again, in fact every few minutes there is an abrupt change of music or lines of dialogue are abruptly cut off. And I do mean EVERY few minutes. Actually there are a few scenes when the music switches styles every 2 or 3 seconds.There's all the usual Wishman madness such as shots of feet, hideous interior décor, backs of people's heads, someone moving position and the camera not realising they aren't even in shot any more, etc, etc. In a new level of excitement, we get close ups of people lifting slices of cheese off a dinner plate. Some scenes look as though they were shot twice or even three times – and all the shots are included in the film, so its like some horrible demonic rewind button that forces you to see everything multiple times. Oh and before I forget to mention it, about 30-40 percent of the movie is out of focus.OK OK, I know there are some Doris Wishman fans out there who find this all part of her peculiar charm. The only other movies I have seen by her are the two Chesty Morgan films, and both of these are hilarious and highly recommended to any bad cinema junkie. So I do see the appeal of her unique style. But watching "A Night To Dismember" was nothing more than a trial. By the time I had reached the 15 minute mark I had had more than I could stand, but by some sheer force of will I managed to sit through the whole thing. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT try this at home. Utterly, utterly, mind-blowingly bad.

For those of you who will not enjoy the surreal experience of a film completely composed of dubbed out-takes and low-budget gore without the companionship of certain silhouettes, there is hope! Simply rent the DVD version of this film and listen to the "commentary" by director Doris Wishman and her cinematographer, Chuck. They had me in stitches all the way through. It is obvious that neither one could follow the plot, or really figure out what to say to an audience about their opus, so they spend most of the time insulting each other and trying to remember who's apartment each scene was shot in. Doris: why won't you answer poor Billy Szarka's letter?