Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
When a bank robbery lands her boyfriend, Johnny (Jason Durr), in jail, tough-as-nails Candy (
Melinda Clarke from Return of the Living Dead III) decides to lay low for a while at a gas station/convent in Mexico. When Johnny's parole date rolls around, Candy throws aside her habit and coveralls and prepares to meet her man in style. Her celebration, however, is cut short by a fallen meteorite, which transforms her pet poodles into drag queens, and makes her the unwilling host to an enormous talking alien tongue with a voracious appetite. Meanwhile, Johnny is sprung from the stir a few days early by his fellow jailbirds (among them Doug Bradley, Pinhead in the
Hellraiser series), and he makes tracks for Candy, unaware of her current condition. Outrageous visuals and special effects are the highlight of this deliberately campy Spanish/U.K. production. Director Alberto Sciamma's script often seems forced in its attempt to honor its many influences (chief among them are the films of
John Waters and Pedro Almodovar, with a hint of
Alejandro Jodorowsky), but the veteran music video director's vivid and often athletic camera work, combined with the cinematography of Denis Crossen (
I Know What You Did Last Summer), strikes an appropriately overripe, comic book-like tone. Performances by the striking Clarke and
Robert Englund as the sadistic Chief Screw at Johnny's prison also achieve the proper balance between barely controlled hysteria and self-parody. Running times vary between 95 and 100 minutes. ~ Paul Gaita, All Movie Guide