Review: Hanger (2-Disc Collector’s Edition)

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Hanger (aka Wired)
Directed by Ryan Nicholson
Plotdigger Films; Unearthed Films; MVD Visual
90 minutes, 2009 / 2021
www.plotdigger.com/movies/hanger-2009/
www.unearthedfilms.com 
www.MVDVisual.com

Vancouver-based director Ryan Nicholson left quite a legacy before he passed on in 2019, including Gutterballs (2008), Collar (2014; reviewed HERE), and this little gem that I have heard of but had never seen. Now it’s out in a two-disk Blu-ray.

Nicholson was known for his extreme version of cinema, with violence, gore, sex and lots and lots of other nastiness. His films are not for the weak of heart, and this one certainly lives up to the legend that has followed it.

Right from the start, we meet very pregnant prostitute Rose (the ever amazing and brave performer, Debbie Rochon; there are definitely aspect of the opening that are a nod to her history with Troma, such as a television in the motel room playing 1986’s Class of Nuke ‘Em High, and Lloyd Kaufman has a cameo as a “tranny,” which is how it is listed in the credits). Rose’s violent pimp, Leroy (Ronald Patrick Thompson, the only black actor in the cast with dialogue, is a vicious pimp; that’s all I’m sayin’) not only wants her to keep making money, but also demands she get rid of her baby through despicable means, despite it being close to popping.

Debbie Rochon

Her time is close, so the pimp decides to take things into his own closet, the new Texas style of abortion in what is definitely an extremely cringey scene that most, especially women, are bound to turn their heads. If I may digress, I used to work in a movie theater, and whenever any man got kicked in the gonads on-screen, you would hear a collective and deep “Oof” by the men in the audience, followed by giggling in higher, female voices. Nearly every time. This is kind of the reverse of that.

Somehow, the baby survives this assault with many lacerations to the face, teeth like Belial in Basket Case (1982), and a not-fully-developed brain. He is thrown out to be brought up by a homeless man (director Nicholson), and is named Hanger (Nathan Dashwood), a nod to his method of birth. When he hits 18, he’s put on the street and given a job in a junk yard’s recycling yard by a creepy, monotone guy who had a thing for Rose called The John (Dan Ellis, really standing out in the acting department). Actually, this is true in Canada – where this is filmed – that people with disabilities work in recycling centers. However, rather than those who have mental disabilities or Down Syndrome, the people in this film (of course) are not only mentally and physically handicapped, they’re also degenerates.

Dan Ellis

Tall and lanky Hanger is matched up as roommates with beer and porn obsessed co-worker Russell (Wade Gibb, a white guy playing an Asian character, who seems to ad lib a lot to great effect). Soon we see Hanger’s innate lust for violence and a bit of cannibalism come to the front, which makes him a perfect vehicle for revenge against Leroy and others. Hanger is directed by the John towards getting even for his mama.

There is a lot to digest in this film, all of it stuff you may want to puke out at some point, be it tampon tea, GHB sex with colostomy holes, the infamous abortion scene, and…well, let’s just leave it there for now, shall we?

There are also a ton of facial prosthetics that are used (by Michelle Grady) on nearly every male in the story, making everyone look as warped as the storyline, including sores, pimples, an amazing nose on the John that seems right out of Sin City (2005). And like Sin City, the look of the film is quite unique and, well, dirty looking, with some phenomenal lighting, silhouetting, and angles that work with the prosthetics to make them look even more fantastical (by cinematographer and editor Jay Gavin, his first time for both).

This can only be described as extreme cinema, though the word transgressive comes to mind. Blood, gore, violence, coarse language including the use of the N-word, and abnormal sex are the theme, which is right up where Nicholson wanted it to be. This is the kind of film he loves to watch, and as he explained in the commentary, he makes his films for himself, not for the fans, of which there are rightfully many, even though it is a niche market.

Nathan Dashwood, Wade Gibb

The gore is plentiful, which is no surprise, the makeup is as extreme as the violence, and the women are quite beautiful, with standouts being a junkyard admin assistant named Nicole (Candice Le, aka Candice Lewad) who likes to show a lot of cleavage and pleasure herself in explicit ways, a full-lipped prostitute named Trashy (Stephanie Walker), and of course there is Ms. Rochon, in an extended cameo. Women are pretty secondary to the story, which focuses more on Hanger, The John, Leroy and odd Russell.

Being a 2-disc special Blu-ray release, let’s take a look at the hours upon hours of extras. First up is a Triple-X version of the film. Call me crazy, but I watched it and the regular, and I did not see a difference. It’s pretty hardcore anyway. There is also a full-length commentary by the director, Ryan Nicholson, completed for the DVD release in 2010, which he manages to remain interesting throughout. Most of the extras were filmed during this period.

