EXOTIC MALICE is another film made by Italian exploitation director Joe D'Amato during his brief stay in the Caribbean. Once again the Dominican Republic locations are one of the most interesting things about it, bringing a touch of natural exoticism that the narrative itself can't hope to achieve. Unfortunately unlike other films D'Amato made during this era, EXOTIC MALICE is basically a piece of pornography with little else to distinguish it.The hard-faced Mark Shannon plays an ailing guy who discovers that due to a rare disease he'll have to have his genitals removed in two weeks' time. To that end he visits a tropical island to have some fun with the ladies, in long and padded-out sex scenes that supply the demand for pornography but do nothing else to further the narrative. Said sex usually involves the stiff (in more than one sense of the word) Shannon although another guy shows up later on and in one instance a white woman encounters a couple of black guys.It's all very sleazy and largely uninteresting. The best thing about the film is the sole piece of characterisation in the sub-plot involving Shannon being haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. This leads to a shocking climax which is inevitably the best part of the film and the only bit you'll remember. The script was written by George Eastman who has a cameo. D'Amato's camera-work remains inventive but even this quality can't hide the fact that this piece of exploitation was shot on the cheap on a very low budget.

This languid, sloppily shot Joe D'Amato hardcore shocker is a poem of sex and death, set to a soundtrack of 70s cocktail jazz and disco. Mark Shannon plays one Mark Lester, a middle-class American with a rich, sterile wife who learns (it what must be a first and last time twist in porn cinema) that he has some kind of cancer of the genitalia and needs to have them completely removed if he is to live. He makes a deal with his doctor that he can have 15 days grace before surgery makes him a eunuch and heads off to a Caribbean on which he formerly lived and where he left the love of his life to die. The film is a kind of Last Holiday of the penis….Like any hardcore film, the story is string on which to hang the sex sequences but it is hard to imagine what man would want to get off on a film in which the hero has the threat of complete castration hanging over him. The women are very beautiful yet the sex scenes themselves have a dead quality, as if the characters were performing under the weight of an incredible sadness; Nico Fidenco's melancholy scoring helps create this mood.Lester is a less than admirable human being. Not only did he betray the woman who loved him, he's clearly made his wife feel pretty inadequate about her sterility and made it plain to her that he married for money; he humiliates a European friend still living on the Island with a local, ex-prostitute wife by insisting that she have sex with him before he donates to their local school project; he murders an overweight Caribbean prostitute whilst cursing her as a slut (which is rich coming from such a sleep around as him). His friend is little better, and only tells Lester's wife where the dying man is after she has performed fellatio on him. Still, Lester seems to know that he is an unredeemed sinner, as he gets drunk, screws around, slips in and out of sexual fantasies and doubles up in pain from his carcinogenic bits.Definitely a product of a Catholic, Christian culture, D'Amato's Sesso Nero (literally "Black Sex") is a slow, depressing, conflicted and strangely compelling film. The denouement, where the dead girl and her family (through a mix of voodoo and deception) get their revenge on the man who wronged her, is both sudden and shocking. With its explicit self-emasculation, it rivals I Spit on Your Grave as a cinematic moment to make any man in the audience wince. As blood seeps from his self-inflicted wound into the sea, the protagonist dies a lonely, damned death in the arms of a memory, haunted by his sins.

I was more than a little surprised to find that this film was made before Porno Holocaust, because I was convinced that it recycled some of the same scenes! The beach side sex scenes between Mark Shannon and a couple of women (among them Porno Holocaust's Annj Goren and Lucia Ramirez) would not have been out of place in that trashy masterpiece. It also seems to have been filmed on the same locations. The street Mark and his friend drive down looks just like the one from the opening of Porno Holocaust. And then there is a dream sequence that is very similar to Porno Holocaust's double teaming scene. I figured Porno Holocaust inspired bits of this one, but apparently it was the other way around.As a matter of fact, this film has a lot more artistic merit than I could possibly have expected! D'Amato always framed his porn within a dark context, but as the other reviewer mentions this really takes it to a whole new level! Eschewing the escapism of something like Porno Holocaust or Emanuelle in America, this is a hallucinatory drama that comes quite close to transcending its seedy origins. With a little tweaking this could've been a masterpiece. One of the problems is the sex scenes. While I think taking them out would render the main premise pointless, I feel as though they could've been inserted into the story in a more fluid manner. As it stands the plot stands still for these pointless sex scenes, including one that doesn't even feature the protagonist! The final one is strangely poignant however, and definitely tied into the story. Speaking of the story, I wish I had a better understanding of it, but my copy was in Italian with German subtitles. My understanding was good enough to get the gist and meaning of it, but the dialogue might have helped me understand certain scenes better (such as Mark's visit to the weird guy on the beach).D'Amato's cinematography is nothing special here (especially in comparison to some of his better known works), but every so often a little of his flair comes through. The moody flashbacks and visions Mark has, as well as his visions of his old flame Myra, definitely had the intended effect. These scenes may remind D'Amato aficionados of his Gothic chiller Death Smiles at Murder, though they're not quite that effective. There was one slow motion shot I really liked of Mark and the doctor walking down a hall. As for his direction, his handling of the dialogue scenes is as pedestrian as they come, but he really shines in the more expressionistic sequences. While never reaching what I'd truly call great film-making, I think if he'd taken the material a little more seriously he probably could have done it.Mark Shannon turns in a surprisingly good performance as his name sake character. The scenes of his character's mental breakdown are thoroughly convincing, though feel a tad rushed. I must also say he really sold his agony about his genital pain. The ending, I must say, was an absolute knock out! I didn't expect it at all, nor would I have expected it to be done so realistically. D'Amato's films usually feature some really awful special make-up effects, but this time it's pretty convincing. It was this moment that really convinced me how good the movie could have been. Such as it is, this doesn't quite live up to D'Amato's best. Still I'd say it's essential viewing for any fans of Italian sleaze.

I used to own an average quality VHS tape of this film. Lots of hand-held, shaky but interesting shots(D'Amato's trademark style). Mark Shannon discovers he has got some sort of disease which requires his genitals completely removed. So he heads off to the Caribbean to try and make the most of the time that's left before the operation. There's a weird dream/foursome scene, where Mark Shannon is watching his ex-girlfriend and some older woman service two black guys(perhaps the same two guys as in Porno Holocaust, I don't remember). Overall this is much darker then either "Papaya" or "Orgasmo Nero". Shannon gets to play a really unpleasant type - perhaps the closest he ever got to "proper acting". Some moody music by Nico Fidenco plus a great final scene. I think the "Champagne bottle girl" from "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" is in this one as well(and in a better shape), playing the hotel maid. George Eastman(who also wrote this) has a small role as Shannon's friend. There are some overlong unexciting sex/filler scenes, but D'Amato fans will understand. I wouldn't mind to have "Sesso Nero" on DVD.