Review: Abandoned Dead

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2016
Images from the Internet

Abandoned Dead
Written and directed by Mark W. Curran
Nightwatcher Films / Pacific World Pictures / Pocket Studios / MVD VIsual
77 minutes, 2015 / 2017
www.abandoned-dead.com
www.mvdvisual.com   

Californian rent-a-cop security guard – as in needing to feel secure – Rachel Burke (Burke’s law?) has been assigned to begrudgingly watch over the Mayfield Addiction Clinic over the Memorial Day Weekend (memorial = dead). It’s a clinic which deals with, well, addictions, and there is methadone stored there – not to mention frequent break-ins– so it stands to reason it can’t be left alone without some protection.

But, this is a genre film, so naturally things aren’t what they appear to be. They certainly don’t seem benign, as objects move, shake and appear in the shadows. As with most thriller kinds of films of this type, you are most likely looking not at the central character as she moves around, but the dark space down the hall, or the doorway on one of the sides of the corridor. Then there are the mysterious phone calls and the static that appear on the radio as a supernatural “tell” that something is about to happen. Woooooooooo, eerie, boys and girls.

The mysteriousness level is enhanced by the sharp use of stark color lights (red, blue, etc., or even the clarity of white). Most of the time, due to its use by so many other films, this visual has become kind of hackneyed, but Curran manages to make it work quite well here, showing emotion rather than just “Boo! Different lighting!” That makes me happy.

Also, this film is not just about the supernatural (or is it?), but a supernatural thriller (or is it?). See, that’s when a film becomes a thriller, making the watcher wonder. That leads me to another commonly used trope that is exploited here, which is a character (Burke) walking around a dark building with many doors, using only a flashlight (the lights go out during the story, not like CSI where they never turn the lights on in the first place…never understood that…”Look, audience, we have cool little flashlights!” But I digress…

As far as walking around the building, usually I hate these moments because they tend to last too long, turning suspense into annoyance and finally boredom. While there are a lot of scenes like that, again Curran takes the high road and tends to break it up into shorter segments, keeping the suspense high. Amusingly, the only distraction that really took me out of the moment was a scene where Burke investigates a bathroom, and the toilet seat is up. The back of my neck hairs stood up. Any male reading this that is cohabiting with a female partner will understand.

The premise is not new (not going to give it away) and I saw the central theme coming early on, though I wasn’t sure where it was going or how it would end. That helped in part to keep my grubby fingers off the fast forward button. This, actually, is a compliment to Curran’s direction and writing, to take a tried-and-true idea and jig with it in a way to keep the interest level.

Sarah Nicklin

Burke is played by multi-festival award-winning Sarah Nicklin. Now, I have to admit I love Sarah – no, not in that creepy older guy lusting after a hot younger woman, but rather I enjoy her acting skill and I have for a while, as she is a very natural talent. Yes, the role here plays towards the mostly “scared,” but that also makes the contrasts even more realistic and jutting.

While the idea of this film is similar in some ways to another film she was in (though not as the locus character) called Normal (2015), it takes a different turn than the previous one, and her character is very dissimilar than the other lead. Again, this is a good thing.

Judith O'Dea

The cameo du jour for this film is Night of the Living Dead’s (1968) Judith O’Dea, as a Doctor of the Mind (okay, psychiatrist… happy?). To be honest, I always through her acting in NOTLD was kinda wooden, even if she is one of the central characters who is supposed to be in shock, but she certainly does fine here, and I’m glad to see her working again. I would also like to congratulate Curran for not having someone say to her, at some point, “They’re coming to get you, Doctor.” Not every actor needs to have a “Woha” or “I’ll be back” that they just have to use to remind everyone (i.e., beat over the head with their ego) of their classic turns. Besides, she gets to say the film’s tagline, so that’s good enough for me.

There is no nudity in the film (though Nicklin carries the undies scenes quite well), but a nice level of gore FX is executed. Not a huge amount, but enough to make it stick out a bit more and be quite effective.

