Amanda Fuller

DVD Review: Embarrassingly Bad ‘Creature’ Fails to Terrify, Titillate

mattmovieman — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:59:58 -0400

CHICAGO – After a particularly long work day, I often find it difficult to coax my mind to sleep. That’s when I turn to Video On Demand for some free and immediate assistance. Most moviegoers would probably search for a familiar comedy or predictable romance to help their eyelids grow heavy in the wee hours of the morning. Yet my insomnia-remedy of choice will always remain FEARnet.

Nothing says instant catatonic coma quite like bargain-basement horror dreck. Titles like “Pinocchio’s Revenge” and “Brotherhood of Blood” are more effective than any dosage of Ambien or Lunesta. That’s because the vast majority of FEARnet fodder has an identical opening. A car full of lusty young adults is careening with carefree abandon down the road when an unexpected obstacle forces them to bunk for a night at the worst possible pla—zzzzzzzzz…

DVD Rating: 1.0/5.0

In the words of Rick Perry, “Oops!” Where was I? Oh yes, I was beginning to warn you about Fred M. Andrews’s “Creature,” a film so bad that it nearly caused me to doze off during its obligatory early sequence where a photogenic victim is wiped out by an unseen threat. Naked breasts fill the screen as a nameless and apparently brainless woman strips down to perform the umpteenth imitation of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” opener, albeit with brighter lighting. Why a woman would want to skinny dip in the alligator-infested waters of a Louisiana swamp is anyone’s guess. We’ve now arrived at the first example of this film’s embarrassing level of incompetence. When the creature leaps out of the water to attack the woman, the camera cuts to an incoherent close-up of splashing water and scaly skin. There’s no indication of where this splashing incident is taking place—it could be on the other side of the swamp for all we know. Of course, when the camera cuts back to a wider shot of the water, the woman is now missing. It’s as if Andrews merely inserted a random shot from a National Geographic series into a softcore porn special on HBO. It’s the worst editing I’ve seen since “Birdemic,” and yet, it’s also the least of this film’s problems.

Creature was released on DVD on March 20, 2012.
Photo credit: Arc Entertainment

In the next scene, our heroes are introduced, and wouldn’t you know it? They’re nothing more than a carload of lusty young adults careening with carefree abandon down the road. It’s not long before they make the exceedingly ill-advised decision to stop at a tourist trap run by horror icon Sid Haig, who speaks in warmly comforting tones obviously concealing malicious intent (at least his teeth have vastly improved since “The Devil’s Rejects”). The snottiest kid in the sextette of doomed drifters mocks the local legend of Lockjaw, a Bigfoot-like creature that embodies every Hollywood producer’s fear of inbred, cannibalistic, fanatically religious wingnuts from the deep-fried south. Sure enough, the kids decide to camp out at the former home of Lockjaw while indulging in a hedonistic night of lovemaking, which predictably serves as the overture to bloodletting.

Daniel Bernhardt is assigned the task of playing Lockjaw, and though he attempts to mimic sinister reptilian movements as he slinks through the swamp, there’s never a single moment where the audience is unaware that he’s just a guy in a rubber suit. Guys in rubber suits can be scary, as cinema history has proven throughout its many decades of memorable monsters, yet they all require the vision of a master filmmaker to propel them into the paranoid subconscious of a jittery moviegoer. Perhaps Bernhardt may have flourished under the direction of Wes Craven or John Carpenter, but Andrews can only manage to make him look and feel like just another guy in a suit, and if “Creature” proves anything at all, it’s that guys in suits are not inherently scary. At all.

