Unable to escape her past, Rachel’s unforgettable terrors stem from being the center of a grisly mass murder that involved the death of all her close friends whom were all vacationing at a secluded cabin in the woods. Years later, Rachel, still haunted by the frozen and bloodied faces of her dead friends, reluctantly decides upon attending a spring break getaway with a group of new, still very much alive, school friends; a spring break trip that’s not on a tropical beach, but in a remote cabin. She desperately hopes to face her past and her relentless fear from a killer who was never caught. Through the typical vices that are involved in high schooler hijinks, Rachel tries to cope with not only her fears, but with also her degenerate boyfriend who gawks at any passing woman that makes two second eye contact with him and her superficial stoner friends who relish in their immature partying. As night falls, one-by-one her friends start to die brutally, just like before, and their lifeless bodies vanish, returning Rachel to relive a world of horror that pits her once again against the same maniac as before.
After a brilliant and bloody marketing campaign that involved posters of gore-splattered, half-naked bodies and a slew of “Clue”-esque, whodunit, story characters, “WTF!” has been the Peter Herro directed slasher constantly blipping on my upcoming release radar. “WTF!” is Herro’s breakout feature film debut that lives to tell death in the most formulaic slasher way that’s intentionally campy, persistently raunchy, and keeps you guessing until the end. Despite having character archetypes that genetically makeup the cast in the conventional slasher genre – a stoner, a socialite hottie, a muscular jerk, etc – there is not one single character with redeemable values in the bunch, except for Rachel who constantly shells out her conservative hesitations, and even when faced with their cat-and-mouse induced mortality, Herro, and fellow co-writers Adam Buchalter and Christopher Lawrence Centanni, design an unfortunate bunch of grade-A assholes who could do the world a favor and die a horrible death.
Do you recall my review from last year for the 2015 thriller “The Horror” directed by Jerry J. White III? If you do, you may remember co-star Callie Ott! Ott is back on the scene, starring as Rachel, the traumatized young lady trying to get back on that horse to face her fears, and this leading lady has come a long way to become a scream queen in Herro’s “WTF!” Ott’s joined by two other female co-stars, “Awaken the Shadowman’s” Andrea Hunt and “Hatchet II’s” Sarah Agor, as a pair of girlfriends hellbent to one up each other. When compared to the male characters, Hunt and Agor own their shamelessness and are likable despite their ruthless snobbish attitudes. For the bros, Benjamin Norris, Adam Foster, and Johnny James Fiore are respectively the childish stoner, the ambiguously gay prep, the feverishly perverted jock and, together, they perfectly pitch a tri-force of juvenile incompetence with endless depravities on a continuous repeat cycle. They portray the type of characters you hope, or you pray to God, that they go first and go painfully. Painfully slow, if possible. Nicholas James Reilly rounds out the group of friends as Rachel’s brother, Toby, who tags along to make sure Rachel doesn’t have a mental moment during what should be a fun and relaxed spring break. Oh, and Perez Hilton makes a brief cameo appearance as a pool party host, flavoring his scenes with an exaggerated comedy that’s very similar to his real life and persona.
“WTF!” is a clichéd junket. The over-the-top, stereotypical characters develop like defrosting slabs of beef that are massaged with well-seasoned genre-staple hallmarks, soon to be ready to be filleted into murdered medallions for our viewing pleasure after we’ve suffered the exhaustion over the characters brutal unfiltered banter. Think Perez Hilton and then double the personality. While the characters marinate in moronity, Herro and his crew are able to pull off a back-and-forth of Rachel’s pre- and postmortem experience with interrogation scenes that sweat Rachel to clue in the clueless detectives with the meat of the story. There’s also a competing story involving Rachel at a family wake that’ll become less perplexing when explained in the finale. I found myself not able to grasp entirely who the killer might be until about half the bodies pile up, making “WTF!” an effective slasher with ORLY? capping it off. However, I do grouse with the fact that “WTF!” was suppose to bring that killer mayhem, a tour de force bloodbath, that ultimate gore-soaked slasher as presumably promised in those awesome marketing posters; instead, blood didn’t flow, it merely dripped off into silhouette shadows and the fleeting off-screen moments.
