Review: Mandingo Sex Addict

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2015
Images from the Internet

Mandingo Sex Addict

Directed by Sean Weathers
Full Circle Filmworks
87 minutes / 2015
www.fullcirclefilmworks.com
www.mvdvisual.com

Tracy Spencer (Sean Weathers) is a bit of a nerdy guy: a part-time sports writer who has a strong belief in Jesus. He’s in love with Felicia (Catalina Dias), who has just left an abusive long-term relationship and is not ready to just jump into one with Tracy yet.

In a sad state, Tracy runs into the now grown-up sister of a school chum, leading them to form the creature with two backs and smoke something out of a pipe, like many good Christians would do (especially if they’re Republican, apparently, but I digress…). She nonchalantly tells him about the suicide of someone close to him that happened a few years back. He hits the bottle, depressed because everything is going bad for him. There’s even a poster of Edvard Munch’s The Scream in the bedroom to reflect his attitude. Luckily, this narcissist has a bestie, Nick (Weather’s regular onscreen sidekick Waliek Crandall); unfortunately, the double dog is trying to make moves on Felicia.

Anyway, she has a change of heart and being the guilty Christian he is, Tracy tells her the truth about his fling, so she rejects him. These events start him on a downward spiral that leads to the title of the film.

Tracy is both similar and polar opposites of Weathers’ last few roles in Scumbag Hustler and Ace Jackson is a Dead Man. The other characters were full of false bravado fueled by addiction, but Tracy is more of a conservative cliché who cries and whines often, with glasses and Andy Williams-style sweaters (scarily, the gray one is almost exactly like one I own), but with sliding down the razor blade of his titular sex addiction, he de-evolves into a crazed, shell of himself.

Like many of Weathers’ films, there is a the introduction of a bit of a larger social aspect, such as one of Tracy’s friends, Brent (Kevin J. Williams) having distaste for Nick’s use of the N-word. However, this same character has no problem referring to women by the B-word, so I’m not sure if the message is just not use the N-word, or the hypocrisy and sexism. Kinda works looking at it both ways.

Speaking of which, obviously from the title, there is a lot of sex, all involving Weathers’ character. Sean is not afraid to show his nads, ass or anything else as he beds woman after woman. And, adding a bit of sexism myself, they are stacked, Jack. Cleavage aplenty and nudity overflowing as body parts and appendages swing wild. This is easily Weathers’ best looking female co-stars to date; acting levels vary, however, but that can be said historically across the board in any low budget genre.

Also amid the high drama, there is also quite a bit of humor, such as when the character Crayon (?!?) Jackson (Adonis Williams) goes into full gangsta mode and threatens Tracy (e.g., if the viewer takes a shot for every time he uses “dawg,” they’d possibly die of alcohol poisoning).

Using guerilla-style filming around New York City and Brooklyn during winter, it’s nice to see Coney Island, and especially the Narrows between Ceasar’s Bay [sic] and the Verrazano Bridge, very close to where I grew up. Aswad Issa also keeps getting better with the camera, so a special nod to him.

The ending is a bit abrupt, but actually it’s probably how it should end; no, I won’t go into details, but I can see debates about it down the line between film geeks like myself, which is a wonderful thing. The only unsatisfying piece is the incomplete credits (e.g., the cast and characters), and that’s pretty minor in the scheme of things.

Definitely a strong release for Sean Weathers, and from what I understand he is going to be putting further Blaxploitation / exploitation / softcore sexploitation films aside for a while for some straight-up horror. That should be fun, too!