Fantastic Fest Review: BAT PUSSY And The Birth Of The Porn Parody
“Good evening, ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the Dragon Art Theater…”
Nobody knows who made Bat Pussy, the early '70s porn parody of Adam West’s immortal Batman ’66 that is considered by many to be “the worst piece of smut ever created.” Based on a copy of Screw magazine – the weekly tabloid newspaper that covered “Jerk-Off Entertainment For Men” – a character is reading during one of the movie’s earliest scenes, production probably took place around September 14, 1970 (unless he was a reading an old issue years later, which is probable but unlikely). This would make sense given the TV series and film it's spoofing dropped only three years before Screw began publishing in ’69 (insert the obligatory “nice” joke here), thus adding timeliness to Bat Pussy’s inception, no matter how poor its quality may be.
Porn parodies are now commonplace in the adult entertainment industry, to the point that you can play a game with friends whenever a mainstream movie is released, attempting to decipher what the title of its sticky satirical counterpart may be (for example: growing up, this writer’s father had a particular affinity for Black Hawk Goes Down – you can probably guess the corresponding vanilla picture). The work of Lee Roy Myers and Wood Rocket is now the modern high point of the pornographic parody subgenre, as he’s delivered such ridiculous pieces of smut as Game of Bones, Assventure Time, Sailor Poon, and Ten Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles. None of these movies are really meant to be titillating, leaning into the ridiculous notion of having an actress take three dudes dressed up as samurai half-shells into all her orifices at once, hollering “cowabunga” after they all cum on her face. It’s juvenile, for sure; but also humorous in an embarrassing sort of way.
Bat Pussy was discovered in the '90s, when musician and filmmaker Mike McCarthy uncovered a few hundred Super 8 and 16mm porn loops in the back of the Paris adult movie theater in Memphis, Tennessee. McCarthy contacted Something Weird Video honcho Mike Vraney, who purchased the Paris boxes for a meager sum. McCarthy’s best guess placed Bat Pussy’s production in Arkansas, while Vraney surmised that the movie was made in Texas, based on the girls’ accents. Something Weird released the parody on a XXX-rated double feature VHS in ’96 with Baby Bubbles (’73), which included the above-quoted introduction by theater owner and scuzz producer Donn Davison, warning audiences about the graphic content they were about to witness. He also should’ve also told them they probably wouldn’t ever want to have sex again once Bat Pussy finished playing.
To be frank, Bat Pussy as a title is undeniably brilliant, the perfect combination of truth and fiction regarding what exactly you’re in for over the course of the film’s fifty-one minutes. But even when coupled with the plot (if, like many pieces of porn, we can call this loose outline a “story”), it’s difficult to describe just how fucking bad it is, both as a screw film and a general slice of surreal entertainment. Ostensibly set in a southern redneck bizarro world version of Gotham City, Buddy and Sam (there are no credits, so one cannot appropriately attribute the actors) are a couple of lumpy lowlifes who decide to get it on after Buddy is fascinated by images of cunnilingus he views in the aforementioned XXX trade. Buddy goes down on his “better half” (though this is certainly debatable on both ends), before Sam decides to return the favor on his perpetually flaccid penis. Much bickering and berating occurs before the scene just ends.
Meanwhile, our hero Dora Dildo is hanging in her Secret Warehouse Hideout (let’s call it the “Pussy Cave”), where voice over narration informs us that when her “twat begins to twitch”, that means trouble is brewing. Today’s particular crime is a fuck movie being filmed around the way, so Dora changes into her Bat Pussy gear, jumps onto her big, red bouncy ball, and is off into the…well, the daylight (in a sequence that goes on for-ev-er). She only stops on her way to beat a mugger with her ball, after taking a piss behind some bushes. This isn’t your father’s Bat Pussy. Back at Buddy and Sam’s, our impotent beau has decided to try and get rich quick by snapping photos of his woman’s nether regions. Before any such obscenity can occur, Bat Pussy barges in, demands to know who’s thinking of shooting such filth. As penance (I guess?), the three engage in group sex (the routine climax to many '70s soft/hardcore movies) and then Bat Pussy puts her suit back on and walks out, bringing the movie to an abrupt end (which was another staple of the era). You can breathe a sigh of relief; it’s all over now.
It’s debatable as to what redeeming value Bat Pussy owns, if any. Sure, it’s a document of a subgenre’s rumored beginnings, and has a particularly mysterious history, but sitting through it is definitely more of a chore than an experience. The actors are ugly and obnoxious, the absurdity wears out its welcome rather quickly, and the eminence of the image is so ruddy, it does little more than support just how desperately motivated this production was in the first place. With an audience, there’s certainly a “so bad it's good” element to the picture, but that type of enjoyment renders its historical importance somewhat suspect (after all, what good is there in ironic chronicling). In the end, Bat Pussy is nothing more than a morbid curio for those who have seen it all – a campfire tale whose origins are probably best left to the imagination.
