Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2016
Images from the Internet
Don’t You Recognise Me?
Written and directed by Jason
Figgis
October Eleven Pictures
80
minutes, 2015 / 2016
www.facebook.com/jason.figgis
In an Amusing Ourselves to Death world, according to Neil Postman in 1985,
entertainment becomes our focus, rather than the real world around us, leading
to the collapse of culture. Examples of this abound, with some people walking
off cliffs in search of non-existent Pokémon Go characters, others drive
two-ton machines full speed down a highway or crowded street while texting.
There are also those who would rather watch sports than participate in them or other
actually important social contract behavior such as voting for a viable leader;
they’d rather opinionate without doing the research, or instead watch a woman
with three dragons take sword to kings on television. But it runs both ways, as
not only are there viewers, but there are also the creators of such
distractions.
In Ireland, as we are introduced to this
story, is Tony Aiello (Matthew Toman), a slimy Geraldo-style “journalist” with
no moral compass, whose purpose in life is to find people to interview, and
make them look as foolish in documentaries. With his film crew (Alan Rogers on
camera and the cute Emma Dunlop on sound boom), he has lined up his latest
victims, obtained from social media contact: the Gallagher family, small-time operators who are willing to let Aiello
into their world. But right from the start, the viewer knows that something is
rotten in the state of County Dublin. The title of the film even hints at it.
I promise I won’t go into spoiler alert
territory, but it soon becomes obvious that while Aiello is playing the
Gallaghers for his own gain, the tide will soon turn for ominous reasons.
The Gallaghers and their crew are a nutsy
bunch, showing that a level of insanity may run in this family and group,
possibly on the Usher level (the EA Poe story, not the singer, so back off). K (Jason
Sherlock) is the pretty face that draws the flies to the spider, as it were,
but it is brother Daz (Darren Travers) who is in charge of the operation (and
it’s Travers who steals just about any scene he’s in). Also aiding them
silently in a possible Leatherface nod is Nickey Gallagher, aka Babyface, for
reasons that are immediately obvious (played menacingly by the very muscular
and intimidating director, Jason Figgis).
If I may pull back and digress here a mo,
this documentary style filming is an offshoot of the found footage subgenre, in
that those on camera filming the story are actually shooting the film, as well.
There is a nice touch as the scenes cut between the two camera, and you hear
the differences in the sound from each (the quality changes between the boom
and the home videocamera, for example, or those closer to the shooting are
louder than those further away). For once, not
balancing the sound makes sense.
Starting off slow, the menacing and alarm
levels start to kick in at about 15 or 20 minutes (the first of which are used
for exposition), and then continue to increase exponentially. By the time
everything is explained out, the viewer will cringe, but at the same time has
some sense of identification with the retribution-seeking Gallaghers.
 |
| Darren Travers as Daz |
Joining the family is some friends, including
two camera people (video and still), and the hair obsessed Terese (Shauna
Ryan), an intense woman who does not take kind to insult and is often saying, “You
take that back!” There is actually a lot of repetition of dialog by many of the
characters, such as Daz’s insistence to just about everyone, “Are you gettin’
this?!” It actually makes it even more frightening rather than “samey” as you see
the level of madness – both in the level of anger and craziness – reaches the crescendo.
That aspect also gave it a real
feeling, perhaps of improv on the part of the actors. Anyway, it works.
If I could change any one thing in this film,
I would add subtitles, as sometimes the accents get a bit thick, but it’s
always easy to pick out the oft used “fook.” Perhaps the option will be on the
DVD release, but there are parts where I really had no idea what was being said
literally, but the intent was loud and clear so I don’t think I really missed
anything.
There is little blood in the film, and much
of the actual violence is done off-screen, but that does not hinder the level
of both malevolence and banality of evil that are present. Bleak has its place
in life, and this story certainly lends itself to just that. In fact, it is the
quality of the story and the compassion for the characters that actually arises
out of that despair, even with the
excess violence.
Figgis seems to revel in the bleak, such as in
his previous film reviewed on this blog, Children
of a Darker Dawn (HERE). That being said, it should be added that he excels in it, as well, even with
the feeling that it could have been edited down a bit. However, it is also enhanced
by the mostly subtly and dissonant notes of a really fine score by Michael
Richard Plowman.
Sure there is no sign of cell phones, nicely making
the timing of the film a bit up in the air, but even so the prevalence of
technology still manages to make itself felt, as both sides of the table
document the situation, including some group shots of both victims and victors,
even though in the long run, everybody loses a bit of their own soul, and not
just to the image as some religions believe about taking pictures.
Film's Trail to Be Added Shortly...
