This is
a fairly violent and bloody movie, but it’s not a horror movie in essence. That’s
my opinion anyway and I’ll tell you why. There’s a serious message to be told
here and it’s done by letting us watching youngsters watching horror moves. Very
violent horror movies I might add.
The
essence in my book is about exclusion though. We have this kid, Marty, that
gets bullied in school that finally fights back and is made the bad guys for
it. Ok, I don’t agree with violence but there is only so much you can take. The
bottom line is that you shouldn’t have to apologize for standing up for your
rights. Kids might be kids but that’s no excuse for picking on other kids. And besides,
Marty wouldn’t get into the fight if it weren’t for his older brother, Steve. It
was him who encouraged Marty to strike the other kid if being bullied.
The
older brother is an interesting case too. I don’t know what his mental status
is but he sure has issues. He seems to hate people and his mom and dad in
particular. At times he seems to have a split personality and he likes to chop people’s
heads off. He keeps them in a bag in his closet. Marty has found that bag of
course and as he looks up to his brother he’s fascinated by it. He dreams about
what it must be like to chop of another person’s head.
This
brings us to the video violence part. Both Marty and Steve are into bloody and
violent flicks. Steve is maybe ten years older and has a collection of violent
horror flicks. He lets Marty borrow them from time to time. Marty is especially
fascinated by one called Headless, which features a killer in a skull mask. He
chops off women’s heads and then has sex with them. The heads that is! It’s totally
macabre!
You can
imagine the mess Marty’s in. His brother seems to be a psyched killer, he’s
bullied at school and he’s starting to fight back towards them who hurt him. He’s
starting to stand up for himself. The horror flicks certainly doesn’t help,
even though he loves them. He’s all alone. He had one friend but after he leaves
him too he has no one – except for a protective big brother!
The
script is very complex and it’s hard to describe the film. I like the small and
tiny development that drives the story. I think the actors are very good except
for a few times when their lines aren’t very convincing. But considering the
budget was $8000 I guess you can’t have it all.
I guess
the bottom line is about bullied children but the mental status and/or illness
of the older brother is in focus too. I like flicks that focus on both things
and thus this is a great flick in my book. One of the best I’ve seen recently
actually.
8/10