I’ll admit that there are moments when this picture flirts with descending into cheerful self parody, but they are few and far between. Ever-reliable character actor Pruitt Taylor Vince briefly materializes as a guy named Grover who rants incoherently, stomps his feet and is promptly eaten. It’s not much of a performance, but at least it’s entertaining. There’s also an extended sex-before-slaughter sequence that involves boy-on-girl, girl-on-girl and brother-on-sister action. Out of all the young actors hung out to dry, I felt the worst for Amanda Fuller, who previously sported her formidable acting chops in “Red White & Blue,” a horror film that is to “Creature” what “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is to “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”

“Creature” is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio and includes three brief featurettes where the cast and crew discuss the arduous task of shooting the film on location in Baton Rouge (I imagine that a “Hearts of Darkness”-style doc could’ve been made of their suffering). As in most featurettes, the actors manage to spin their experiences in a positive light while talking up their product. Actor Wayne Pére boasts, “There’s some incestuous stuff—which is freakin’ hot.” When incest emerges as your film’s primary attraction, it’s clear that you’ve reached a freakin’ low.

‘Creature’ is released by Arc Entertainment and stars Mehcad Brooks, Serinda Swan, Dillon Casey, Lauren Schneider, Aaron Hill, Amanda Fuller, Sid Haig, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Daniel Bernhardt. It was written by Fred M. Andrews and Tracy Morse and directed by Fred M. Andrews. It was released on March 20, 2012. It is rated R.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 75 Pairs of Chicago Passes to New Horror Film ‘Creature’

HollywoodChicago.com — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:03:44 -0400

CHICAGO – In our latest horror edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 75 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of “Creature”!

“Creature” stars D’Arcy Allen, Daniel Bernhardt, Mehcad Brooks, Dillon Casey, Amanda Fuller, Sid Haig, Aaron Hill, David Jensen, Rebekah Kennedy, Ilya Krueger, Wayne Pére, Lauren Schneider, Serinda Swan, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Jennifer Lynn Warren from writer and director Fred Andrews.

The film opens on Sept. 9, 2011. To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of “Creature” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This advance screening is on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and win can be found beneath the graphic below.

The movie poster for “Creature” with D’Arcy Allen, Daniel Bernhardt and Mehcad Brooks.
Image credit: The Bubble Factory

Here is the plot description for “Creature”:

Promising a week of fun and relaxation, a group of six friends head out on a road trip to New Orleans. Deciding to stop at a roadside tourist trap along the Louisiana back roads, they are introduced to the legend of Lockjaw: the local version of Bigfoot.

A creature part man and part alligator, the legend tells of an inbred local man named Grimley. He lost his family to a monstrous white alligator and was driven to madness when he was too late to save his pregnant bride (also his sister!) from the beast.

In a fit of rage, he ate the ancient alligator and was cursed and transformed into the monster that became known as Lockjaw. Their curiosity peaked, the group decides to head deeper into the swamps to check out the birthplace of the creature legend. As they journey further into the backwoods, the group arrives at a dilapidated cabin and decide to camp there for the night.

Setting up camp and unwinding by the campfire, they are blissfully unaware that they are being watched. Soon, an innocent road trip to New Orleans becomes a nightmarish and brutal fight for survival deep in the swamplands of the Louisiana Bayou.

The movie trailer for “Creature” can be watched now below.

To secure your free tickets now, make sure you’re logged into your HollywoodChicago.com account. If you don’t yet have one, you can quickly register here. Having an account with a valid e-mail address is required. Then, simply add a new comment in the form below. In your comment, include an answer to this question:

What makes a horror film most scary to you?

Like all Hookups here, this Hookup is simple: Just submit your comment below and we will award 75 admit-two tickets randomly via e-mail for our “Creature” Hookup. Winners need to arrive early as seats are consumed on a first-come, first-served basis. Winners are typically e-mailed our advance-screening passes two days before the screening date. Good luck!

Disclaimer
HollywoodChicago.com LLC is a promotional partner with the studio and
its partners and doesn’t assume any liability for this giveaway.

Tell Your Friends About HollywoodChicago.com on Facebook & Twitter

Along with entering yourself in this Hookup, tell your friends you’ve found the best source for regular entertainment giveaways by liking HollywoodChicago.com on Facebook and following us on Twitter! The more people who follow us, the better giveaways we can offer you!

