Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2018
Images from the Internet
The Song of Solomon (aka American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon)
Directed by Stephen Biro
Oddtopussy Films / Unearthed Films / MVD
Visual
91
minutes, 2015/2016
www.unearthedfilms.com
There are
key phrases you come across that instantly gives you a lot more information on
what is happening than is conveyed by the simple message. If you’re a genre
fan, one of these is “Guinea Pig.” This
may drive you away or draw you near, but you know it means extreme and
transgressive cinema. Stephen Biro, who runs Unearthed Films and also directs
features, has taken on the Guinea Pig
moniker and concept from Japan and created his own branch series to continue
the franchise, called American Guinea Pig
[AGP].
This is
the second of the AGP series that he
directed, though he produced and/or wrote others. Happily, he’s starting to
branch into more story-based tales of gore and mayhem. It seemed like the first
films had limited narrative that was there to support the extremity, but
finally it’s starting to feel like the story came first in importance, without
losing any of the ultraviolence. Of course, that is not to say that the gooey
stuff doesn’t ride shotgun.
Exorcism
films (being possessed by demons, not to be confused with merely controlled by
ghosts as in the haunted house genre, e.g., the Amityville franchise or The
Black Room) seemed to be the rage just a few short years ago, and they have
certainly ramped up the violence from, say, The
Exorcist days, to where on occasion the host dies in the process; unfortunately
in real life, during many deluded exorcisms, the religious figure gets
overzealous, as told in 2005’s The
Exorcism of Emily Rose.
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| Jessica Cameron: The eyes have it |
In our
story, Mary (the lovely Jessica Cameron under a lot of well-done make-up) is hooked up by our demon before the film
even starts, so we don’t get to really know much about her as a single entity.
Now, she has a way of talking sarcastically out the side of a twisted mouth
(such as, and this is not a direct quote, “so you think you can do something?…let’s
see”).
In a
parallel and overlapping story, a high-ranking Roman Catholic Bishop sends in a
series of priests who have been drained and damaged by previous exorcisms
(think of the action film trope where the hero is living on an island somewhere
and is “damaged,” and then the boss comes and says, “I got one more job for
ya.”). This all seems to take place over a single night, so there is an
expectation of a sinister overarching purpose to it all.
Speaking
of which, it’s easy to see the ending coming from early on – in fact it’s kind
of telegraphed if you listen to the dialog (something I strongly recommend, as
does Brio in more than one interview), a habit I tend to do – but it’s
important to remember the genre, and the purpose is the very violent and
extreme road to getting to reach the conclusion, not just to achieve being there.
There are
a number of nods to other exorcism films, such as The Exorcist, with a younger priest accompanying the older, more
experienced one. Of course, things don’t follow the same flight pattern,
thankfully. I should point out that if you’re a devout Roman Catholic, well,
first of all, what the hell are you doing watching a film like this? Lately,
the RC Church has been getting a lot of (rightful) flack for behaviors of
(most?) of its priests, so they have made themselves the prime targets of films
like this, and again, I’m okay with it for that reason. It should also be noted
that Biro is a devout Catholic and tried to make the story and dialogue as
realistic as possible.
For a story
this controlled, especially since a large portion of the action takes place in
one beautiful wooden house (essentially the entranceway, staircase and the
bedroom), there is a nice relative body count. And beyond the fatality number,
the level of violence we witness is… heavenly?
For me,
the big drawback of this genre of film is that often the violence goes beyond
the function and it becomes almost fetishized, so the scenes tend to last
longer than they need to, honestly. Stab someone in a body part and twirl it
around, yeah; keep the close-up of the twisting for five minutes straight,
well, it becomes tiresome and loses some of its power. While it doesn’t happen
all that often here, there are a few bits that could have been – err – chopped
down a bit. Please note that this is my own take on it, and I’m not being
critical, actually, it’s just a personal choice of comfort/attention level.
Cameron,
who is also a writer, producer and director in her own right, holds her own as
her worsening character is the center hub of the story as the demon gets more
control over her and her environment. Cameron seems to revel in the role and it
shows. Most of the other cast is played a bit broadly, especially the priests,
but considering all that happens, it’s kind of the wiser directorial choice.
In previous
releases in the AGP collection, there
is little dialog, minute character development and nothing to stand in the way
of caring about the victims who are being tortured in the most gruesome manner
by those in control. This film, I’m happy to say, takes another direction, but
still manages to stay loyal to the premise. For example, while there is some
mind control by the demon on those around it, most of the violence done to the
human physicality is performed directly by the victim in response to past sins
that come to the surface.
Need I add
that the gore looks spectacular? Marcus Koch’s and Jerami Cruise’s practical /
appliance SFX and make-up are central to what we watch, and both shoot for the
top. There are also come really cool eye lenses used to great effect.
There are hours
of extras on this Blu-ray, such as individual single-camera interviews with
lead actor Jessica Cameron (20:52) who is almost unrecognizable as Mary (so
kudos to Marcus and Jerami) giving great anecdotes about filming key scenes,
writer/director Stephen Biro (26:37), SFX master Marcus Koch (28:07; one of the
fuckin’ most fuckin’ interesting of the fuckin’ group), and Director of Photography
Chris Hilleke (35:15; I lasted until 15 min) discusses how he approached the
shoot and what it was like to shoot SFX.
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| Cameron cleans up nicely |
On top of
that there is an informal Behind the Scenes featurette (70:22) that is not
organized but rather a collection of the shoot through set-ups that are
interesting – albeit rather long – as its main focus is the SFX. For me
especially, I was fascinated by the creation and workings of the magic bed. This is followed by Outtakes
filled with both oopsies and practice
(8:31), and a Photo Gallery containing 161 images of mostly behind the scenes
stills. Oh, and did I mention there are a bunch of Unearthed trailers? Most of
them have been reviewed on this blog.
Of course,
the centerpieces are the two full-length commentaries. The first is with Brio
and Cameron: Biro does most of the talking while Cameron sits a bit far from
the microphone so she fades a bit in and out. About half of it is really good
(i.e., better than most), with stories about not only the filming, but the
research behind it. Being a history buff, this piqued my interest. The second
is Brio, Koch (and his distinctive arm ring tats) and Cruise (who has since
worked on a number of mainstream Marvel multi-million dollar extravaganzas),
again filled with anecdotes about the filming; the guys go into detail about
their work, though sometimes it’s a bit hard to tell who is talking. But in
this case, the content is what matters, so that’s fine.
This may
sound a bit strange, and I mean this in all respect to Biro and his work: as
much as I like his American Guinea Pig
franchise, I’m kinda hoping he’s got a comedy up in sleeve at some point soon.
Hear me out. Biro co-wrote the hysterical 2014 Bubba the Redneck Werewolf, so I know he’s got it in him, and I
truly believe it’s important to mix it up a bit in order to keep some sense of
balance and freshness. Like, if all you eat is White Castle (mmmmmm…), you’d want to mix it up with
some Asian or Tex-Mex occasionally to help you appreciate your next mini-cheeseburgers
with pickles and ketchup.
Oh, and by
the way, where I grew up the proper term for the first means of death in the film is a Sicilian necktie.
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