''Sick Sock Monsters from Outer Space'' (original title: ''Dolcezza Extrema'') is a 2015 Italian

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction ** Korean horror, Korean horror fiction *Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing on ...

film directed by Alberto Genovese. Its one live-action actor is Marco Antonio Andolfi; the remaining characters are represented by

sock puppet A sock puppet or sockpuppet is a puppet made from a sock or a similar garment. The puppeteer wears the sock on a hand and lower arm as if it were a glove, with the puppet's mouth being formed by the region between the sock's heel and toe, and ...

s. It was acquired for distribution in the United States by

Troma Entertainment Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, primarily of the horror comedy genre. Many of them p ...

Plot

In a galactic empire dedicated to a cult of fitness and beauty, the monarch Grigorio orders tanning showers delivered to all places of assembly on every planet in memory of the personal trainer Elfisio Masciago, who was electrocuted by a tanning lamp ten years before and has been elevated to the status of a martyr. ''Dolcezza Extrema'', a pirate ship captained by the washed-up rock star and ex-convict Pixws and with a crew of recovering drug addicts, is assigned the mission. After their arrival on the planet Nemesis, Pixws comes to question his orders and a mutiny takes place.

Production and distribution history

Genovese and his production company, Loboarts Production, produced ''Dolcezza Extrema'' in 2015 as their second full-length film after ''L'invasione degli AstroNazi''. It was a "no-budget" production combining animation (including

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

), horror and science fiction, using sock puppets made of recycled materials, but also using

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

techniques. Marco Antonio Andolfi (Eddy Endolf) as the king is the only live-action protagonist; the cast also includes in voice parts Alessandro Bianchi (Bakterio Piloro), Giovanni De Giorgi (Pixws) and Paola Masciardi (Yomo). The film features violence and sexual debauchery and a fragmented plot. In 2016 the film was acquired by Troma Entertainment for U.S. distribution on its streaming service under the title ''Sick Sock Monsters from Outer Space''. It was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

in May 2018.

Reception

The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film described ''Dolcezza Extrema'' as "quite simply insane". A reviewer for ''Cinema Italiano'' called it "an anarchic cinematic experiment, able to reach the viewer with the power of a virtual punch in the stomach". A reviewer on the ''Quinlan'' film website emphasised its "daring juxtapositions" and diversity of references (including ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

'', ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'', ''

Captain Harlock is a fictional character and protagonist of the ''Space Pirate Captain Harlock'' manga series created by Leiji Matsumoto. Harlock is the archetypical Romantic hero, a space pirate with an individualist philosophy of life. He is as noble as he ...

'' and ''

The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two television pilot, pilot episodes produced by Henson for American Broadcasting Company, ABC in 1974 and 1975. ...

'', and musically, science-fiction film scores and

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

as well as

grindcore Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. ...

and

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, fe ...

) and found it "out of the box" even in the context of recent Italian independent film and "pleasantly amusing" despite the frustration of its "inevitably" loose plotting.

Awards

*Official selection, Fantafestival 2015 *Best film: Weird and Wrong category, Broken Knuckle Film Festival 2015 *Official selection, London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film 2016 *Official selection, Indie Film Festival, Switzerland *Official selection, Lumiere Film Festival *Best Trash Feature Film, The Optical Theatre Festival 2016

References

External links

''Dolcezza Extrema'' official website

archived
on 2015-07-10
''Sick Sock Monsters from Outer Space'' (''Dolcezza Extrema'')
at Troma * {{IMDb title, 4278144, Dolcezza Extrema 2015 films Puppet films Italian science fiction horror films 2010s science fiction horror films