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

DVD Review: ‘Red White & Blue’ Plays on the Mind, Not the Gag Reflex

mattmovieman — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:36:09 -0400

CHICAGO – There are few modern horror films that possess the power to shock an audience into a state of dazed, mouth-gaping awe. Audiences of increasingly young ages are well-accustomed to copious amounts of blood and gore. The excess of violence quickly and irrevocably numbs the senses. That may be why Simon Rumley’s “Red White & Blue” works so well. It plays on the mind rather than the gag reflex.

After his gritty, intimate “youth culture trilogy,” Rumley took a sharp turn into the horror genre without sacrificing his character-driven narratives and meticulous attention to dramatic nuances. “Red White & Blue” explores many of the same themes explored in Rumley’s earlier work—mental instability, fear of disease, vengeance. For its first half, the film shows no signs of the horrors to follow. It merely plays like an brooding drama, following various wounded souls linked by their desire to inflict pain on the world that has failed them.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

The film is divided into three parts, each centering on a character who is simultaneously a victim and a predator. Erica (Amanda Fuller) is a nymphomaniac with deep emotional scars. She spends her aimless days seducing men into bed before promptly disappearing from their lives. Her behavior is not far removed from that of a prostitute, but Erica is not motivated by money. She sleeps with guys whom she doesn’t respect, which may explain why she refuses to bed Nate (Noah Taylor), an Iraq war vet whose gaunt face and wide, haunted eyes have a knack for conveying the unspeakable. There’s something creepy about Nate right from the get-go, but Erica gradually befriends him, attracted to his shy yet protective demeanor.

Fuller is very touching in these scenes, nailing the desperation and repressed yearning of a woman inching toward what may be the first meaningful connection in her life. The actress is so magnetic that the film suffers whenever she’s offscreen. About a third of the way through “Blue,” a funny thing happens. Rumley jarringly cuts to a subplot that initially appears to be disconnected from the central action. As Nate and Erica’s relationship is on the brink of blossoming, the picture suddenly abandons the couple in favor of following Franki (Marc Senter), a young man who previously “shared” Erica with a couple of his band mates. His future is looking bright, until he receives a devastating bit of news that sets off the dominoes of destruction.

Amanda Fuller and Noah Taylor star in Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue.
Photo credit: IFC Films

There are times when the film’s suspense borders on aggravation, as Rumley (along with his expert editor Robert Hall) insists on beating around the bush, teasing the audience with plot details without revealing how they connect. Fragments of scenes will be left conspicuously missing, leaving a blank space in the story that won’t be filled in until later. Yet the film does manage to pay off dramatically in its final act, which contains some of the most galvanizing acts of violence in recent cinematic memory. Though Fuller certainly deserves the bulk of the film’s acting honors, the performance guaranteed to remain etched in the imaginations of moviegoers, particularly as they head off to bed, will be that of Taylor, in what is obviously a showcase role. Taylor is a wonderful character actor, and his work here is fittingly fierce and horrific, but the character never quite rises above the level of a two-dimensional sketch. At least Erica and Franki have the complexity necessary to make their suffering resonate on a human level. All quibbles aside, Rumley has clearly succeeded in delivering a sucker punch to the senses that’s guaranteed to leave horror fans and film buffs hungry for more.

Red White and Blue was released on DVD on May 17, 2011.
Photo credit: IFC Films

“Red White & Blue” is presented in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and includes first-rate commentary from Rumley and producer Bob Portal. They reveal why a great many Austin locales get face time in the film. The rapturous response that greeted Rumley’s 2006 thriller “The Living and the Dead” at Fantastic Fest certainly played a considerable role in furthering the filmmaker’s interest in the town. Rumley recalls how the story was partly inspired by a real life case in which a Japanese woman used her body as a weapon. In early drafts of the script, Nate was to have escaped from an asylum (a la “Halloween”), but it was decided that his character should be a discharged vet from Iraq, thus allowing the sociopathic nature of war to wash ashore. The director is up front about modeling his film after the work of Larry Clark and Wes Craven, which is an apt comparison, especially if he’s referring to the Craven of the ’70s and mid-’80s. Some of the most memorable insights take place during the controversial home invasion sequence, which Taylor was hesitant to film, particularly since he had recently become a father. The scene involves a child actor, Saxon Sharbino, who Rumley insists was not psychologically damaged by the ordeal. In fact, it turns out that Sharbino is already quite the tough cookie—she recently played another sobbing victim in the botched remake of “I Spit on Your Grave.”