Next up is “Behind the Stoma: The Making and Taking of Hanger” (20 min.). In case you don’t know, a stoma is “an artificial opening made into a hollow organ” (thank you Wikipedia). This is a really well shot collection of interviews with the director and some of the cast, mixed with behind-the-scenes clips. Generally, it was quite engaging, with everything being long enough to get a grip on it, but short enough not to overstay its welcome. Other films’ Makings Of featurettes could use this as a model. This is followed by another “Making Of” featurette (26 min). It’s a rehearsal with Nicholson working through the introduction to Leroy scene with the cast, including Rochon. While fun to watch, I don’t think I would turn it on again, though I was happy to have seen it once.

Ronald Patrick Thompson

“Taking of Hanger, Enough Dope to Hang Yourself With: On the Stet with Lloyd Kaufman” (12 min.). If Kaufman is there on set, one should always do a featurette with this film legend and ad lib maven. Most of the footage here was shot by Kaufman himself, and then the camera is handed off to Ryan’s (adult) son for Lloyd’s “Melvina the Tranny” scenes. It’s a funny, unusual behind the scenes, but what else would you expect from Kaufman? His friendship with Rochon, whose career turned a corner in his films, is evident and smile-worthy.

The “Blooper Reel” (2 min.), “Deleted Scenes” (6 min.), which is also a blooper reel, and Additional Scenes” (20 min.), which is more of a behind the scenes kind of deal, could all have been combined into one 28-minute piece. Nothing very special. Again, glad I saw it, but would probably not watch again

“Black on White Bred” (3 min.) is the film within the film of the porno (hard “R”) that stars Hanger’s mom Rose and Leroy, including the money shot. Don’t really know what more to say about this, except Rochon is definitely one to give for her art.

Gibb

The second disc is “The Raw Tapes, Volume 1” through “Volume 5”. These are the raw footage and can be seen as almost a Master’s Class in indie filmmaking. Each one of these five are on average 3 hours long, Honestly, no, I did not sit through all of them, but I did some zooming around. I have a life, as there are over 18 hours of extras in total. Maybe one day I will come back to these.

There is a photo gallery, and the usual sound and chapter choices on the first disk. Even with the “everything but the kitchen sink” mentality, the only thing missing was English subtitles for those of us with a bit of a hearing thing (too much seeing the Ramones, Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, etc., in small clubs and loud volume).

Sometimes I wonder where Nicholson, who also did make-up for some very major releases, would have gone in his directorial career if he had not succumbed to brain cancer before the age of 40. Gratefully, he is being appreciated after the fact.

 

Review: Parasites

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2017

Images from the Internet

Parasites                        

Written, produced and directed by Chad Ferrin

Crappy World Films

81 minutes, 2017

www.crappyworldfilms.com

www.facebook.com/

“Living in a jungle, it ain’t so hard /
Living in a city, it’ll eat out, eat out your heart.”
- The Heartbreakers (Thunders not Petty) [HERE] 

Nothing makes me happier (well, perhaps that’s an overstatement) than a film title that can be seen in multiple ways. As for this film, I’ll be getting to that in a bit.

Three college jock-types are roaming around the big bad city and get lost. Not a good thing, especially in the neighborhood in which they’ve landed. Now, get your mind out of the National Lampoon’s Vacation view of Detroit, this area of Los Angeles is not colorblind, but it is certainly greenback poor. The key word there is poor, and then add in homelessness and frustration-fueled anger… that’s a volatile mix in an indie screen world.

The three dudes, including Sean Samuels as Marshall (middle)

As the dudes drive around, getting deeper into the vicinity, they make comments about the homeless they see like, “Give them a broom to clean that shit up,” and sarcastically, “Look! That one has a cell phone!” We’re definitely not dealing with liberal-leaners, but a Trump squad mentality. Then, they run over something and get a flat. And that is where the story really takes off.

In an updated idea right out of Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), they are confronted by a mob of homeless men (and one woman) who don’t take kindly to strangers in their neighborhood, such as it is. It quickly escalates, and before you know it, one of the trio, Marshall (Sean Samuels) is running down the street nekkid in fear for his life, with a band of bums out to even the social score a little bit.

