Mother's Milk 2012 - REVIEW

Fetish is defined as a course of action to which one has an excessive and irrational commitment. Usually when someone talks about a fetish, people immediately jump to some kind of sick, twisted sexual thing when in fact, there are a lot of non sexual fetishes. For example, someone (me) may have a shoe fetish in which they feel compelled to buy all kinds of super awesome shoes. Oh c'mon, like you guys don't have an irrational commitment for something. Doesn't really matter because most of time when we're talking horror films and fetishes it generally always leads to some kind of sexual thing. Such is the case here.

Claude (Casey Chapman), is a statistics professor with a bit of a dark side. You see when he was very young, his mother died in a house fire leaving him not only traumatized but with a dysfunctional craving for breast milk. When internet videos no longer get the job done, he decides to satisfy his depraved hunger by kidnapping new mother (or so he thinks), Kim (Mackenzie Wiglesworth). After discovering that she in fact isn't a new mother, he decides to induce lactation through chemical means. When that doesn't work, he presents her with a turkey baster full of his semen in the hope that she'll become pregnant. What follows is several months (I think) of captivity in which the audience gets to know a little more about the abductor and the abductee. The longer Kim is with Claude, the more attached to her he becomes leading him closer and closer to an imminent psychological break down.

Mother's Milk unfortunately fails to live up to it's original synopsis or even the movie poster for that matter. Advertised as a "psychological thriller" and with little blood or action, the film plays more like a late night Lifetime movie. However, if you took out all the unnecessary scenes and put a little polish on it, Mother's Milk could've been quite a successful short film. As it stands, the film just doesn't have substance to sustain the 94 minute run time. For example, there is almost ten full minutes of Claude serving and eating home cooked gourmet meals in front of his defiant captive who had previously refused to eat something he cooked. 

The concept for the film, while different than the norm, falls flat in execution. Writer/Director Edward Pionke wants viewers to believe that someone as sadistic as Claude has such an overwhelming need for breast milk that he is willing to kidnap someone for it; but at the same time has the patience to wait months on end for his victim to begin lactation. While not an impossible notion, it does come off as a little far fetched. There is also little in the way of confrontation from Kim. No fighting, kicking or screaming whatsoever. A woman yanked off the streets while running with a baby you'd think would put up more of a fight leading to more conflict and less complacency. 

Another major distraction was the sound recording. The music while creepy in essence, was sometimes so loud that it played over important parts of dialogue which is never a good thing. Chapman, while incredibly talented, is very soft spoken through out the majority of the film and it's unfortunate that production quality masked parts of his performance. 

I wouldn't recommend Mother's Milk to hard core horror fans. Definitely don't go into it expecting to see a lot of blood, gore or nudity because aside from one or two boob shots and some smeared blood, there is none. If you're looking for a character piece or glimpse into the psyche of a fetish freak, I'm afraid you won't find much of that either. 

The film is available for purchase on Amazon but I would be remiss if I didn't suggest waiting for it to stream for free somewhere. 

Kill Theory 2009 - REVIEW

By mid-year, I usually have a list as long as my leg of films I want to see. Some I come across on my own and some I pick up from Twitter or Facebook. Occasionally I'm even surprised by a gem or two that comes up on Chiller TV. They are notorious for showing films that most channels just kick aside like a little homeless kitty. But it works out for them because I'm seeing their name and logo pop up more and more every day in the social networks. (Go Chiller!!) What I like best about Chiller is that their main focus is to shed some light on Indie Horror and I gotta say, "It's about fucking time someone did!" Because let's face it, that's where the good horror is coming from these days, not Hollywood.

Wow, I got off on a little rant there, my bad! My point was that somehow, some way, this one slipped by me. Which is strange, especially since it's an Afterdark Horrorfest 4 selection. I caught it on Chiller one night, recorded it and waited probably months to watch it. Again, my bad. "Normal" life tends to keep me too busy to be able to sit and watch films on a regular basis. I'll keep working on that.

A group of friends take off to a secluded vacation home to celebrate their upcoming graduation. The fun doesn't last long when a sadistic psychopath shows up and forces them to participate in his deadly contest. The rules are simple -- in order to survive they must kill each other. As tension builds, and relationships begin to crumble, they realize that only one can make it out alive. Could you trust your boyfriend? Your girlfriend? Your best friend? Only one can go home. So who will be the last man or woman standing?

Patrick J Flueger and Agnes Bruckner lead this 20 something cast of up and comers and I was pleasantly surprised by the performances from the whole bunch. I think their reactions to being in a kill or be killed situation were remarkably realistic. Personally, I think the most genuine and natural performance came from Daniel Franzese. He's portrayed as kind of the odd man out, the friend that we've all had in our lives at one point or another. The fun, chunky, lovable guy that everyone wants to be around. I predict Bruckner, whose been on my radar ever since I saw her in Venom a few years back, is going to have a very lucrative career in this genre. She just seems real to me, not to mention she's incredibly gorgeous! Pretty boy Flueger manages to hold his own as the level headed one of the bunch. His nice guy thing gets a little irritating at times but not so much that his character becomes unlikeable. I'm not a huge fan of Taryn Manning, could be because I haven't seen too many of her films. I liked her ok in The Breed and she did a decent job here too. We never see much of Kevin Gage but seriously, why do you even need to see him when you can just listen to him? He's got a voice that I will put right up there with Stephen McHattie and Lance Henriksen. It's like BUTTER! As for the rest of the cast, it wasn't anything spectacular but as a whole they appeared to play off each other well.

I don't know why it took me so long to figure out that it was Project Greenlight's Chris Moore who directed. That explains why it was done so well. Together with first time screenwriter Kelly Palmer they managed to create a shocking and unpredictable tale, which is rare these days. It's also not hard to tell that they were inspired by the Saw franchise with all the video tapes and traps but it's done in a subtle, classy way. It was well paced and had some extremely brutal kills but what really stood out for me was the psychological mind games the characters played on each other. It's enough to make you wonder what you would do in a situation like that or better yet, what would your friends do? Palmer obviously put a lot of thought into the script (it would be interesting to find out how many re-writes there were) there are some very interesting twists and turns. He also manages to do all this without the typical horror cliches. There is no big breasted virgin that finds her inner strength and defeats the bad guy and if you think you know who the last man standing is... think again.

Kill Theory was originally slated for a theatrical release from Lions Gate Films but instead went straight to DVD with a theatrical release only in Russia. Which is where my next complaint comes in. How can Lions Gate theatrically release shit fests like Disaster Movie but lock up a clearly superior film like it's an evil little step-child? It makes no sense to me whatsoever. Kill Theory is engrossing and entertaining and in my opinion with the right promotional campaign would've done just fine in theaters. It has a solid story line, it's well written, well directed and has some solid acting. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a taut psychological thriller.