First, the story: Won't take long to dispose of that. Perhaps Max Lomp has been hearing from Pedro about those on the list who prefer a story line, so we learn (if you happen to read the description of the film on the site) that this takes place in an imaginary society where women are ultra deprived elements of the system. That’s not mentioned in the story, but we do get to see a few segments of Max sitting with a laptop and tapping out a (voice-overed) letter to his brother about his being a judge (one of his favorite fantasies, along with being a psychiatrist) and getting the chance to torture these two young women who are accused of something unclear and from whom he wants information, also unclear.

It takes about 1 minute to get the younger girl nude and strapped to a chair where she has electric wires attached to her breast and pussy. Her friend is watching and emoting as part of the torture, but except for a few brief cutaways we are focused on the visual and auditory responses of the sweetheart in the chair. She’s gagged with duct tape and has a strap around her forehead and each forearm, belts holding her thighs.

There are really no sound effects here to help with the illusion of electricity, and one of the weaknesses of the film first becomes apparent here: Lomp or whoever directs is generally very good at pacing. Not in this case. It appears that the electricity is turned on and just left running by the deadpan mistress for 4-5 minutes. The reaction of the girl crying soon becomes tiring. There’s no turning it on to get the arching of the body, then turning it off to let her collapse, no increasing the power, no building of the vocal response or the physical response. It’s hard to imagine that one might consider fast-forwarding through a beautiful, innocent nude woman tied to a chair and being tortured by electricity but…well, the thought entered my mind the first time I watched the film.

Finally Judge Max appears and rips off strip of tape, which obviously was just stuck onto her upper lip like a fake mustache, and asks if she’s ready to talk, and she says, “I will admit everything.”

No, don't worry. See this is an imaginary society where…well, you know that’s not going to be the end. After another minute of Max looking sleepy and complaining to his brother about not being able to use “hippo-leather” whips any more, we are into scene 2.

Now we have the two girls, still without a tattered piece of clothing in sight, spread eagled side-by-side between posts being whipped on their backs. Both girls have beautiful bodies and both respond well (and differently) to the strokes they receive. Oddly enough, though the sound of their vocal responses is clear and excellent, we never really hear the whip, which ordinarily is a strong point with ElitePain. The background is completely dark and Lomp is essentially invisible back there meting out his punishment.

Great directorial choice (from my point of view again, almost the whole scene is shot from the front. That’s the side where all the stuff that differentiates the women from boys is located (from Story of O).

I know some prefer to see the striped backs and buttocks. Get History of Pain if that's your cup of tea. If you like to see the physical reactions, the jumps and hanging from wrists, and writhing, this scene will be what you like. There are some intercuts of backs and stripes for authenticity sake, but not much.

The “older” short-haired girl is a squealer and does a great job of arching and writhing and trying to get away from the next stroke. I couldn't help wishing she had been in the chair with the electrodes to see how she responded. When Max re-appears, he tells his brother that she “passed out”. Note to directors: That doesn't take major acting talent, and it is a very sexy image—at least to me. Why not show her hanging in her bonds?, Nice slow pan up or down the full length of her body.

Again here Max’s sense of pacing and building a scene deserts him. OK, I know that watching two nude spread women being whipped—even invisibly and barely audibly—isn't likely to lead to boredom, but again I found the scene went on too long, because it was (like most porn flicks) just the same thing over and over. Great for capping, but a bit tiresome to watch. There’s really not much begging or pleading. The long-haired girl’s response to being struck tends to be to hang down, which is a very attractive choice (though sometimes hard for the camera to keep her in the frame, and her vocal responses are more of the continued crying as while she was in the chair.

Don't get me wrong. Both girls are excellent and clearly responding to pain and did I mention they are beautiful and built and nude and without tats? I think perhaps for those who have found previous ElitePain efforts too brutal, this one will be more appealing for the lack of marking, etc.

So now Max decides to focus just on the “younger” long-haired girl and finally moves around to the front. Nice scene here with two whippers (one of my favorite situations—and one EP does very well in other works. Max and the mistress work her from either side, the woman striking on the back and Max on the front.

The scene opens in high gear with 24 strokes in 35 seconds and a very strong performance by the actress. She cries and pleads and the blows of the leather on her flesh is clearly audible and quite obviously real.

There are shots of front and back during this scene.

Personal note here: One of the sexiest sounds a woman can make during a whipping is groaning. The actress in The Journalist and several others in the EP oeuvre reach the point where they've moved past crying and are just plain suffering. It obviously requires a commitment to taking a lot of pain over a fair period of time to reach that point. Another very nice element of this scene is that the girl is on her toes almost throughout the whole process, which of course makes her legs look great.

The film ends with a voice-over from Max to remind us that this is all about a letter to his brother—in case we forgot—or cared.

For fans of whipping especially—and somewhat for electro torture—this one gets an A from me. Incredible women, minimal fooling around and nasty tortures with good production values and a pretty reasonable price are hard to beat. It appears that the folks from Mood/ElitePain are continuing to set the standard in this area in a very impressive way.