The Washing Machine (1993)

Well, it’s official. I always thought Strip Nude for Your Killer and Play Motel were the sleaziest giallo I’d ever seen. Good news. Or bad news, depending on your morals. Ruggero Deodato is here to let you know that there’s no limit to the depravity that he can bring to your TV set. Seriously, I feel like I have to wash it now after this one. I guess that’s what I should expect from the maker of Cannibal Holocaust.

This movie starts off with a sex worker making love to a ponytailed man in a suit in the middle of her kitchen while her sister watches and touches herself. Trust me, it’s not going to get any cleaner as it goes on.

Vida (Katarzyna Figura, The Player), Ludmilla and Sissy (Ilaria Borelli, Life Is Beautiful) are three gorgeous sisters living together in a Budapest apartment. The next day after the opening sex scene, Ludmilla finds the bloody remains of the ponytailed man, a pimp named Yury (Yorgo Voyagis, Frantic), in the washing machine.

Inspector Stacev responds to the police call, but the body is gone. He believes that this is all in Ludmilla’s head but soon, he’s making time with all three sisters. One by one, they tell him that they are innocent, blame one another and then have sex with him. Obviously, this makes his girlfriend Irina incredibly jealous.

So why are the girls putting him through this? Has there really been a murder? Is he next? How many sex scenes can Deodato fit into a film (the answer is an awful lot)?

Shameless put this out a few years ago and I’ve heard rumors that Arrow may be re-releasing this soon. It’s pretty decent, but you might want to know what you’re getting into before watching this with people not ready for the excesses of Italian films.

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