The disc also includes a 16-minute making-of featurette in which Rumley insists that the film is essentially a love story. There’s a funny outtake where Taylor angrily pounces on Senter and then politely asks if he’s okay. Sweltering 110 degree temperatures on the Austin locations caused the cameras to repeatedly shut down. Though I assume the filmmakers want to preserve the film’s mystery, I would’ve been curious to see an effects breakdown detailing the makeup witnessed in nauseating close-up during the climactic scene. Rounding out the extras are no less than six trailers, two brief deleted scenes and a blooper reel that delivers a welcome burst of catharsis after such a nightmarish experience.

‘Red White & Blue’ is released by IFC Films and stars Noah Taylor, Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter, Nick Ashy Holden, Patrick Crovo, Jon Michael Davis and Sally Jackson. It was written and directed by Simon Rumley. It was released on May 17, 2011. It is not rated.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Simon Rumley Shocks the Senses in ‘Red White & Blue’

mattmovieman — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:04:25 -0400

CHICAGO – The scariest aspects of a Simon Rumley picture aren’t in the form of ominous monsters or buckets of blood. They are instead hidden within the corners of a tormented human psyche. It’s the impulse for destruction that haunts every one of his characters in “Red White & Blue,” a deeply unsettling drama that transforms into a galvanizing horror film during its final act.

The lives of a mysterious outcast, Erica (Amanda Fuller), an aspiring rock star, Franki (Marc Senter) and a war veteran, Nate (Noah Taylor), intertwine in ways both shocking and unexpected. The Austin-set indie is the first feature made by the British filmmaker in America, who made a big splash at the 2006 Fantastic Fest with his harrowing thriller, “The Living and the Dead,” about a disturbed man caring for his sick mother. Rumley’s latest effort was “Bitch,” one of three shorts in the horror anthology “Little Deaths,” which debuted at SXSW. Hollywood Chicago spoke with Rumley about his efforts to mine the humanity in genre tropes.

HollywoodChicago.com: Your work has always been character-driven. What attracted you to the horror genre?

Simon Rumley: When I was eleven, my math teacher brought in a bunch of “Video Nasties,” and I remember seeing “Zombie Flesh Eaters.” Not really sure what I thought about it, but it’s always stuck with me. A lot of my contemporaries grew up watching horror while I was watching “Taxi Driver” and films like that. I always preferred darker dramas over out-and-out horror. When I did my first trilogy of features, I was really inspired by Richard Linklater’s “Slacker.” I saw the film, and thought I could do [something like] that for next to no money. So that’s what I did when I made “Strong Language.” My first three films all came out in the U.K., got pretty excellent reviews and generally got compared to Richard Linklater and Éric Rohmer, which was very nice. But nothing really happened with them. The industry didn’t care and they weren’t massively financially successful.

So after making three features over six years, I thought that if I carried on, I should change my ways and do something a little more commercial, which sounds like a stupid thing to say after having done “The Living and the Dead,” and to a lesser extent, “Red White & Blue.” I decided to go back to my short films, which I did before my youth-culture trilogy. They were all psychologically darker, and tended toward the unexpected. As I was going through all this in my mind, both of my parents died within the space of six months. After watching my mom die of cancer, that’s when I came up with “The Living and the Dead.”