Okay, that’s about as far as I’ll give in details to the plot (the box and trailer below give similar info, so I’m not divulging too much). The patriarchal leader of the mob is Wilko (Robert Miano) who exudes anger, hate and racism beautifully. The problem with Wilko is a human one rather than merely of poverty: he is a narcissist who blames others for his own actions. One could argue that he is a product of having nothing left but ego, but I could also see that it could be part of what brought him to that level in the first place. In this case, his actions have left a witness, and he has to deal with it. As the de facto leader of our not-so-merry troupe, he brings the other street people with him to clean up, as it were.

Robert Miano as Wilco

While they are (nearly all) men of the streets, they are strong, but can they deal with Marshall, who is a quarterback in top physical shape? Quick to adapt, he does what he needs to survive, as he becomes the focus of a distorted version of The Warriors, without the fancy costumes and catchy dialogue. He has no choice but to come on out and play as he is hunted down by the urban version of the backwoods mob. It becomes a question of how does one win against a group that has nothing to lose.

The added social commentary is as Marshall becomes more and more identified as a homeless person, wearing their clothes, limping from a wound and covered in blood; being African-American in this case especially demonizes him as “Other.” He becomes a target not only of his hunters, but of the very people that he was accused by the gangly group of being in the first place, one who targets the homeless with paintballs and flame by people his own age who are slumming and looking to burn off some political incorrectness.

Joseph Pilato as Wilde

One of the standout roles here is a drunken ex-soldier, Wilde, a homeless man who is at odds with Wilco, played with great dexterity by Joseph Pilato. If you need clarity, he was the asswipe army leader, Rhodes, in Day of the Dead (1985) who famously gets ripped in half by a mob of zombies. He definitely proves here that he’s got acting talent.

For me, one of the rare disingenuous moments is a scene depicting how the mentally ill get released to the streets (the “droppin’ the kid off at the pool” bit). I know that after Geraldo Rivera’s “Willowbrook” expose in 1972, a lot of the psychologically infirmed were booted out of mental facilities which then closed their doors, but this seems more like fiction. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, because what the hell do I know from my privileged white male position, but it didn’t feel right, somehow. Hopefully.

As the athletic Marshall runs for his life, he meets Wilco’s diminishing band of followers, who seem to meet up with Marshall one at a time, forcing his hand to do things he probably never would have believed himself capable. But does that make him culpable? The effects of these actions are done with practical SFX, which are nicely handled (even with the lack of continuity of the absence of blood on a recently used rake)

This film is definitely testosterone fueled, as there are only two women in the entire cast, being one of the followers (Suzanne Sumner Ferry) and a prostitute (Silvia Spross); as a side note, both Ferry and Spross also appeared with Miano in the television series “Sangre Negra.” Sure, some of the guys are just there to kick ass in a pissing contest against Marshall, but as the numbers dwindle, the remaining ones begin show some sense. Whether that is good for them or not in the story, I won’t say.

Getting back to what I meant at the beginning by the meaning of Parasite, the film actually asks the audience to think about exactly whom the term refers. Is it the street people, who certainly those of a Republican bent (in the present political environment) would see as living off the teat of society without giving anything back, or the Bourgeoisie college students who use the homeless as paintball target practice because they deem the homeless lives as worthless?

The music is quite minimalist and stunningly stirring, especially the folk-laden tunes like “House of the Rising Sun” and “In the Pines,” mostly sung by the cast, such as Miano and Samuels.

The film is actually quite effective and engaging, well shot, and the acting is quite good. Even the over the top moments (such as Wilko shouting, “I’m gonna kill ya dead!”) are not played to the point of making the viewer wince, but keeps one in the moment. The story will probably retain the viewers’ interest throughout (I did for me), as Marshall literally runs around the empty streets of Los Angeles fending for his life. The ending is effective, albeit predictable, considering the zeitgeist of the film’s tone and story direction. It’s a worthy viewing.

Review: Pig Pen

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2017

Images from the Internet

Pig Pen

Directed by Jason Koch        

Dire Wit Films / Lost Empire Films / MVD Visual

85 minutes, 2016 / 2017

www.direwitfilms.com

https://www.facebook.com/pigpenmovie/

www.mvdvisual.com

One of the better things some torture films have brought into the sphere of genre films is a new neo-realism that harkens back to the time of Rossolini, Passolini, and all the other –olinis (i.e., other filmmakers in the style). The Italian neo-realism of the 1960s and ‘70s brought life situations to the audience, with all its blemishes and horrors in a matter-of-fact way.

Recently, there have been a series of gritty, realistic (relatively, hence the “neo-“) stories that are there to disturb more than distress, such as the ones by Dakota Bailey (e.g., 2017’s American Scumbags). I mean, this isn’t really new, as we’ve seen it before in films like Suburbia (1984), Scorsese‘s Mean Streets (1973), or even The Day of the Locust (1975; where Donald Sutherland played Homer Simpson, but I digress…). The difference is that of late, realism has faded away into the static camera of torture porn which is less about story than effects; realism is just the opposite, even with its level of gruesomeness.

