the audience applauded

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I would have liked to check into this creepy hotel (which seems a lot like the Chelsea Hotel in NYC - but West Coast version and somewhat cleaner), but not with he total innocence of Cheryl (Ann Ruymen). She is a perfect "Candy" trying to find her identity and discover her sexual longings, which were thwarted by her evil sister hogging all boys to herself and excluding Cheryl.Paul Bartel is a gentleman's John Waters and he deals with his own California assortment of oddballs as did Waters on the East Coast.Ruymen is perfect as the girl seeking a sexual connection and someone finally treating her as a "woman". She seeks and flirts with he oddest of characters and is really, really convincing and is perfect for the part. She befriends the weird George, the "priest", the handyman and an assortment of oddballs that are much more friendly than her narcissist sister.I can't believe it is Paul's first film, as it is really well paced, with stylized music, great characters, even direction, a nice discovery for me in the 2 for $1 rental store. I will buy a copy if I ever find one. I really enjoyed this film and I hope you enjoy it also.Easting Raul is a classic and was shown on college campuses as a cult favorite.

Both an unsettling horror film, and a very dark comedy, this is my favorite Paul Bartel film.Avoiding the sometimes too overt self-congratulatory humor of "Eating Raoul", this story of a "nice" young girl who comes to stay at her aunt"s creepy hotel, only to be surrounded by all sorts of disturbingly depraved types frequently leaves you both laughing and cringing (in a good way) at the same time. Only the less than stellar (in fact sometimes near porn film level) acting keeps this from being a classic of disquieting, semi-surreal cinema. But there are scenes and images that stick with me, and Bartel creates a lot of atmosphere with his use of music, compositions, and light.

Paul Bartel's vision of perversity in a seedy L.A. hotel has more entertainment value than most of today's re-hashed, redundant, repulsive, wannabe exploitation flicks. The acting alone is uncommonly good for this type, with Ann Ruymen as the not so innocent Cheryl, and Lucille Benson as the proprietor of the unforgettable King Edward Hotel, absolute standouts. The quirky residents are both believable and intriguing. Murder, fetishism, voyeurism, what more could you ask for from this wonderful mixture of bizarre characters? Great photography, great character development, great script, great dark comedy. Highly recommended. - MERK

The late, great, sorely missed Paul ("Death Race 2000," "Eating Raoul") Bartel cranks up the delectably deranged, yet still oddly compelling psychosexual insanity to twelve plus in this alarmingly aberrant and off-center 70's horror exploitation oddity. Sweet, pretty and naive teenage runaway Cheryl (a charming performance by the adorably waifish Ayn Ruymen) gets tossed out onto the streets after she's caught watching her sister doing just what you think with her boyfriend. Cheryl winds up seeking room and board at the King Edward Hotel, a seedy ramshackle Los Angeles fleabag dive that's run by wacky Aunt Martha (a delightfully dotty Lucille Benson; the batty old lady gas station proprietor in "Duel"). Cheryl soon finds out that the place is a veritable haven for hardcore unhinged freaks: Among the hotel's regulars are a pathetic drunk, a senile old bag, a jolly gay priest with a taste for chains, leather and muscular young men, and the shy, reticent George (handsome, sulky John Ventantonio), a photographer who snaps pictures of young couples making love in the park and spies on Cheryl through peepholes in the walls. Why, even dear Aunt Martha underneath her uptight conservative veneer proves to be an absolute kook who has a pet rat and enjoys attending funerals of complete strangers. Director Bartel draws the viewer into this bizarre scenario by deftly creating an arrestingly sleazy'n'sordid weirded-out scuzzball skid-row atmosphere that's both deviant and disturbing in comparable measure. Moreover, the twisted script by Philip Kearney and Les Rendelstein offers a wondrous wealth of severe depravity: fetishism, voyeurism and even transvestitism all rear their kinky heads in this sublimely sicko story of repression, perversion and obsession that culminates in a real dilly of a crazy climax. The film reaches its gloriously warped apex during the astonishing sequence in which George uses a hypodermic needle to inject his blood into a water-filled blow-up sex doll with a photo of Cheryl's face pasted on it. Andrew Davis' stark, shadowy cinematography and Hugo Friedhofer's marvelously jazzy and brooding Bernard Hermannesque score further enhance the prevailing mood of divinely full-bore dementia to be relished in this one-of-a-kind trashy treat.