Director Simon Rumley and actor Noah Taylor have a bloody good time on the set of Red White and Blue.
Photo credit: IFC Films

My mom found out she had cancer in December 2001 and died in March 2002. My aunt looked after her, and I was there for the majority of the time. “The Living and the Dead” was more of a response to my experience and an effort to recapture it for other people. I wanted to capture the array of emotions that you go through when you’re watching someone very close to you get struck down by disease…Having never seen cancer firsthand, it was very disturbing to realize, bit by bit, just how ill she was. My mother was in her mid-60s, but she had always been an incredibly healthy, fit, robust woman, both mentally and physically. Just seeing someone go from being a normal human being to this sack of skin and bones in such a short period of time, and not being able to combat it, was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. That’s what “The Living and the Dead” was about. It was after I had rewritten the script for “Red White & Blue” that I realized the subplot [involving Franki’s mother] was kind of similar to “Living and the Dead.” I wondered whether I should take it out, but in the end I thought it [fit] and I left it in. I hopefully won’t be writing any more cancer-ridden mothers anytime soon.

HollywoodChicago.com: Did your experience of screening “Living and the Dead” on the festival circuit inspire you to shoot a film in Austin?

Rumley: Yeah, completely. “The Living and the Dead” played at Fantastic Fest, which is the genre festival started by Tim League and Harry Knowles. They set it up in 2005, and Tim invited “The Living and the Dead” out in 2006. I’d actually been to Austin once before. Some friends had a film play there in 2005, so I went there for three days with them. I thought it was pretty cool but kind of overwhelming in a way, especially without having a film there. When I went back with “The Living and the Dead,” it played at the Alamo Drafthouse and I hung out at Sixth Street and did all the things that you do in Austin. I thought it was a great place and a really fun festival. Tim and Karrie [League] were great hosts and great fun. I stayed at their house and we became friends.

“The Living and the Dead” won a bunch of prizes, and I kept bumping into [Tim and Karrie] on the festival circuit. I always wanted to make a feature film in America, so at one point I asked them, “If I’m ever to make a film in Austin, would you be able to help me with your contacts?” They said yes, and I think it took about a year and a half, maybe even two years to write the script. But as soon as they said yes, Austin was always in the back of my mind. It was a really amazing experience spending the summer of 2009 there—prepping, hanging out and shooting it. It’s such a positive, happy place. Every time I go there I have a great time.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did your experience of production in the U.S. contrast with your work in the U.K.?

Rumley: Honestly speaking, I have to say that we came away from Austin having had such a positive experience, and were overwhelmingly impressed by the entire crew and how easy everything was. It’s funny because everyone wanders around wearing T-shirts and shorts. There’s a very laid back vibe, but we ran a pretty punishing schedule. We shot the film, which in the end was 103 minutes, in three weeks and we had 27 different locations. I think one day we shot 70 set-ups, which is kind of crazy, but everyone was able to keep up. They were very focused.

We had a guy named Paul Knaus, who was initially our line producer. He single-handedly line produced it, coordinated it and production managed it. He was a really lovely guy and did it all without moaning—making it seem like it was the easiest job in the world. It was very interesting going back to London six or seven months afterward to shoot “Bitch,” the second film in “Little Deaths,” with Milton Kam, the same DP [from “Red White & Blue”]. Everything was a little bit more of an effort. Everyone was a bit more precious. So “Red White & Blue” was really a fantastic experience. I hope to shoot again in America and I hope all my American experiences are like that.

Amanda Fuller and Noah Taylor star in Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue.
Photo credit: IFC Films

HollywoodChicago.com: Have you enjoyed the opportunity to fluidly move between directing short films (such as “The Handyman” and “Bitch”) and features?

