Instagram user video_macabro posted a clip from this film this afternoon and it majorly grabbed me. As a lifelong horror fan, I had not seen a sequence so visually striking, and creatively terrifying in a very long time. It reminded me of the some of the tripped-out practical effects that made 80's horror movies so legendary. It blew my mind that the film was from 2017. Then, I read a bit about the filmmaker... he was a meth addict, he shot most of the movie in 2002, and then spent 13 years "tinkering with it" in editing... then he died in 2015 before it was finished. I was colored intrigued.
What did I hope for? An hour and a half of complex psychological horror with an assault of hallucinatory imagery. After all, what could this filmmaker be doing for 13 years if not editing the piss out of it like some of the coolest porno films I have ever seen which also happened to be created by folks who enjoy speed (2005-2008 Vivid-Alt films)?
What did I receive? About 10 minutes worth of really freaky, impressive imagery and effects, and about 90 minutes of stale, irrelevant dialogue performed by actors who honestly don't even seem like they are trying. Sean Patrick Flannery's performance is the most painful of all of them. Lead Frederick Koehler shows flashes of greatness but it's usually shoved into the shadows mere moments later by more halfway-there mentally handicapped portrayals. You can tell he is the one member of the cast really putting effort in, and his performance is admirable, but it still just doesn't stay consistent enough to work.
The scariest thing about the movie, truly, is thinking about the filmmaker while you watch it. This tweaker who had 6 million dollars of family money to burn chose to spend it on making a movie about a mentally handicapped boy murdering people, then he spends the last 12 years of his life "tinkering with it". It's sad but it makes me wonder what else he could have done with all that time and money. It's definitely one of the worst movies I've ever seen. THAT'S dark.
What did I hope for? An hour and a half of complex psychological horror with an assault of hallucinatory imagery. After all, what could this filmmaker be doing for 13 years if not editing the piss out of it like some of the coolest porno films I have ever seen which also happened to be created by folks who enjoy speed (2005-2008 Vivid-Alt films)?
What did I receive? About 10 minutes worth of really freaky, impressive imagery and effects, and about 90 minutes of stale, irrelevant dialogue performed by actors who honestly don't even seem like they are trying. Sean Patrick Flannery's performance is the most painful of all of them. Lead Frederick Koehler shows flashes of greatness but it's usually shoved into the shadows mere moments later by more halfway-there mentally handicapped portrayals. You can tell he is the one member of the cast really putting effort in, and his performance is admirable, but it still just doesn't stay consistent enough to work.
The scariest thing about the movie, truly, is thinking about the filmmaker while you watch it. This tweaker who had 6 million dollars of family money to burn chose to spend it on making a movie about a mentally handicapped boy murdering people, then he spends the last 12 years of his life "tinkering with it". It's sad but it makes me wonder what else he could have done with all that time and money. It's definitely one of the worst movies I've ever seen. THAT'S dark.