Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet
Old Man of the Rooks
Directed by:
Chapter 1: Rachel Miller
Chapter 2: Jizabell Anat
Chapter 3: Steven Goransky
Chapter 4: A’Shaela Abdon
Chapter 5: Chris Martino
Chapter 6: Eli Montgomery, Kathy Simmons
Chapter 7: Jakin Shaw, Justin Little
Chapter 8: Julianna Johnson
Chapter 9: Matt Pitchford
Chapter 10: Brandon Woodward
Chapter 11: Eric E. Poe, Stephen Gilliam
Chapter 12: Nikki Wilder
Wages of Cine
99
minutes, 2018
Being a
collective can be a challenge. When more than one person chooses do to
different chapters of the same story, sometimes it works out great, sometimes
not so much. For example, Stephen King and Peter Straub switched off on
chapters for their 1983 novel, The
Talisman; while it was arguably not a critics’ choice, I actually liked it,
despite the tones of the writers being so different.
A closer
metaphor to this release is telling stories around a campfire, where everybody adds
their own part, and the next person has to continue from that point. Sure,
there are going to be some gaps in the story and a few inconsistencies, but
there is also refreshing new thoughts that take the story in ways you may not
have expected.
For this
film, it is serialized into 12 chapters, each section written and directed by a
total of 15 people. To be honest, watching it on VoD without having a DVD, I
don’t know when a chapter begins or ends, but honestly it felt mostly consistent, which is a beautiful
thing. [Note that I later realized you can find all 12
chapters on YouTube.]
The center
of the story is the titular man in the rook, or in this case, the supernatural
killer in the scarecrow outfit. He’s a Scottish guy named Gordon (Joseph
Zuchowski), brogue and all, who is killed in a jealous rage. His soul goes into
a sack-cloth garbed scarecrow thanks to a bird-like witch named Ravenna (Jizabell Anat), who now controls his spirit.
Ravenna looks like she was dressed from a Halloween or party store (not a
complaint), with a bird mask, small black wings, and talons. Not for nuthin’, my
cat’s name is Ravena, who is dreaming next to me as I write this. Humorously,
the witch’s name is pronounced differently by various people (Rah-VEE-nah, RAH-veh-nah,
etc. But I digress…
The story
is interesting if sometimes hard to follow exactly, full of jealousy, rage,
revenge, supernatural noodling, ghosts, and some decent gore. This could
definitely be considered a stylized slasher film and there actually is an
extremely high body count here, with the first death being my favorite (won’t
give it away). There are no redeemable characters really other than Bobby (Eric
E. Poe) and his niece, Tori (Caroline Grant), who get caught up in the goings
on, sometimes to their extreme detriment.
The acting
is sometimes on the level of community theater (again, not a complaint), but
the same actors stay through the whole story, even if the motives of their actions
change from writer to writer, keeping the viewer in suspense more than
confusion. One character may seem good in one chapter and bad in another, and
vice-versa. This is part of the fun. For me, the most solid of the batch is Susan
Willis, who plays Deb, a housewife who is at the center of a lot of the action
and seems to have the most screen time.
What’s
also good fun (at least for me) is that the person who is the killer/scarecrow
changes quite often as souls are dumped and replaced by other dead people. This
is both WTF, and seems to work well
with the serialized story.
Sometimes
the coming backstabbing and scheming can be seen before the action, but with so many
directors and writers, there are also plenty of moments where the viewer is
guaranteed to be surprised about some turns of events.
Unlike
most of the releases these days, these actors all look like they could be your
neighbors, with realistic body types and a wide range of age groups. This made
me happy.
I’m not sure if this type of serialized story
is a one-shot idea, or will become part of a trend from Wages of Cine, but it
is an interesting concept. This go at it is quite successful, with an enjoyable
central plot and peripheral storylines that are all over the map, keeping this
viewer unsure and wanting more.
Yes, there
are moments where I was a bit baffled, but honestly, that was part of the fun
for me. Most of it is cleared up by the end, anyway (the last chapter must have
been the hardest to write and direct, bringing together all the thoughts of the
others to clean it all up for our passive end of the screen.
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