Rumley: Yeah, but it’s not a conscious decision. It’s the way it happens. What’s funny about “The Handyman” is they asked me to direct it and I wasn’t sure if it was a bit of a step down after doing three features. But in the end, I really liked the script and I really wanted to shoot something in America. Actually, at one point, they were talking about shooting the film in Whales, which I personally think wouldn’t have worked. But when I was ready to shoot in America, I thought it would be ridiculous for me to say no. “Bitch” was something that came out of meeting people at Fantastic Fest, and it’s something that took a long time to evolve. I don’t have any shorts that I’m planning on doing. There’s a film that hasn’t been announced yet that I think will be interesting, I’ve been asked to participate in a project [“The ABC’s of Death”] where 26 directors each make a five-minute short. They’re announcing it at Cannes, so I probably shouldn’t say much about it. But it’s a fun idea and there’s some cool genre directors involved. In an ideal world, I guess I’d be comfortably busy working on features, but I still find it not as easy as I’d like it to be to get financing for my films.

HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve referred to “Red White & Blue” as a political film with a small “p.” How does this film relate to 21st century America as you see it?

Rumley: I guess the film is very much a commentary on the futility of violence, the lack of communication between people and the immediate frustration and anger that people feel with their own life and sense of helplessness. The film isn’t necessarily about America so much as it’s about life in the western world. But having said that, I think the whole Iraq thing was scandalous. Tony Blair will probably go down in history as one of the most deluded prime ministers we’ve ever had. I think all that was nonsense and tragic, so [the film] was partly about that as well. But it’s more about people’s lives and the inability to integrate with one’s neighbors.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did you go about casting Amanda Fuller in the role of Erica? It’s the sort of performance that, in my mind, deserves to be star-making…

Rumley: Yes, she’s amazing, and it’s crazy because so many people say that and think that, but she’s still struggling to find work. I know she’s been talking to one agent in L.A., and they were saying, “We don’t really want to represent any films like this,” and she said, “I’m an actress, I can do lots of different things.”

We actually had problems casting the role [of Erica]. I spoke to about three reasonably well-known younger actresses who read the script and kind of liked it but in the end didn’t want to do it for various reasons. We tried casting in and around Austin but that was a complete non-starter, to be honest. It was two weeks before principle photography and one of the executive producers was like, “What if you don’t cast the character?” And I said, “We will.” We got an L.A. casting agent onboard and saw about 50 girls for the part. The producer and I were in Austin and we watched the auditions every night online. There were a couple girls who did interesting readings, but Amanda was the one who really stuck out.

I went to L.A. the weekend before the shoot to meet the top five girls, and Amanda seemed like the right one. Her questions, intelligence and instinct in her understanding of the role were head and shoulders above anyone else. When I asked her if she had any questions about Erica, she was still talking twenty minutes later. The great thing about Amanda is her physical demeanor—she has this vulnerability but absolute strength as well. What we agreed on without frankly discussing it very much was that Erica should be a character that we could all feel empathy for. Amanda treated her with absolute respect and dignity. I think that’s probably the key to her performance. Without that strength, her character would’ve merely been downtrodden and pitiful, and would’ve made the film a lot more depressing.

It was very brave of her to do the nude scenes. We sat down, discussed them, walked through them, and when it came time to shoot them, she did it without batting an eyelid. At the time, she had worse skin than she usually has, and was happy to let that be seen on screen because it was part of the character. She’s a very lovely person and a world-class actress. To be able to stand your own against Noah Taylor—who I believe is another amazing unsung actor—is an absolute indication of her talent.

Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue was released on DVD on May 17, 2011.
Photo credit: IFC Films

HollywoodChicago.com: Why do you make the sudden jumps in chronology, leaving out key scenes while lingering on the moments before and after?

Rumley: There are three films that stuck out for me—Sam Peckinpaw’s “The Getaway,” Nicholas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now” and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey”—that use those devices in similar ways. I’ve always liked messing with structure to give my films a unique identity. It’s something that I instinctively wanted to do at the beginning of “Red White & Blue” to bring the audience into the film. Not that much happens during the initial fifteen, twenty minutes, so by giving it that extra intrigue and “fracturization,” I think it makes the audience work that little bit harder. I guess you run the risk of alienating [viewers], but I’ve seen it done in other films, and I’ve always liked it. It seems to extend the world that your characters inhabit. With a linear chronology, the story wouldn’t have seemed as expansive.

