Sex Madness Revealed Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Sex Madness Revealed Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 15, 2019

The problem with crafting a film around one joke is that the joke in question had better be excellent. In that regard, I’m not sure Sex Madness Revealed will manage to appeal even to fans of the usually wonderfully comic Patton Oswalt, whose voice “appears” here courtesy of a faux “commentary track” appended to the 1938 exploitation film Sex Madness. Sex Madness followed in the well worn path of its probably better known predecessor Reefer Madness, though the two films did not share a production crew despite the similarities in their titles. Sex Madness Revealed supposedly “uncovers” a secret history behind the film, as Oswalt, playing podcast host Jimmy Morris, otherwise known as The Film Dick, interviews a guy named Chester Holloway (voiced by Rob Zabrecky), whose grandfather was ostensibly the “auteur” behind everything.

If the thought of stalwarts like Dorothy Chandler (of Los Angeles Pavilion fame) and/or Walt Disney partaking in a nefarious orgy ring back in the heyday of Hollywood strikes you as inherently hilarious, you may in fact find at least parts of Sex Madness Revealed engaging, if not laugh out loud funny. But the “commentary” is just flat out weird at times, with a near somnambulant “performance” by Zabrecky (an intentional decision for reasons which won't be spoiled here, but one which makes for a curiously uninvolving listening experience), and Oswalt’s Film Dick often sounding like, well, a film dick (if you catch my drift). Even some of the supposed jokes about the film’s inanity are themselves inane, as in an early comment Jimmy makes about a character named James in the film, which he (in my estimation, anyway) completely misinterprets. The film also has some surprisingly shocking footage of what syphilitic sores look like, something which may tend to undercut any perceived "comedy", one way or the other.

Sex Madness Revealed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sex Madness Revealed is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber's Kino Classics imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. As can probably be made out by some of the screenshots accompanying this review, this was sourced from a pretty worn looking element, one which exhibits a lot of age related wear and tear in the form of rather large and persistent scratches, as well as other issues like emulsion damage, jittery frames, inartful edits and the like. Detail levels are middling at best. Contrast is actually pretty good, all things considered, and grain resolves naturally.

Sex Madness Revealed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I'm frankly not sure why a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track was included here, since the bulk of the audio is simply Jimmy and Holloway discussing things. That part of the audio sounds fine, if hardly "immersive" in any traditional sense, and so the LPCM 2.0 track is arguably just as effective. The actual soundtrack to the film, which "peeks" through under the "commentary" with pretty fair regularity, sounds pretty worn, boxy and muffled.

Sex Madness Revealed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by director Tim Kirk and co-writer Patrick Cooper


• Sex Madness: The Original (1080p; 59:24) offers the original version of the film with its soundtrack intact and offered in LPCM 2.0 mono.


• Other Side with Zabrecky (1080p; 6:19) is a short featuring a seance.


• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 00:52)


• Trailer for Director's Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein (720p; 00:46)

Sex Madness Revealed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a great "Madness" movie with a truly funny commentary, namely Rifftrax Live!: Reefer Madness, something that may be kind of unintentionally ironic given the fact that Patton Oswalt is part of the rejiggered reboot of MST3K. But that may be the main problem with this outing — the "commentary" is simply not very funny, and in fact may strike some as downright weird. Sex Madness is at least somewhat rife for parodying, although its "health alert" aspects may make it too dark for any kind of raucous treatment. The "meta" aspect here may appeal to some cult film fans, but my hunch is even they won't be rolling in the aisles due to any hilarity supposedly being offered. Video is pretty iffy, since this was obviously sourced from a quaintly weathered element, but the audio for the commentary is fine, and some of the supplements are appealing, for those considering a purchase.