Text © Richard
Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet
Fortress of Sin
Directed
by Paul Chomicki and Christian Voss
Ragged Sky Productions; Cinema626; The AKG Adjacent; Wild Eye Releasing; MVD
Entertainment
73 minutes, 2022
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www.wildeyereleasing.com
www.mvdvisual.com
This film has been a back burner project of love for star, co-writer, and co-director Paul Chomicki for literally decades. With the help of his buddies Christian Voss and Long Island director Dave Campfield, his dream has become a reality.
Stories of fathers looking for daughter who have become involved with serious situations is not new, including Hardcore (1979) starring George C. Scott. But Chomicki updates it and adds in ritualistic elements to up the ante. While Chomicki is mainly known for off the wall comedies, such as the Caesar and Otto franchise, he sets down some serious roots here.
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| Paul Chomicki |
In the prologue, Alyanna Blackwater (Katie Otten) escapes from a violent religious cult in Nevada (around Hay Spring) called the Church of Ascension (aka Ascend), run by spooky “Father” Lucien Reed (Avi K. Garg). Her disappearance is discussed over the radio newscasts throughout the first act. You know this will be expository information for what is to follow.
Meanwhile, Harry (Chomicki, with his thick Long Island accent) is down on his luck. He is an unemployed alcoholic who lives alone, and separated from his wife, Krista (Rae Hartwell). He is also estranged from his daughter, Robin (Jama Bourne), though the division between the two is not really examined here; she wants the connection, he does not. When she vanishes, leaving a cryptic message on Harry’s phone, he sets out to find her.
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| Katie Otten |
Harry heads north towards a First Nations/American Indian reservation (Cheyenne), where he believes her to be held by the (white) cult, in a desolate part of the state (not surprising, as Aboriginals were screwed out of their lands and placed in places that tended to be nearly inhospitable, both in the US and Canada). But more about that later.
There is a large, mixed and overlapping bag of goodies here, from a religious cult (non-Satanic for once) to human traffickers, to scavengers, and each one more dangerous than the other. Add Harry searching for Robin and a revenge-fueled Alyanna, and you have violence, mayhem, and a bit of a time clock as Harry needs insulin, and soon. Also searching for Robin in a separate-but-equal storyline is Sherriff Ritter (co-director Christian Voss).
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| Christian Voss |
The landscape is stark, and we see numerous (and beautiful) abandoned buildings and ruins among the windy plains to its desolate and disparate foothills. Voss’s cinematography brings the area to life, to symbolize a form of near death.
The social commentary is deep and widespread through the story. It explores the dangers of cults and how they prey on the lonely and scared/scarred, and how it is easy to fall victim. But more central to the story is the long history of the plains (and of Western Canada, as well) as far as the incredibly substantial number of Indigenous women who go missing every year. There is an organization dedicated to this occurrence called Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MIWW). It is of overwhelming numbers. Currently, I am watching a television program based on a series of novels by Louise Penny called “Three Pines,” which centers around this topic.
There are some decent gore effects, though it is happily limited, as this is more about the story than a splatterfest. Most of the body effects are SFX, while there is some CGI used sparingly, such as a rainstorm.
I have always known Chomicki as a comedy actor in slapstick films, so it is good to see him get serious. While his acting remains in a certain range, he shows that he can manage the drama as well as the goofiness, when needed. The rest of the cast also does well, including Dave Campfield, who literally phones it in (Zoom on a computer and by cell phones), in a role that’s key to the story, however.
While recognizing this is a life dream for Chomicki as lead actor (rather than co-lead), he has done himself proud. The film is a good B thriller with bit of violence and a social conscious. I like that.
Be sure to stick around
after the credits. Perhaps a sequel, with Disney nurse Scott Aguilar? I am hoping.
IMDB listing HERE
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