Gothkill
is the sort of film I approach with some trepidation - I've seen
enough amateur-hour home movie horror features to expect the worst
from them - that is, poor production values, dreadful dialogue,
bad acting and crappy FX. And in many ways, Gothkill
is plagued with all these problems. But it has enough going on
to at least lift it out of the glut of movies that make up those
'50 Movies for $10' collections.
Through
flashbacks and lengthy narration, Gothkill - The Soul
Collector (as the onscreen title has it) unfolds the
story of Nicholas Dread, a Catholic priest who rebels against
the injustices of the Inquisition and finds himself burned at
the stake. Giving himself to Satan in exchange for 100,000 souls,
he is reincarnated again and again, but on finally arriving in
Hell, discovers he's been stiffed by the shifty Devil, who has
taken all the souls for himself.
In
modern day New York, two wannabe goth chicks are invited to a
club run by the 'exclusive' Scorpion Society, where lightweight
fetish club action and half-baked vampire roleplay are the order
of the day. The head of the club, the clownish Lord Walachia and
his partner DJ Demon drug the girls and prepare to initiate them
- though in reality, it's a scam to allow the pair access to free
sex while impressing his gormless band of followers. Unfortunately
for him, the book he is using in the ritual belonged to Dread,
who is summoned up. Predictable havoc ensues.
There
are many, many problems with this film. It's sloppily edited and
has sound that is so bad, half the dialogue is pretty much incomprehensible.
The acting - Flambeaux as Dread excepted - is pretty terrible,
and the plot is riddled with holes. For instance - when the two
girls meet, they act as if they hadn't seen each other in years
- and are even surprised to be meeting - even though they
are moving in together! And the film has to be pieced together
with a voiceover - and sometimes onscreen narration - from Dread
- yet still makes little sense until the flashbacks give it some
sort of structure in the final third.
The
good points? Well, Flambeaux pretty much holds the film together
- his performance is better than the movie deserves, and he manages
to make the ropey dialogue just about work as he convincingly
presents a morally ambiguous villain - happy to commit mass murder
but offended by the pathetic abuses carried out by the Scorpion
Society. On a more basic level, the semi-naked devil girls are
easy on the eye, the fetish club action is a little more authentic
than you'd find in most movies and the costumes are nice.
The
DVD has a video commentary that is as distractingly annoying as
any other video commentary, together with footage from various
Gothkill screening parties, all of which look
much more entertaining than anything in the actual film, together
with a Q&A with director JJ Connelly.
Gothkill
is the sort of film I approach with some trepidation - I've seen
enough amateur-hour home movie horror features to expect the worst
from them - that is, poor production values, dreadful dialogue,
bad acting and crappy FX. And in many ways, Gothkill
is plagued with all these problems. But it has enough going on
to at least lift it out of the glut of movies that make up those
'50 Movies for $10' collections.
There
are many, many problems with this film. It's sloppily edited and
has sound that is so bad, half the dialogue is pretty much incomprehensible.
The acting - Flambeaux as Dread excepted - is pretty terrible,
and the plot is riddled with holes. For instance - when the two
girls meet, they act as if they hadn't seen each other in years
- and are even surprised to be meeting - even though they
are moving in together! And the film has to be pieced together
with a voiceover - and sometimes onscreen narration - from Dread
- yet still makes little sense until the flashbacks give it some
sort of structure in the final third.