HollywoodChicago.com: Richard Chester’s score takes an unusually subtle approach to certain sequences. Was there an effort made to bring out the tragedy within the horror?

Rumley: Richard is someone I’ve worked with about four times now. He’s a key collaborator, and the stuff we do tends to not take your average type of [approach]. I wanted to make the music a reflection of Nate’s inner feelings. The music begins in the first sequence with Erica and the band members, but everything else is structured around [Nate]. When he goes to the family’s house for the first time, the music is slightly off-kilter and mysterious. You’re not sure where it’s going. His character is on a fact-finding mission, and he’s not sure whether to be angry or sad. The next music [cue] occurs when he goes to the band members’ house, and it’s very overbearing and off-kilter, which reflects his violence and rage. But the final, climactic scene is a sad moment more than anything. In the script, there’s a moment at the end of that scene where Franki actually apologizes. He says, “I’m sorry,” and Nate says, “I’m sorry too. I wish I didn’t have to do this kind of thing.” It’s his tragedy really. It’s the sadness of that lack of communication between people.

HollywoodChicago.com: Has this film been a difficult sell in the U.K.? What are your thoughts regarding the Trinity X label, which is set to distribute the film in September?

Rumley: We shook hands on it in the end of January, so it’s taken a while as all these things do. I met up with Mark Sandell, who’s the main guy there. He’s a pretty cool guy, very smart. He has one eye on the product and one eye on getting it out there. It seems to be a pretty exciting venture, so hopefully they’ll do a good job with “Red White & Blue” for all our sakes and hopefully we’ll be able to do more interesting films. In the U.K. market, we don’t even have [distributors] like IFC or Magnolia or Magnet. Even though there are companies that tend to do schlocky horror, the whole distribution scene in the U.K. has always been tough. Globally, the distribution scene becomes harder to pin down as all technology is progressing and changing. It remains tough for films like this that ten or fifteen years ago would probably have played in one of the cinemas and would’ve gained a pretty strong following. Hopefully that will happen with this. It’s great that they’ve picked it up. I know they’ve been doing new artwork for it and a new trailer. As an English person, it’s great to have this stuff going on.

‘Red White & Blue’ stars Noah Taylor, Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter, Nick Ashy Holden, Patrick Crovo, Jon Michael Davis and Sally Jackson. It was written and directed by Simon Rumley. It was released on DVD on May 17, 2011. It is not rated.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

Film Review: Unsettling ‘Red White & Blue’ Creeps Under the Skin

mattmovieman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:54:36 -0400

CHICAGO – “Red White & Blue” is a deviously effective horror film precisely because it doesn’t appear to be one. There are subtle stylistic hints here and there, but nothing that truly signals the horrors to come. They emerge not from left field, but out of the character’s own pent up rage, and their increasing desire to inflict pain upon the world that has failed them.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

It’s sort of refreshing to see a film that shocks the senses, particularly at a time when most moviegoers have become desensitized to even the most extreme acts of violence. Many potentially disturbing pictures are layered in enough camp to make the audience feel safely detached from the material. “The Human Centipede” has a spectacularly unsettling premise, but its execution was broad and more than a little silly. For midnight movie junkies, the film may be categorized as “fun.” Yet there is nothing fun about the final act of “Red White & Blue,” which delves into depravity worthy of “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.”

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Red White and Blue” in our reviews section.

‘Red White & Blue’ stars Noah Taylor, Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter, Nick Ashy Holden, Patrick Crovo, Jon Michael Davis and Sally Jackson. It was written and directed by Simon Rumley. It is available on demand via Comcast, Cablevision, Time Warner, Bright House and Cox. It is not rated.

Continue reading for Matt Fagerholm’s full “Red White and Blue” review.

Amanda Fuller and Noah Taylor star in Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue.
Photo credit: IFC Films