Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2015
Images from the Internet
Unearthed Films / Plotdigger Films
77 minutes, 2014
www.unearthedfilms.com
www.mvdvisual.com
The story-line actually is not as simplistic as these kinds of things usually are, and many elements play out, such as the villain, Massive (Nick Principe) and his back story, the cop Dana (Aiden Dee) and her backstory that also plays into this one, the hooker Maria (Mihola Terzic) and her family and relationships, two scummy hipsters (as they are referred to in the film) who get their jollies playing people against each other and filming it, and other various denizens of the hard street life.
Images from the Internet
Collar
Written and directed by Ryan NicholsonUnearthed Films / Plotdigger Films
77 minutes, 2014
www.unearthedfilms.com
www.mvdvisual.com
Especially
since Hershell Gordon Lewis, there has been gross-out flicks meant to shock as
much as entertain. This is a bit different than transgressive cinema, which is
both political and “art,” but what I’m talking about is merely meant to make
most viewers uncomfortable for the gotcha
factor. For this subgenre of brutality, the godfather would have to be Day of the Woman aka I Spit on Your Grave (1978), though the
more recent turn of the screw game changers are Saw (2004), Hostel (2005),
and especially A Serbian Film (2010;
reviewed HERE),
the latter arguably being the one to top.
Lots
of directors are testing these waters, such as Bill Zebub (though he does it
often with comedic elements, which almost seem oxymoronic, e.g., Jesus Christ, Serial Rapist [2004]) and
Dustin Wayde Mills (with fare such as Her
Name Was Torment [2014]). This is also Ryan Nicholson’s realm, with films like
as Collar.
This
piece of work has been blasted by a number of viewers and reviewers, but I’m
going to take a different approach of this, because as I have said in previous blogs,
one does not look at a film like this in the same way one may look at a larger
budgeted SFX-driven mainstream release, like, say, The Cabin in the Woods (2012) or Final Destination (2000). It is not fair to use the same judging
scale for Sharknado (2013) as one
does for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
The story-line actually is not as simplistic as these kinds of things usually are, and many elements play out, such as the villain, Massive (Nick Principe) and his back story, the cop Dana (Aiden Dee) and her backstory that also plays into this one, the hooker Maria (Mihola Terzic) and her family and relationships, two scummy hipsters (as they are referred to in the film) who get their jollies playing people against each other and filming it, and other various denizens of the hard street life.
One
of the problems with this many divergent stories and the lack of either text editing
or budget (or both), is that there are certainly many holes, such as: what
happened to the police car? Didn’t the two cops report where they were going?
That’s just two. Still, I would like to foster this larger storyline thinking
than just someone tied up in a place and being tortured, and that’s essentially
it.
Nick Principe |
Except
for the two main leads, a lot of the acting is a bit wooden, or goofy, and at
other times it’s the best that can be gotten from the script; in a case like Momona
Komagata (as Rachel, the mondo grosso
gravida girlfriend of Dana), you just know in a different film there would
be more serious acting and less hamming.
The
best performances here are by the two principals. Principe’s Massive is
effectively terrifying. With a backstory of childhood abuse by a priest, he
takes his mostly silent role and makes him one scary sumbitch. I wonder if his
having slightly Arabic looks adds to the subliminal fright. Shaving his head
with a piece of glass, or switching moods between blank-faced assaulter (or, as
that great philosopher Bugs Bunny might have said, “a ment’l case") to utterly terrified little boy while
remembering his past, Principe manages to get all that across barely saying a
word. And the fact that after all his brutalizing he still manages to
occasionally get a feeling of pity from the viewer shows that the chops are
there.
Aidan Dee |
As
Dana, Dee is not just all plush lips, deep blue eyes and eyebrows that won’t
quit, she makes her character vulnerable in so many ways, including being brave
with extreme nudity and ultraviolence. If you can make it through her brutal treatment
in the first five minutes of the film, which reminded me of a scene from Irreversible (2002), you should be able
to handle the rest.
The
third character is Maria, a secondary role that transforms over the length of
the film. German-born Terzic plays her a bit like she’s stoned much of the
time, and that could be the role. But there is room for growth there, it seems
to me.
One
of the biggest controversies about this film is about the many detailed rape
scenes. Sometimes they may be called for in a story, such as with Two Women (1960, for which Sophia Loren
won the Academy Award), the revenging I
Spit on Your Grave, or its practical remake Demented! (1980; with Harry Reams, RIP). Then there are the
gratuitous ones, such as in the otherwise excellent Street Trash (1987), for which I am strongly opposed; I became
embroiled in a somewhat heated dialogue
with its Associate Producer, Frank Farel, at a private screening over the scene).
For this film, I can understand Nicholson is trying to make a point about
Massive’s (and others’) brutality, but it goes beyond what is necessary, in my
opinion.
I
will say that what kind of annoyed me more was lingering shots over the bodies
of the women’s victims as they are brutalized, focusing in on breasts while
those parts did not have anything to do with the event happening. This is a bit
too much real-life rape culture mentality. You want to focus on body parts
during a gratuitous shower scene, fine, but during a violent act, it sends a
different message. I also realize that the majority of the audience is teenage
boys, but remember that teenage girls are starting to get interested in genre
films, so why discourage/alienate a growing market?
One
aspect I found strange was that the titular device is seen occasionally in the
film, but isn’t used until at least the middle of the third act, but isn’t
really a central part of the story and tends to be removed easily because no
one’s hands are tied. It’s more symbolic than anything else.
Moving
onward, I actually like the look of the film, and found that especially
impressive. It felt as grimy as it looked, with nearly everyone looking
realistically physically filthy, dark and dank. The editing is sharp and the
lighting, albeit dark, is appropriate and gloomy. Let’s just say Vancouver is
not going to be using this as a vacation marketing tool. I haven’t seen any of Nicholson’s
films before, but was captivated by the possibilities that are showing through.
I would like to see him have someone help with his scripting and text editing,
and encourage him to forge ahead, perhaps with more men in sexual danger, to balance
out the sheet.
The
extras are a stills gallery, and just under 10 company trailers. I wish more
would do this with trailers, as it seems to have fallen off the DVD creation
board as more are moving to VoD, but that’s for another blog.
The trailer is HERE
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