Given the title and the fact that the film is part of the Spanisch ›Cine quinqui‹ wave, I would have expected a bit more gay action in José María Castellví’s »Poppers«. In fact, it’s limited to just a few scenes (whilst the heterosexual sex scenes are shown in greater detail and are more explicit). What’s more, the gay characters are primarily rich and perverse sadistic villains. A kind of problematic framing.
That aside, the film — recently re-released in the »Exorcismo: Defying a Dictator & Raising Hell in Post-Franco Spain« Blu-ray box set — is, however, a very stylish affair. In particular, the club scenes, where skinheads, goths, goats and snakes gather, are completely off the wall, somewhere between NIN’s »Broken« and »The Hunger«, with a cheesy 80s synth soundtrack by Miguel Ortiz and neon-lit streets and interiors reminiscent of »Crimes of Passion«. The shift in setting from these dystopian punk clubs and neo-noir street scenes to a country outing for sadists who have chosen Santos (played by Miguel Ortiz) as their prey for a hunting trip comes as quite a surprise and builds considerable tension.
Castellví fails to maintain this momentum in the second half of the film though — the revenge segment, in which Santos now haunts the hunters — where the killings are rushed through a little too quickly, feeling somewhat anticlimactic, whilst the script comes across as clunky and awkward. Which is a shame, because »Poppers« had the potential to be a cult film and it’s definitely worth a watch, mostly to get some inspiration for your next party outfit.
