Forget narrative. Forget logic. Forget everything your teacher told you about decency and linear progression. Fluctuations is a fever dream captured on celluloid, a 1970 sensory assault that feels like it was edited with a chainsaw by someone who spent the previous night huffing industrial glue and reading Marquis de Sade.

Imagine a kaleidoscope of human anatomy, high-contrast lighting and sudden, inexplicable violence. It’s a stream-of-consciousness bombardment where the only constant is the lack of a constant. One minute you’re watching a somber, avant-garde exploration of Sapphic intimacy; the next, there’s a hair-whipping sequence that defies both physics and scalp health. Then, because why not, the film decides it’s a Shaw Brothers flick and throws in some low-rent kung-fu. It’s a dizzying cocktail of threesomes, foursomes and bondage that blurs the line between arthouse cinema and “the kind of film found in a brown paper bag behind a dumpster.

Rumors have long persisted that the film was a “re-edit job” of multiple unfinished projects. This would explain the jarring tonal shifts from erotic drama to martial arts mayhem. Director Joel Landwehr is listed, however, and he also directed and narrated In Hot Blood. 

Among the actors, Kim Lewid is one of the few who have appeared in other movies. Using the name Kim LeWise here, she was also in The Ultimate Degenerate, Gigi Goes to Pot and The Filth Shop. 

I’ve heard the thought that the soundtrack is close to throwing silverware down the steps, which is accurate, along with a barely audible phone sex call. But mostly, dudes do bad karate and everyone gets naked, but not sexy, and I love this for that.

You can watch this on Cultpix.