It's funny how you stumble across things you never even knew existed. When Head Vampire Lawrence asked me to review this movie, I had my reservations. Of course I had heard of Larry Cohen. I had seen Q-The Winged Serpent. However, I had never even HEARD of Bone. So I popped it into my player with absolutely no idea of what to expect, and I come out 95 minutes later a satisfied customer.

After a quick introductory message, the movie opens with a car commercial seemingly directed by David Lynch. Bill petitions his viewers to buy cars off his lot--cars ready for the scrap heap, twisted in post-accident wrecks, with bloody bodies still within them. Several more commercials of a similar tone punctuate the movie at specific intervals. Cohen then brings us to the Beverly Hills estate of Bill and his wife Bernadette, relaxing by their pool, when Bill finds a waterlogged rat in the skimmer. Desperate to be rid of it, he is all too grateful when Bone shows up on his lawn and fishes it out for him. Unfortunately, Bone demands due payment for his actions, and drags the couple back to their home, demanding that the seemingly rich Bill give him money. All he finds, however, are bills and other evidence of the severe debt that they are in. When he finds the account book for a secret account with a tidy balance, he gives Bill an ultimatum: Go to the bank and withdraw the whole of the account and return by "three-thirty o' clock," or he will rape and murder Bernadette. Bill leaves for the bank, and drops straight into a Beverly Hills that seems just a few clicks off. He meets a woman whose husband died from a fatal amount of dental x-rays, and a neurosis-addled young woman who harbors many dark secrets, and only stays with banks for thirty days. But back at home, the situation is no less odd. Bone reveals his disgust with having to rethink his existence in a country that now accepts African-Americans. Bernadette teaches him the beauty of sex without the forcefulness of rape. All of this leads to a scheme, murder, and abandonment.

This movie is almost impossible to classify. It's a little bit of everything, from race-against-time thriller, to biting social commentary, to pitch-black comedy. Hell, according to one of the trailers on the disc (in which the movie is titled "Housewife") the movie is outright sexploitation. I personally love the difficulty one has in pigeonholing this film. When you can transcend genre trappings, of a comedy being this way, and a drama needing that element, your movie moves beyond Hollywood ideals and can do so much more. Of course, having an extremely talented troupe of actors and actresses helps as well. Performances are rock-solid throughout, with the characters genuinely convincing us of their existence, and of the existence of this raw underbelly of Beverly Hills.

As for overall disc quality, Blue Underground has once again impressed me. In spite of a fair amount of print damage (The movie IS over thirty years old) the colors are beautifully vibrant, and the blacks are nice and deep. The image definitely has that "vavoom" I like my movies to have. The audio track is in mono, and does the job. Dialogue at times becomes difficult to understand, but for the most part is more than satisfactory.

The extras on the disc wowed the hell out of me. We're given full-length audio commentary by Larry Cohen, an interview with executive producer Jack H. Harris, theatrical trailers, a radio spot, a still gallery, and a Larry Cohen biography. Most impressive, in my opinion, is the thirty minutes of 16mm footage from a rejected first shoot. It's fascinating to see the progression of the film, and the same scenes with different players.

I found Bone to be an extremely satisfying watch. While some of its social commentary may have the blow softened by the years and the changing political climate, it still proves to be a gripping film. For a thirty-one year old, little known film, I think that's a testimony to its greatness.