Something Weird About Kidnapped Co-ed

I am quite a fan of films that are off beat and feature characters not so easy relatable, having personalities that conceal a great deal, either saying little to nothing at all, not mincing words. Eddie’s an ass upon first evaluation. He smokes away, tosses off the occasional joke (that only amuses him) waves his gun around like some prop that gives him a bit of control, and stages the whole kidnapping plot of the film with a full confidence that his plans will produce dividends. Sandra keeps to herself, almost a mute, seemingly internalizing how she’ll escape. When will that opening come?

With a title like Kidnapped Co-ed, I reckon there are expectations involved. Will the girl kidnapped get raped, molested, abused, humiliated, and robbed of her innocence? Her kidnapper, wanting “some money” from her father, will more than likely be a contribution to the girl’s mistreatment.

This isn’t a film in any real hurry. Leisurely would be an apt term to describe its pace. I've read opinions regarding how the film seems to "run out of real estate" only about fifteen minutes in when Sandra is raped by the two criminals and Eddie finally frees his hands from the ropes that bind him (the hood behind him is too wrapped up in his buddy's raping Sandra he pays little attention to Eddie) to shoot them both (he actually shoots the rapist up his ass!). Then the film is basically a road movie (with a phone booth that sits off to the side in the middle of nowhere) with Eddie needing a place to crash, Sandra in tow, until her pops supposedly pays up. The film is fine just having Eddie encountering lunatics and weirdos. The hoods in a small town, a mute old man sitting on a porch with his son sneaking up with a shotgun, and a whitebeard in overalls who seems like this kindly widower (that is until he eyes a butcher knife...)...Eddie keeps running up on them. The old man on the porch spits on Eddie's pants leg when asked for some water (Sandra's car is on the fritz), while the whitebeard offers food to him and Sandra (even a room to rest, soon seeing the knife and feeling the urge to use it on them) only to get that homicidal itch.

There are even a foursome of enthusiastic birdwatchers in the movie. Yeah.

There's this period where the film develops that vibe produced by backwoods folk on the outside of a progressive, materialistic, capitalist society where the people exist in their own little worlds. A undercurrent of madness makes its presence known. Whitebeard with his facade of benevolence and the father/son duo with their nasty attitudes (probably that anti-outsiders sentiment that isn't filtered; they never speak nor need to; their actions are enough) emerge as unseen threats while our crook and captive are on this oddball odyssey.

What always amused me was that Sandra never seemed too concerned about being a captive while her father doesn't really put up a fuss for her rescue. With that the whole reason for Eddie's committing to holding her at gunpoint, taking Sandra's car, and demanding that ransom, it seems all of his troubles have not only been in vain but only helped to further complicate his life.

This isn't a film that feels responsible for telling a story at a pace that moves plot along. In fact, there's little plot to speak of, with the characters just showing up while Eddie and Sandra stay in hiding. Eventually, the two of them grow fond of each other and Sandra asks Eddie to make love to her. This movie goes off the deep end. It's an odd duck for sure.

I was watching an additional thirty-minute trip through producer Harry Novak's studio, with the Something Weird guys shooting rooms with camera equipment, video tapes, a movie projector room for a select audience, and shelves loaded with unedited films from the 70s among others in piles (the SW guys kind of joyfully giggle about how much of a packrat Novak is with all the stuff just everywhere). This is basically a rough cut of one taking a camcorder through what many who love their exploitation films might consider a vessel of plentiful treasure. I wonder how many more oddities like Kidnapped Co-ed exist, lining Novak's shelves, ready for distribution through a label that cherishes trash and the most bizarre.