I enjoyed how this careened over a number of genres, such as slasher, doctor experimentation, supernatural, zombie, paranormal, social commentary about family dynamics, psychodrama, crime drama, and straight out horror; and yet, it doesn’t stay in any one stream long enough to overstay it’s welcome, nor pass so fast that it is ignorable.  

According to IMDB, this is Curran’s second full-length film (he directed the recording of a live stage production about Edgar Allen Poe previously). As such, it’s a work to be proud of, and there’s plenty of fodder there to grow on. I look forward to charting his path.

 

Review: Nun of That

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2015
Images from the Internet

 

Nun of That
Directed and edited by Richard Griffin
Scorpio Films Releasing
91 minutes / 2009
The film can be seen HERE.

Religious comedies take a fine hand to craft, to be funny and irreverent with a feel and knowledge for the reverent. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but it sure describes this film pretty well.

Based on the Strong Women and Blaxploitation genres (think Coffy [1973], Ms. 45 [1981] and Savage Sisters [1974; aka Ebony, Ivory & Jade], a group of super-Nuns – you heard me – take on the mob (of course, it’s the cartoonish versions of Italianos that would have made Joe Gallo crazy). And I’m sure that somewhere, some Mameluke is saying this is part of the “War on Christians.”



Sarah Nicklin as Sister Wrath

After a wonderful prologue where a nun on a stripper pole (no nun nudity here) guns down a bunch of mobsters, we get to meet the heroine of the piece, Sister Kelley (the amazing Sarah Nicklin), definitely a nun with an attitude problem that a few years of anger management may not have the power to cure. After beating up a pedophilic priest, she’s sent away to the bad nun parish in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. On the verge of being raped by a pimp in full Superfly regalia and his two goons, she does away with them with a can of whoop-ass, only to be shot by – yep – more nuns.

In heaven, she argues with her guardian angel asking where he was when she was shot; he defensively answers, “Getting smokes, Bitch! Do you know how hard it is to get menthol here?!” That line had me laughing hard enough to stop the film to gather myself. It’s a wild ride, indeed. And the film’s only just starting.

After meeting the J-Man (Michael Reed, and in a very cool idea, he also plays the Devil later in the film) and some training by the hosts of heaven (e.g., martial arts from Ghandi!), she comes back as a holy crusader known as Sister Wrath, as a member of the Order of the Black Habit, which is sort of like the nun version of the Black Ops. Don’t worry, I won’t be giving away too much more of the story, it’s just too delish. But I will be discussing observations of moments of course, as that’s mah thang.

Some of the humor is very subtle. For example, during a nun slumber party with a bottle of champagne to celebrate a victory, one of the priests named Father Thomas is looking through a crack in the door and enjoying the activity. One might think Doubting Thomas, but it’s more likely Peeping Tom is the reference. Less subtle joke that had me laughing refers to being so unlucky that someone could “fall into a vat of tits and come out sucking your thumb.” Such language from a woman of the cloth!

All the nuns in the order are named for the Seven Deadly Sins, including Sister Lust (attractive Shanatee Wilson, who easily is a take-off of Pam Grier sans the amount of curves) and Sister Gluttony (Ruth Sullivan, who was so memorable in The Disco Exorcist); a funny bit is that while all the sisters have a special cross around their neck, Sister Gluttony has three. Brilliant.

Not only is there a lot of incredibly funny material, but it is actually quite smart. The name of a tough-as-a-biker-bar hangout for nuns (most played by men)? Why Bar Nun, of course. And Italians/Catholics aren’t the only ones who get the treatment, there’s a mercenary killer named Viper Goldstein (David Lavallee, Jr.) so some Jewish jokes can also be made (more than one had me howling, such as “We invented ‘Old School’” and “Jew-Jitsu”); even Mohammed is taken down a notch, but don’t tell you-know-who.

