It was distributed in the United States by Troma Entertainment, which promoted the film at the Cannes Film Festival with the help of "a six-foot-long fanged condom".[3]
Plot
In the seedy parts of New York City, gay NYPD detective Luigi Mackeroni is investigating a series of bizarre attacks at the Hotel Quickie in which male guests have all had their penises mysteriously bitten off. While at the hotel, he enlists the services of a gigolo named Billy and invites him up to the crime scene. When the two men are about to engage in sex, a carnivorous living condom interrupts them and bites off Mackeroni's right testicle.
Now on a personal vendetta, Mackeroni begins his lone quest to not only bring a stop to the rash of condom attacks, but also to face his true feelings toward Billy the gigolo.
At the time of its 1998 U.S. theatrical release, New York Times reviewer Lawrence Van Gelder said that this Troma release had "a level of deadpan humor considerably above the company's usual adolescent subnorm", and that in addition to the usual gore, the film "also deals with dislocation, urban anomie, love and tolerance".[4] On the other hand, Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas called it a "strained, tedious sex-horror comedy that doesn't travel well".[5]
Otto Sander's "manic" performance in this "cult classic" has been cited as a "good example of his comic gifts".[6] In an essay entitled "When Condoms Go Bad: From Safe Sex to Five Microns to Killer Condom", film critic Thuy Daojensen wrote that the film, despite its "third rate special effects", provides "comic relief while reflecting tension and anxiety over sexual activity for procreation versus merely for pleasure."[7]
^Thuy DaoJensen, "When Condoms Go Bad: From Safe Sex to Five Microns to Killer Condom", in Karen Anijar; Thuy DaoJensen (2005). Culture and the Condom. Peter Lang. p. 26. ISBN978-0-8204-7407-6.
