Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020
Images from the Internet
Master Pieces
Directed by Christian Twiste and
Bayview Entertainment; TMA Releasing
86 minutes, 2020
“Is this the real life
/ Is this just fantasy” – Bohemian Rhapsody/Queen
As the sun comes
around and hangs in the sky longer and later, with flowers blossoming and the
birds singing, what could be a better time to review a film based around… Yuletide!
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| Christian Twiste |
This film takes an
interesting premise, in that the main character is actually the director
(Christian Twiste) playing a somewhat warped version (one would hope) of himself,
with Twiste’s real wife (Lisa Gouilan) as his recently-wed reel-spouse.
In the story, Twiste
is quite – er – twisted. And exceptionally delusional. He’s seeing and hearing
things, indicated quite early on, and is certainly mentally imbalanced with
what appears to be a touch of schizophrenia. Being recently married and out of
work certainly do not help the situation.
As the film proper
(post-prologue) begins, we find Twiste watching his favorite psycho-babble
cable radio show, featuring Dr. Brenda Dobbs (Tesia Nicoli). He’s fixated on
her, and is both desperate to get to talk to her (shades of 1982’s The King
of Comedy), and is somewhat convinced she’s talking directly to him.
The world seems to be
trying to vex him at every turn, such as faucets that turn on by themselves, or
a mysterious collection agency that sends a video on CD of Twiste in the bath. It’s
not hard to figure out pretty early on that, like in American Psycho (2000;
Twiste does have a bit of a Christian Bale look to him… or maybe that’s
everyone named Christian?) – although here, Twiste is on the opposite end of
the social strata from Patrick Bateman – much of this is in his noggin rather
than the real world. Twenty minutes in, however, I realized it could also be a
gaslighting situation, as well. Don’t worry, I won’t give it away. I would like
to note that the bathtub video mimicking his real life is a nice touch.
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| Lisa Gouilan |
As an aside, whoever’s
townhouse this was filmed in, man, there are a lot of stairs. I’m just
sayin’. And though (the real) Twiste is livin’ in Jersey, he certainly has not
lost his Staten Island accent; that really made me smile and happy, missing hearing
the area inflection of my youth (though for me it was more Bensonhurst, but I
digress…).
As with the original The
Terminator (1984), many of the victims are in similar situations as Sarah
Connor in that they are doomed because of similar names or looks of a that person
on whom Twiste is actually lashing out. This was also an interesting idea.
There are some smart
choices that are made, such as the shift between the running taps at night and
the transition shot in the kitchen the following day. That is simply fine, and
it seems these guys work well putting these almost humorous finger-to-side-of-nose
slices together. Having Gouilan seen mostly in shadow, out-of-focus, or
partially face-blocked (like the neighbor, Wilson, in the TV show “Home Improvement”)
is another subtle and interesting artistic touch that works.
 |
| Tesia Nicoli |
The film has a
(purposeful) very 1980s indie feel to it, with miniscule budget (explained in
the next paragraph) with only practical SFX rather than digital; while it is not
super bloody, it’s still highly effective. There is a lot more to the story
than the murders, and there is a relatively decent body count, but focuses more
on twisted Twiste as we follow his actions and thoughts, i.e., he’s in just
about every scene, except for those with the police detective (Ryan MacNamara),
whose “sidekick,” as it were, is the disembodied voice over the scanner of
co-director/co-writer Geoffrey Ciani.
As I said, the acting
is quite… over-the-top a lot of the time, especially with Twiste and some of
the minor “service people” (aka, the additional body count), but I really liked
Twiste’s caricature of himself (at least I hope it is). And despite some plot
questions, the story is engaging. There are a few plot turns that I would love
to discuss, but won’t because it would be too far into spoiler alert territory.
That being said, I do believe some editing to whittle it down a bit could be
done, such as the initial tap dripping scene which goes on a little too long
and ends up being more distracting than its purpose intends.
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| Ryan MacNamara |
As for the whole
Christmas theme, it’s mostly in the off-beat versions of common Christmas Carols on
the soundtrack that connect it to the holiday, not directly to the story itself…
other than possibly because that time of year can have a negative affect on
those with mental health issues. I am grateful that is the full extent,
honestly, because, as a non-believer, Xmas-themed films tend not to do much for
me. If you took out the carols, it could be any time in the winter without changing
any of the story itself.
Apparently, both Twiste
and Ciani were recently married (not to each other) and unemployed, and so
decided to do this film as a joint project to creatively spend the time. The
end result is a film that is bit amateurish, with some continuity and editing issues,
and somewhat choppy acting here and there, but I have to admit that, in this
case, is part of what I like about the film. It’s not trying to be a superstar
mega-monster picture, but a small, heartfelt work to stretch some artistic
muscle rather than stagnating. I respect that a lot.
There is at least a
couple of subtle shots at Trump and that mindset that made me giggle. A dark
humor runs throughout the feature, giving it an umph. Now that we are
between “waves” of Covid 19 and many of us are also shuttered and unemployed,
maybe that could be an impetus for either a sequel or another totally different
film. That would be nice.
And not fer nuthin’,
the chef hat cracked me up, every time.
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