White Goods (2018) Film Review

U.K. indie filmmaking madman Bazz Hancher delivers his latest tale of dark depravity and sick twisted humor in White Goods, making a departure from his previous efforts, Films From A Broken Mind and Blast From The Past, which were both anthologies. Blast From The Past was a collection of Bazz’s earliest shorts, and they all contained a very dark and demented style. It was also on my list of favorite films of 2017. Hancher also directed a crazy short titled Cibo De Violenzia which told the tale of dead babies who are consumed as a culinary delicacy in various circles.

I personally love Hancher’s sinister style of filmmaking. He delivers an exclusive style that is simplistically his and, in doing so, he has created his own unique vision with his indie films. White Goods has Hancher doing an ode to equal parts Monty Python and gross out comedy films with elements of supernatural horror and gore tossed in. White Goods is definitely a mixed bag of genres and styles, and is as far as you can go outside the box in the underground film sub-genre.

White Goods tells the wacky story of bumbling repairman Rio Tard (get it?), played by Richard Rowbotham. Rowbotham acted in some of Hancher’s other work, including the chilling tale “Leon’s Broken Mind” from his anthology, Films From A Broken Mind. Tard is on a repair job, fucking up things like he normally does, but this time, it’s at an old mansion during a seancé led by crazed ethereal and spiritual guide Keef Raven (Lee Mark Jones).

Raven has brought together a group of equal-minded lowlifes, cross dressers and the like for the event. Rio is in the basement mucking around with the power to the mansion, and discovers a little jewel box of sorts. He cuts his hand, and somehow seems to suck whatever is lurking in that box – supposedly the evil spirit of Angus Magoverdy – in through the wound on his hand. Magoverdy is the long deceased owner of the mansion, a sinister fellow with a dark past and many evil deeds under his belt.

For the rest of the movie, Rio Tard interacts with each of the individuals who were at Magoverdy’s house and unknowingly kills them with electricity at the disposal of various household appliances such as an oven or a clothes drying machine. Even a homemade drone violently eviscerates a cross-dressing man through his anal cavity. This is definitely a first. Of course Tard, is completely oblivious to any of this until he is finally approached by Raven.

There are lots of quirky and disgusting things in White Goods, and a lot of them center around bodily fluids. There are also a lot of characters that don’t necessarily add much to the plot except a healthy dose of humor.

I have to praise Hancher for his impressive cinematography skills. Everything looks beautiful here, professionally shot and just beaming with quality, so hats off to him. The narrator of the story (Adam Woodhouse) is probably one of the funniest elements in the film. He plays an eccentric, sadistic, cross-eyed fellow who weaves the tale, and he also seems to go off on his own murderous episode when he’s not drinking port wine or discussing his hemorrhoids over the phone with his doctor.

Yes, White Goods is filled with funky wigs, every type of bodily fluid, lots of comedic toilet humor, gore and even a killer clown, but yes, it’s one of a kind. Hancher went with an absolutely crass idea and rolled with it to produce a stand alone indie production he can say nobody else has done. For me, White Goods crosses British comedy dramas like Coronation Street with crazy, funky films such as The Greasy Strangler, except far more offensive and deprived. Cheers to Bazz Hancher and the insane comedy monstrosity he has created with White Goods.