The dangers of disco

I can quite honestly say that I have never seen a film like Discopath before. Sitting down to absorb the mania that unfolds is indeed a unique experience. Trust me, leave your sanity at the door, you definitely won’t be needing it. As the thumping disco music begins, my mind immediately flitted back to childhood memories of old tunes and Saturday nights spent in front of American action adventure shows. To be honest though, I would have been concerned about my parents’ judgement if they had let me sit down in front of Discopath at such a tender age. It’s a good job it wasn’t around then.

To set the scene, it’s 1976 and everyone’s just mad for Disco music. Duane, an unsettling young man from the outset, is fired from his job flipping burgers and invited to Seventh Heaven Disco by an attractive young girl who seemingly doesn’t find his behaviour as oddly off-putting as her friends do. Shame. Things aren’t going to end well for her.

Due to a childhood trauma that we are treated to in flashback, Duane cannot contain his homicidial tendencies when he hears the Disco beat. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘the death of disco’, doesn’t it? Duane’s first murder (at least that we see) hits all the right notes (no pun intended) and leaves you in no doubt that the filmmakers enjoyed themselves immensely creating this film. As the murder is investigated; enter the well played stereotypical 70’s cops to the crime scene (they could have walked out of any one of the many police procedurals of the era). One Detective caps it all when speaking with the unhelpful owner of the club, as he utters the line ‘”this is no longer your disco. It’s an official crime scene”. The insanity of it all has to raise a smile.

With Duane hot footing it to Canada, the crime goes unsolved and we move forward to 1980 where we find him working in an all girls Catholic school. I’ll let you figure out the cliches there for yourself. Suffice to say, the music continues and the madness escalates; there are more killings and a manhunt ensues.

Embracing all that is kitsch and cheesy, the film throws everything it has at the screen, including classic horror cliches such as long tracking shots, sudden shocks and blood splatters. Thankfully, it all manages to stay this side of entertaining, as the story piles on more madness, scene after scene.

Don’t try to make too much sense out of what’s going on, Discopath is a late night guilty couch treat and when it draws to a close you’ll be left wondering if it really all just happened.

Watch Discopath now via Amazon Instant Video or on iTunes

Discopath (2015)

Director: Renaud Gauthier

Starring: Jeremie Earp-Lavergne, Sandrine Bisson, Ivan Freud