Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020
Images from the Internet
Sinful
Directed by Rich Mallery
CineRidge Entertainment; Cinema Epoch; Napalm Love
Productions
75 minutes, 2020
www.madsincinema.com
For a pandemic, the
gay community is the one to look for when it comes to dealing with it day to
day. Their experience with AIDS has – er – grandfathered them (sorry about that
term) into being years ahead of most. While sure, it more directly killed gay
men, it was their lesbian sisters who often were the caregivers, so they still
experienced that loss first-hand.
Why bring this up for
this review? Two reasons: first, the film is based on the occurrences around a
newly-married lesbian couple, Salem (Nicole D’Angelo) and Remy (Christine Lo),
and that it was filmed in the middle of the first wave of the COVID-19
pandemic. There has been a lot of art that has come out of the isolation the
disease has brought, and cinema is certainly included.
A pandemic calls for a
small cast, and this one consists of a trio, including the two mentioned above
and a mysterious masked man (Chris Spinelli) who shows up on occasion, and disappears
just as fast. These three actors have been working on films together for a
while now (e.g., Choke and Acrylic), so they are comfortable
around each other and feeding off the other’s energy. This is important in
creating cinematic synergy.
Salem and Remy are
recently married and on the run from a bloody, “horrific” (as the film’s
descriptor states on IMDB) crime, waiting in a house for some new identification
to beat it on the lam. But their paranoia is deep and their distrust for
anyone, including each other on occasion, tends to get the better of them. This
is especially true with high-strung Remy, who is on the verge of a breakdown (or
appears to be), while Salem is trying to hold it all together and be solid, but
even she is having the heebie-jeebies (wishing she were at CBGBs?).
The film is essentially
a character study of these two women, and how they are either coping – or trying
to – with various levels of success. The tables often change and the dance
around each other and their situation ebbs and flows.
This is a psychological
drama more than a “horror thriller,” though there are hints to support both classifications.
Sure, they might be in a multi-dimensional space where things repeat or change,
it may all be in their increasingly paranoid minds, or perhaps this house is
like a The Twilight Zone episode and they actually are in purgatory
(hell?). It’s often left up to the viewer to decide.
Nearly everything is
sparse, from the walls to the hallways, to the fact that you can’t see out the
windows, giving the film a bit of claustrophobia and paranoia to the viewer as
well. The skewed angles also throw us off a bit as I try to put it together
with the two protagonists. And what’s with the pop-up man in a mask? The
personification of guilt? Well, I am certainly not going to tell you.
As I said, the two
leads play off of each other’s energies really well. Lo may get a bit shrill at
times as Remy tries to sort out what she’s doing and what is happening, and D’Angelo
does well to show emotion on her face as Salem is torn between her love for
Remy, not wanting to get caught, and trying to find patience while the new IDs
are out there somewhere. While Chris Spinelli doesn’t do much other than stand around
in a mask, I have seen him in other works recently, and I have no question the
man can act.
The film is
emotionally draining, between the pent up fear of the characters, the shifting
of the plot line to match the tilting of the camera angles, and even the
complexity of the story against the starkness of the setting. We are thrust
into a situation of panic, fear, and varying levels of trust, and we just have
to hold on for the ride.
It is a well-scripted
story, the acting is at times breathtaking, and the direction by Rich Mallery shows a sense of style that
makes me want to see more.
The film is available on various media platforms, and will soon be
available on Blu-ray.
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