I just have one question, and this may sound like a snipe but I say it in total respect: could you find faker looking moustaches and wigs? Wow! I take it as part of the humor, rather than a lack of trying.

The |Devil  (Michael Reed) and Mama Rizzo (Rich Tretheway)

And even with all the yucks, there is a gender politics and body politic that underscores the events. For example, a priest would rather side with mobsters because they’re men and are “supposed” to be in charge rather than with the nuns because they are women. Also there is much gender switching, with a man playing the woman who is running the mob (Rich Tretheway channeling Divine-meets-Little Orphan Annie), and as I said, many of the other nuns are definitely male.

There are two notable cameos. One is by the a bit unrecognizable Debbie Rochon thanks to a habit, who would be so powerful a few years later in Griffin’s Exhumed (2011), and the other a very hysterically funny Lloyd Kaufmann as the Toxic Av…I mean, the Pope, doing the worst Italian accent I have ever heard. You can just tell he ad-libbed his lines.

I mean, this is the kind of film I would imagine someone like Quentin Tarantino would twist his nut to have made, or at least watch.

 

Bonus video mock trailer (not from this film, but same characters)
Winner of the 2008 48-hour film award, where films are created in 2 days:

 

 

           

 

Review: Normal

Text by Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films
Images from the Internet

Normal
Directed by Richard Griffin
Scorpio Films Releasing
89 Minutes, 2013
www.scorpiofilmsreleasing.com
https://www.facebook.com/NORMALTHEMOVIE

And it is no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 11:14

Many directors it seems, especially ones known for releases generally having some level of humor, at some point want to make a “serious” movie. Most, such as Woody Allen with Interiors (1978), are arguably not successful (it was a beautiful film that critics loved, but it bored audiences). Director Richard Griffin had tried this before with much more success with his bleak, black and white noir thriller Exhumed (2011), which I rated as the best indie film I had seen that year.



Sarah Nicklin and Michael Reed

Taking a step into even darker material – albeit this time in color – Griffin once again joins forces with his Exhumed leads Sarah Nicklin and Michael Reed, only this time with Reed as the focal point rather than Nicklin. But as with most films that pair them, they are some form of a couple, such as in The Disco Exorcist (2011).
Let me say, as a straight Ally, Reed is one handsome fella. Luckily, he does not really need to rely merely on that as he is also one damn fine actor. He plays Jim, who owns a run-down apartment building in Boston (he even drives past the Citgo sign, giving me fond memories of The Rat[skeller] club, but I digress…), apparently co-owned with his brother, Tom (Nathaniel Sylva giving a solid and emotional performance). Jim is also the not so handy superintendent, unsuccessfully able to fix fluttering hallway lights or thermostats, thematically matching his mind and moods, perhaps. Now, his brother is pressuring him to sign away the building to be sold for his own – yet understandable – reasons we come to learn. So, poor Tom is feeling quite some pressure in his life.



Elyssa Baldassarri and Michael Reed

Along with his brother, there is also strain from a number of the tenants who desperately seem to want something of – not just from – him through some form of affection and attention, including both genders (yes I know gender is more than binary, but let’s move on). Through flashbacks and verbal hints, the viewer learns some of the key secrets of the story at the end of the first act, but that certainly should not have you give up, but rather put a little additional jam on the toast, if you will, because the ride is just getting more interesting.

The tenants and a couple of visitors are part of what makes this film so… disturbingly curious. For example, there’s Reed’s companion who often comes and goes named Shelley, played by the amazing… Sarah Nicklin. That pause is because I was going to call her a Scream Queen, but honestly, you can tell she can play beyond the genre. Let me further say, as a straight Ally, Nicklin is an attractive woman. I’ve seen a few of her films, and when she and Reed have scenes together, there is definite magic as they play off each other so well.