Lucas Koch

I didn’t really have any expectation about this film, so its level of initial low-key grittiness took me by surprise, which doesn’t happen very often these days. Here, Zack’s (Lucas Koch) world is one of dysfunction. The tall and lanky13-year-old stoic skater, whose school nickname is Pig Pen, lives in a home where nothing gets cleaned and supper consists of cold cereal mixed with water. His mother, Sandy (Nicolette Le Faye), is zoned out on booze and pills, and her new, abusive “entrepreneur” boyfriend Wayne (Vito Trigo, who sports a strange facial hair style) pimps her out and sells drugs. Wayne is so narcissist that he has his own name tattooed on his neck. Things aren’t going too well for Zack and the future looks as bleak as his present life. Between the occasional huffing and probably PTSD, who wouldn’t be stoic just to survive?

Insisting that Zack bring in some money, such as by doing what the guys on the corner do for cash, the boy is thrown to the streets, where we watch as he learns to survive amid desperation, stealing and violence.

As a nice move, Koch edits in flashback scenes throughout that lead up to the present, as we see how life has spiraled out of control step by step. Of course, the past catches up in an explosion, after he gets some dough through an act of violence, and is met by an even larger one at home.

This film doesn’t pull any punches. It gives a realistic feel of the dangers of living on the street, including gangs and perverts; a much-muted version of this kind of life was presented in the Mel Brooks’ Life Stinks (1991). But Zack isn’t like other boys his age. His moral compass has already been turned up this side of Sunday, and he isn’t beyond thievery even before the Wayne hits the fan.

Nicolette Le Faye

In some ways, which I won’t go into in too much detail, Zack and Wayne have some traits in common, just the extreme is different, at least at the start. Perhaps it’s brain damage from the glue sniffing or seeing his mother abused, or perhaps he’s just high-functioning nuts, but he is both walking around like he’s in a state of constant shock while he’s also waging and absorbing information, and how to work it to his own advantage. He seems to have no qualms eating out of a dumpster, or sleeping in odd places. His adjustment skills are stunning for someone his age.

Like Dustin Hoffman’s character in Straw Dogs (1971), Zack is kind of a stranger in a strange land, and when finally pushed to shove, he is a survivor and will fight for his life no matter what it takes. When dealing with Wayne and his troupe, to paraphrase Generation X’s “Your Generation,” it’s “gonna take a lot of violence…but he’s gotta take that chance.”

This is an intense film right from the start, and it just keeps building right until the very end. Its sheer level of violence – everyday kind of violence to the extreme level, meaning the story begets the violence rather than the other way around, as in most films of this type. That is where the neo-realism comes in: it’s realistic, but takes a step beyond that into a fictional realism, if that oxymoron makes any sense.

It really is a horribly beautiful film. The editing, the lighting, the camerawork is all spot on. It doesn’t hug the action (that’s not to say there aren’t some close-ups), but rather presents it as Zack sees it. We see everything the same time he does, i.e., he’s in just about every shot. I’m not sure how old Lucas is in real life – I’m guessing somewhat older than his character – but as a performer he plays stoicism pretty well, rarely letting the viewer get lost in the acting. Similarly, Le Faye strikes a delicate balance in being sympathetic as both a dreamer and a lost cause. The viewer is both horrified at her actions, and also her inactions. To me, she is the most realistic in being caught between wanting to do good, pining hope on the hopeless, and feeling trapped. I see women who have gone through this nearly day, and have decided to take the step of separation from an abuser that Sandy does not.

Vito Trigo

As for Trigo, if he can make us uncomfortable while his face is being hugged by that shaved raccoon on his face that seems right out of the Dirk character from She Kills (2016), that says talent. Seriously, he comes across as fierce in an early Harvey Keitel kind of way. He takes a ridiculously looking role and still made us fearful and him fearless, and that’s good acting. At least, I hope it is…

If you’ve ever seen Koch’s first film, 7th Day (2013) – or, if you’re like me and have seen the trailer – you know how effective his SFX company’s work is, and it’s no surprise that the application work is top notch. With the exception of the fact that there would have been a lot more blood in the situation presented (no, not gonna give it away), it looks spectacular. It also isn’t overdone, which is a nice choice for Koch, considering this is only his second feature.

If you’re in for a good story with some excellent writing and acting to back it up, tension that is palpable in a building crescendo, and some way-above standard physical effects, this will be a good direction to go.