I happened upon The Sinful Dwarf one day while surfing Amazon.com. There they had a link to the hysterical interview between two viewers who were “scarred for life” by watching this film and the president of Severin Film, the distributor of the DVD. This interview, which is a bonus feature on the disc, is what made me want to see this film.

When I saw it available at Monster-Mania before its release date I had to have it, it was a no-brainer. I expected a film which was somewhere between the tongue-in-cheek comedy I expected and the genuinely disturbing experience advertised.

What it ended up being was overly-grindhouse. While the plot was disturbing all the intimate scenes both consensual and otherwise were way too long and the dwarf (Torben) while humorous and creepy was not the undoubted center of the evil plot. He and his mother were equals in a sinister plot involving kidnapping, drugging and a clandestine whorehouse.

The film does actually get disturbing at times and not funny. However, another girl could have been acquired and we could have found out how this deranged idea came about to help add to the creepiness. The dialogue is quite often terrible and at time undercuts the tension immediately after it gets established.

Both leads (Anne Sparrow and Tony Eads) were unquestionably terrible. There’s just no diplomatic way to put it. Clara Keller and Gerda Madsen as Lila and her friend who sit about sipping tea amidst this inanity help make up for Sparrow and Eads but never quite get there.

Ultimately, this film proves how important a disturbing stomach-turning plot is as it becomes a borderline bad film despite all its shortcomings. I can recommend it for fans of grindhouse and exploitation films but I personally give it a 4/10.