Slathered heavily with many obvious “what the fucks” in the dialogue, Peter Herro does give a fuck with “WTF!” as he lathers his film into an ode to the slasher genre. The Cthulhu Crush Production will be released nationwide on VOD courtesy of Midnight Releasing come August 1st and will be available on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Xbox, Vimeo, Steam, Vudu and Google Play. I was provided with a screener disc so I’m unable to comment on video and audio quality and there were no extras included on the disc aside from a static menu. “WTF!” is a must-see. A definite homage to the butchery of trashy teens with a small gratuitous nudity cherry on top. Make sure to catch it August 1st with your video on demand provider.
Tag Archives: Jerry J. White III
The Evil. The Horror review!
Coping with the sudden death of their parents, twins Malcolm and Isabel Rademacher take a trip with their friends to the family lake house in Bear Lake, Michigan. The siblings ultimately neglect their friends, forcing their companions to abruptly leave the lake house without Malcolm or Isabel’s knowledge. Soon after, the two experienced a home invasion by two masked individuals, barely escaping with their lives. Feeling alone, isolated, and ill-fated, Malcolm and Isabel steer to two different paths: Isabel seeks professional counseling, while her brother sank deeper into his own despair. Malcolm spends most of his time at the lake house, digging into the lake’s frozen over to reclaim one of the mask’s of the home invaders. Isabel fears that Malcolm’s obsession threatens her safety, as well as her counselors.
“The Horror” is a story of one person’s traumatic event turning deeper into the darkness, taking a turn for the worst, and becoming overwhelming with rage and insanity. Director Jerry J. White III’s first solo feature thriller features a talented cast with Raymond Creamer, “WTF!’s” Callie Ott, and Schell Peterson headlining. Raymond Creamer also pens the script and Creamer’s character becomes centric heavy; an internally emotion individual just ready to explode from a slow burn. However, the film is literally a slow burn, creeping along, without being too frighteningly creepy, at a snails pace that doesn’t translate into Malcolm’s transition into madness. While in session with her counselor, Isabel states her brother is changing and we see Malcolm’s odd behavior at the lake house, but nothing suggests menacing turmoil. Until Malcolm randomly shows up at the counselor’s door step.
Raymond Creamer’s Malcolm is clearly the fearsome force of the film, flying solo for most of his scenes. But when Creamer interacts with others, he’s absolutely frightening. This makes Creamer outshine the rest of the cast and leaving no yin to his yang, unbalancing the film in oppositions. Creamer’s dark, bleak attitude and tone is solid throughout to where hope feels like a memory and a part of natural extinction. If Isabel is suppose to be the light, then her character must have had black out shades on as she can’t withdraw herself from the shadow casted down from the giant that is Creamer’s Malcolm. The unbalance creates no passion for revival and no sense of the grim reality resolving itself. This ultimately begs the question, what are we, the viewer, suppose to be hoping for?
“The Horror” story is also very encrypted. Explanations aren’t rapid nor are they delivered as an easy handout. Everything from physical metaphors to character dialogue can have an underlining meaning, sourcing “The Horror’s” entertainment value out to be another hard sell. The film’s marketing focused “The Horror” as a home invasion sub-genre film, but that particular scenario only lasts mere minutes that leaves more focal points on Malcolm’s odd behavior and Isabel’s therapy sessions explaining Malcolm’s odd behavior to her therapist. Also, the finale is wide open, again more underlining, that results in no concrete conclusions on where we leave Malcolm, holding an axe, invading Isabel’s counselor’s home.
The indie thriller “The Horror” is released on Digital VHX and limited edition VHS courtesy of Moondog Media. Jerry J. White III’s freshman film circles around being a Hitcockian draft of a modern day thriller with day of reckoning performance by writer-star Raymond Creamer, but pieces are missing or omitted to actually have “The Horror” come full circle.
It's Bloggin Evil! 