Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet
The 27 Club
Directed by Patrick Fogarty
Cleopatra Entertainment / MVD Entertainment
97 minutes, 2019
Though I am not a
musician, I still remember the feeling of relief on my 28th birthday, knowing I
didn’t become a member of what has become known as the “27 Club.” This seems to
be the terminal age for a lot of people in the music biz, including Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Brian Jones, blues
musician Robert Johnson, Canned Heat’s Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson, the Grateful
Dead’s Pigpen, Big Star’s Chris Bell, D. Boon of the Minutemen, Kristen Pfaff
of Hole, and so many others. In most of these cases, it’s a matter of meeting
the Master through misadventure (drugs, suicide, car accidents, etc.).
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| Maddisyn Carter |
The main thing about
this film and others like it, is that you know exactly where it is taking us,
and whom it is going to affect; the big question and what keeps us watching is
the how the final comeuppance will arrive. Hey, it’s in the title, and the
big hint is given in the first act. We just need to stick around for the ride
to get to the conclusion of the deal with the… devil? Demon?
The question(s) behind
the film, of course, is oft asked: how far are you willing to go to achieve
your goals, and do the ends justify the means? For many it’s quite an easy
question. For me, well, not so much.
The main protagonist
in the film is Jason (Derrick Denicola), a music lover and student who is
writing a paper for teacher, Professor Crawford (the Todd Rundgren), who
gives odd vibes right from the start. Jason is convinced that the so-called 27
Club has something behind it, and when Quinn Scott (Travis Grant) of the band
Saturn’s Return, the latest rock star in the film’s prologue to join the list, he
is even more determined to find the answer. So much so, in fact, he wears a Saturn’s
Return tee shirt through at least the first half of the film over several days.
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| Todd Rundgren on the left |
As a brief aside,
Jason has some cool stuff on the walls of his room, including album covers by
the likes of the Damned, Iggy and the Stooges (Raw Power), and of course
Todd Rundgren. Now my theory is that Jason is being influenced by Prof.
Crawford because in a record store scene reminiscent of High Fidelity (2000),
Crawford suggests the same Damned and Iggy albums to a patron who is interested
in an Everclear colored vinyl. But Crawford/Rundgren is so cool, he’s actually
wearing a tee from the West Coast post-punk industrial noise band Chrome; I still
have my Chrome LPs, FYI.
Somehow, Jason manages
to hook up with the sister of his best friend’s (Zack Kozlow) girlfriend, an
aspiring singer named Lily (Maddisyn Carter), who is a mess on so many level
(personality, indulgences, etc.) though lovely to espy. Lily has a strong desire
to make it in the biz, but will she go above and beyond, as it were, to kick
start her career rather than sabagoogee it?
In smaller roles, it’s
nice to see actors Nick Principe as a massive crony to a mad Satanist,
and as a news reporter, Kelly Erin Decker, who stole every scene in which she
appeared in during Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill! (2017).
 |
| Derrick Denicola |
All the actors
involved here hit the marks without having to rely on histrionics (in other words,
they can act), which is probably a good thing especially since there isn’t a
character here that is totally likeable, even the main two. I’ve mentioned Lily,
but Jason is no cotton candy either; he may be just as focused on his goal of finishing
his paper as Lily is with her career, but he does some pretty skeevy things in
his own right, such has filming himself having sex without telling his partner.
But it’s not just these two as no one seems to have any sense of boundaries or be
aware of personal space. I find no fault on the writers of this film, though,
as having been involved with the world of musicians, this tends to be true as a
general rule.
One of the interesting
ideas about this film is having other, more infamous members of the 27 club
speak in between scenes hidden mostly in the shadows, such as Jimi, Janis, Jim,
Kurt and Robert Johnson. This is a cool idea as a concept, but for some reason
it doesn’t really work too well, I’m truly sorry to say. This may be because what
they say gets lost in the echo/reverb, and does not really translate or contribute
to the story. Perhaps if what they said related to what was happening to our
main characters at the time it would be a better fit, but it remains as an
interesting concept.
The extras are two brief
(about 2 minutes) interviews with the two leads, Denicola and Carter. There is
also a photo slideshow which are just some screen grabs, the trailer, and a
bunch of other coming attractions from the Cleopatra label, many films I have
seen and enjoyed. That being said, this is a three-disc set, the first
two each being a Blu-ray and DVD version of the film (which is also available
in single disc, as well). The third is the soundtrack CD, with bands such as
Geri-X, VV and the Void, Die Klute, the Anix, and of course Todd Rundgren
(featuring Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). This should not be surprising as Cleopatra
has a music wing, and I’m willing to bet most of these bands are on their label.
Personally, as a music snob myself, I was not impressed by most of it, but my
tastes remain with proto- and first wave punk.
Despite the predictability
of the ending, the story was told well by some decent writing and acting, and
kept my interest. Nice way to spend an afternoon with some tortured souls.
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