The mysterious Michael Thurber

There is also a married couple (Monica Saviolakis and Rich Tretheway, who just keeps getting better in every film I see him in), two women who almost remind me of the twins from The Shining (1980), amusingly named April and June (Samantha Acampora  and Shannon Hartman, respectively), the older man who has a crush on Jim (David Erin Wilson), and a woman constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown (Elyssa Baldassarri, also giving an extremely strong performance somewhere between pathos and scarred; I’m looking forward to seeing her first lead role in Griffin’s latest, Accidental Incest: The Musical, which was just released, and soon to be reviewed here). Then, of course, there is the mysterious stranger, sharply portrayed by Griffin regular, Michael Thurber. Thurber can sometimes be over the top when he should be, in comedies like Future Justice(2014), Dr. Frankenstein’s Wax Museum of the Hungry Dead (2013) or The Sins of Dracula (2014), but when he hunkers down to serious roles like here and Exhumed, man, is he a force to reckon with.

Samantha Acampora

Griffin’s sense of the scene, placement of the camera, lighting, and mood are impeccable. There’s one shot of Tom leaving a bar with the soon to be full frontal Patrick Keefe, which is so well done, I actually backed it up to watch three or four times, with each viewing I noticing something different. From the dull, yellowish lighting to one that is bright and glaringly stark white to show, again, state of mind, the direction is nearly a character in itself.

While the symbolism runs higher than usual, unlike with, say, Interiors, it never gets in the way of the story, a fault that tends to run in those trying to make “art” instead of a good film. There is a reason why so many quality actors flock to and then stick around for other Griffin films, because (a) it really looks like they are supported by the director, (b) the roles are juicy as get-out, and (c) he makes quality films. There is no other director I know who is this prolific (18 full features and a few shorts in 11 years) and retains the high level of quality.

Helping along of course is the writer, Lenny Schwartz, who has penned a couple of Griffin’s other films, including the above mentioned Accidental Incest. Schwartz has a very sharp sense of humor, a touch of the deranged, and knows how to tell a story. I mean, if he can give away key plot points a third of the way through and still not have it be anti-climactic, that really is saying tons.

One would be hard pressed to call this a splatterfest, and blood is kept to a minimum, but its presence is more meaningful than your average killer film, but that’s because Normal delves us ore into what makes one do terrible things, and yet manages to keep us in suspense, as a thriller should.

As usual, Schwartz and Griffin play with cultural gender roles, with no character necessarily being 100% anything other than themselves,  and giving the audience enough credit to accept that. As it should be. Just playing with the theme of what is normal and what is “not” can be taken on many levels here. Sure, there is the mental question, but where does that line fall, and more importantly, who is to say what is “normal?” Greenwich Village? Indiana? Fangoria? Me?  

There are a bunch of points I would love to discuss about the ending here, but won’t for obvious reasons. Let’s have some tea, and we can talk.

Review: The Disco Exorcist

Text © Richard Gary/Indie Horror Films, 2012

Images from the Internet

           

The Disco Exorcist

Directed by Richard Griffin                

Wild Eye Films, 2011

80 minutes, USD $16.95        

wildeyereleasing.com

MVDvisual.com

It seems the whole retro exploitation movement came into full fruition with the Tarantino / Rodriguez double-billed Grindhouse (2007), with fake period pieces added, digital scratches to look old, and “missing scenes” taken out. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the genre, out comes The Disco Exorcist.
 

Despite the obvious comparison to the previous film(s) mentioned, The Disco Exorcist is, well, amazingly enjoyable. Director Richard Griffin has a history of making horror films of various genres, occasionally with a retro feel. He has certainly hit the pin on the voodoo doll head with this one.

Taking place in 1979, at the height of the disco era and just as it was starting to thankfully wane (to be replaced by the equally noxious hip hop), there are three main characters around whom the plot revolves, each with less than subtle character names.
 

