Asylum Films makes risible knockoffs of Hollywood genre films with close-but-no-cigar tricky titles (Snakes On a Train, for example). Modern pornography has a similar M.O., but only the older Edward Penishands leaps quickly to mind. But the trend has been around much longer, to which the triple-X feature Sylvia from 1977 can attest. Described in promotional materials as "a hardcore redaction of ... schizophrenia potboiler Sybil," Sylvia's a pretty weird cash-in on its schizoid forebear; an attempt to lure new porno converts with an air of familiarity and plenty of boning.

Writer/director Armand Peters (a.k.a. Peter Savage) introduces the amorphous visage of Joanna Bell as Sylvia, a gal with a penchant for suddenly assuming different personalities whenever a hot piece of man-meat or lusty lassie happens to catch her eye. One moment she's a prude in a horrible muumuu, hair tied up and awful glasses primly perched, next moment she's stripping naked and going toe-to-toe with a door-to-door vacuum salesman's wares, testing her suction on his hose, if you get my meaning. Her friends can't figure out what's up; is she possessed? Is she crazy? Her shrink (played by Peters himself) has an idea that tests the limits of psychobabble, but the banging and betraying has to get a whole lot worse before things get better. Or will they?

Sylvia is a hardcore curiosity of the finest sort, and makes one long (easy now) for the days when porno had aspirations beyond clocking cash on the back of 120 minutes of non-stop shtupping. Yes, there are money-shots, and there is a sex scene every 10 or 15 minutes - this is nothing to show your prudish friends as you try to impress them with your DVD curiosities - but Sylvia tries really hard to be more. In fact it's only at the twist ending that tongue gets inserted in cheek, otherwise, you're in for a treat of genuine psychodrama as Joanna Bell swings her personalities wildly (and gets to inserting her tongue in ass-cheek, if you will).

As far as pornographic psychodramas from the '70s go, Sylvia is obviously a bundle of contradictions, too. '70s porno was a training ground for aspiring filmmakers of the day, so quality is evident; nice photography on 35mm, good sets, artistic lighting and actual acting. But all of this is accomplished on a shoestring, so even though it's professional, Sylvia is not what you'd call a great looking movie - some of that artistic lighting actually obscures what the trench coat crew look for, and though the actors are forced to tell a story, they're still porno actors, and Bell's wild performance, while somehow perfect for the part, is extremely grating. And seeing as how Sylvia cops from a more interesting, high profile film, this plot-as-poontang-purveyor is more wacky than compelling. Furthermore, all that plot, all the creepiness from Bell, all the semi-ugly '70s-porn bodies, an ugly assault sequence and sweaty drug users really soften the old salami.

In the end, Sylvia's an odd orphan, a whacked-out, psychotronic hodgepodge, too nutso-loony to be arousing, too full of shots of Bell giving weird looking guys rim-jobs (can I say that?) to be a straight psycho-thriller. But if your tastes lean toward the seriously outré, you'll be hard pressed to go further afield than Sylvia, a triple-X feature with enough polish, weirdness, sex and trauma to please all seven personalities of the psychotronic film fan.

The DVD

Video:
Pre-mastered in High Definition from 35mm film elements, and presented in its original 1.78:1 ratio perfect for widescreen 16 x 9 TVs, Sylvia looks pretty good for something of a lost curiosity from the Grindhouse Era. But it's an old film, old and abused. Film grain is pretty minimal except in dark or dimly lit scenes, but film damage can almost be considered a character. Deep scratches through the center of the image are pretty much constant, as are other blemishes, reel-change markers and the like. When those defects are absent, the picture looks relatively amazing, but then you get to the weird, intermittent softness in the image; some softness is obviously stylistic, especially during time-lapse transformation scenes, (you heard me right) but other instances are a bit more nebulous - are they to hide Bell's uniquely chameleon-like and disturbing face or to give the benefit of the doubt to her body (and others)? Was the focus-puller taking a smoke break? We may never know, but somehow it all adds to Sylvia's very off-kilter charm. Compression artifacts are otherwise not an issue, and colors seem accurate and rich, albeit in a messed up '70s way.

Sound:
No audio information is given on packaging, but I'm guessing Sylvia has been given the Dolby Digital Stereo Audio treatment (don't hold me to it, though). There are occasional (pretty seldom) dropouts due to the condition of the source audio, but otherwise the sound is decent. Sound-design is minimal to non-existent, but dialog is generally clear and the wacka-wacka porno music (including a couple of original tunes with vocals that are actually pretty good) stands up well.

Extras:
A 7 Page Booklet with extensive liner notes by film historian Michael J. Bowen gives great background to read both before and after viewing. In addition, Bowen and legendary director William Lustig (Maniac, Maniac Cop) provide a Feature Length Commentary Track for Sylvia. Lustig was a fresh-out-of-film-school 19-year-old when he acted as Assistant Director and Production Manager on Sylvia. With Bowen's well timed and cogent prompts (as well as clever insight and opinions) he and Lustig take an entertaining, amusing and informative trip down memory lane. If they don't spend all their time breaking down Sylvia, they dance around it nicely, with a lot of talk about Writer/Director Peter Savage, (credited as Armand Peters) lots of straight-up history on '70s Grindhouse filmmaking, and lots of amusing stuff about the intense mutual hatred between Lustig and Joanna Bell - it's a fantastic commentary track. Finally, a Trailer Vault with about 30 minutes or more of vintage Grindhouse porno trailers, more grotty money-shots than you can shake your stick at, and tons of crass attitude, will delight sleaze-o-philes to no end.

Final Thoughts:
Sylvia is a seriously weird, old-fashioned triple-X feature, featuring more filmmaking skill than any dozen modern porn films. An oddball plot cashing in on contemporaneous split-personality potboiler Sybil serves to feature plenty of hardcore sex of the minimally appealing variety. From Joanna Bell's cracked performance to 'is she possessed?' weirdness to tough-guys-beating-drug-dealers grit, Sylvia has it all, in a bizarre mixture that misses every mark it shoots for, but winds up getting a bizarro bull's-eye that will delight true psychotronic fans. For collectors, it's Recommended.

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