First, there is the title fellow, otherwise known as Rex Romanski (i.e., king of romance). He’s sort of like John Revolta / Tony Monero from Saturday Night Fever (1977), who dances and then subsequently beds all the women, and then moves on to the next one with no thought of hurt feelings. He leaves a string of women who sit at the dance club watching him move while bitterly (and humorously) make snide comments like a rejected Greek chorus. Donning a ‘70s style long-haired wig and full of baby blue eyes and dimples, Michael Reed plays him almost as an innocent, rather than the pig Rex actually acts. Without malice of thought, Romanski just lives his life, which just happens to involve disco, dipping and dumping. His sidekick, Manuel (Brandon Luis Aponte, taking a fun turn), is rarely from his side, even when he’s in a porn theater – er – touching himself, watching his favorite actress perform.

At the club, he meets the edgy, sometimes beautiful / sometimes scary Rita Marie (a derivative of the name Miriam – Moses’ sister – Marie means “Bitter”… yes, I just knew that off the top of my head; Rita, a derivative of Margarita; is a pearl… that one I looked up). We see from the first scene that there is something wrong with Rita, who has more power than she can use wisely, and rather takes her anger issues out by… well, you’ll have to see the cool period aesthetics. Ruth Sullivan, a consummate actor actually, does just the right amount of scenery chewing for this role, which calls for a lot of hysterics, yearning, burning, and literal finger-pointing.

Lastly, there is Rex’s idol and eventual lover, porn star Amoreena Jones (as in Amore). Beautiful with pouty lips, Sarah Nicklin is fearless in her role as the focus of Rita’s jealous vengeance. This is another part that could have been dismissed by an actor of less caliber, and cheapened by the action, but Nicklin actually comes out the best of the three as far as skills go – and that’s saying a lot considering the amount of talent is actually present despite the budget – not by doing her “Linda Blair” bit of being possessed, but by her comic timing and treating this as a she might, say, The Godfather (yeah, okay, that was a weird comparison, but hopefully I made my point). Oh, as a sidebar, in the real world, the leads Nicklin and Reed are married, so some of the positions they assume were “familiar,” as they state in the commentary.

All three of these actors are part of the New England theater scene (as are most of the secondary and ancillary cast), and Griffin, from the area himself, filmed much of this in Pawtucket, RI, as he does with most of his releases. As such, the three are part of his stable of on-screen (and quite some behind-the-scenes, as well) talent, having all appeared in a number of his flicks.

I must say, that as a retro film that was supposed to look like it was released at the end of the ‘70s, Griffin does take it a bit too far. For example, in that period, you never saw male genitalia, unless it was a rubber dildo. Even then, unless it was someone like Russ Meyer, it was highly unusual, and no theater (other than pornos) would have shown it, unless, of course, it was Meyers, an even rarer exception, and yet only in some major cities. Even with female nudity, it was T&A, but no genital hair for a long time. The one exception I can think of, though, is the actually boring The Harrad Experiment (1973), where we got to see Don Johnson’s – er – johnson.

Going in that direction for a moment, it is interesting to note that part of the this excursion into dat ol’ tyme exploitation horror, there is a set piece involving the filming of a porno film (stolen, in part, by the faaabulous scenester and collector – IMDB refers to his “paranormal artifacts, murderabilia, sideshow exhibits and downright weird stuff” –  Babette Bombshell, who also designed the hexilious voodoo doll). I bring this up because recently, I reviewed the re-release of the mostly expunged Gum (1976) [HERE], at the correlation between the two is remarkable, including cheezy sets and lack of acting (although this would become especially true when porn switched from film to video in the ‘80s).

Also, check out the commentary, consisting of director Griffin, actors Nicklin and Reed, and producer Ted Marr. Usually, when you have that many people doing the annotation, it gets muddled and people talk over each other, but here, not only do they respectfully let each other have their say, but what they say is relevant to the film. Plus they still keep it humorous, again indicating that it was an enjoyable shoot for them, which passes on to the viewer.

I gotta say that this was a hell of a hoot (pun intended) to watch, and I recommend it to those who are not offended by body parts, both attached and un-. And, in the meanwhile, I look forward to seeing the sequel, The Brother of the Disco Exorcist,  listed as turning its head in 2013.

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