INDEPENDENTS

The Dollar Theater is dedicated to the true independent filmmakers. They work with low budgets and without crews beacuse they love the art form. Here you will find articles on their limited release films.

“THE BACK ROOM” (2010)

Starring: Jeremy Goodwin, Ronni Lea, Chance Corbitt, Janell Kelley, Denise Licitra, Brandi Bottoms, Jennifer Lauren, Heather Lei Guzzetta, Terri Lynn and Melissa Miller
Directed by Tim Stover

Polly Staffle Rating: ***

Fear is a place.

That’s a tagline that has been used by a number of great horror films. It fit perfectly for Brad Anderson’s “Session 9.” Though Tim Stover hasn’t used the tagline to promote his film yet, he very well could. Like Anderson’s masterpiece, Stover’s “The Back Room” explores both the physical and the psychological places of fear. The physical being a “back room” in his antihero William’s house that nobody is allowed to enter, while the psychological is a dark corner in the psychopath’s mind.

After a quick definition of grindhouse cinema, Stover’s film proclaims “Welcome to The Back Room.” In we go into William’s twisted underground world of bloodlust, death, torture and mutilation. Buckle up! It’s a freaky little head trip of a ride to hell and back.

Stover is one of the founding members of 3DT Productions, a company that has been designing music and sound effects for film projects for more than 10 years in Las Vegas. Then in late 2008 Stover was bitten by the film bug. “The Back Room” is the nasty result of that bite. Though it isn’t perfect (and in no way tries to be) this directorial debut is one Stover can be proud of as it hold it’s own against many of the cult favorites out there about fictional serial killers.

Not too surprising, considering his music background, Stover’s film is very much like an extended music video. Oddly, it’s not the music that really steals the show; it’s the visuals. There are a lot of elements reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson clips, but there are also bits that really capture the essecense of grindhouse works. At times I was reminded of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “I Drink Your Blood” and “Color Me Blood Red” to name a few. First inspired by the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez cinematic grindhouse event “Death Proof” and “Planet Terror,” Stover’s film actually honors the catch-all exploitation genre from the past well, while also incorporating modern elements of torture porn made popular by the films of Eli Roth, James Waan and Darren Lynn Bousman.

William (played by Jeremy Goodwin) is your average all-American boy next door. He also just so happens to think about, dream about, fantasize about and gets some sort of weird gratification in killing. He’s very much like Leonard from Eric Stanze’s “Scrapbook” or Brandon from Shane Ryan’s “Amateur Porn Star Killer.” He predominately stalks pretty women/teenage girls and makes a hideous mess of them and, of course, keeps some sort of souvenir. Brandon videotapes his crimes. Leonard keeps a scrapbook of his. William stores away the whole corpses of the people he kills. Unlike his predecessors, William doesn’t have sex with or rape his victims. It is never gone into, but I presume he, like many real life killers, is impotent and gets his sexual jollies from the kill itself. For the most part, he kills his victims and then later mutilates their naked dead bodies, or at least fantasizes about it. Some times William poses the corpses. Cannibalism is also hinted at. But it is never clear if this is all in his head (a la Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho”) or if these are things he is actually partaking in.

The acting here isn’t near as convincing as Leonard (Tommy Biondo) or Brandon (Ryan). Our killer feels flat and never comes across as scary. He also never evokes any sympathy. Instead of coming off as a lady killer like Ted Bundy, William is more like Bud Bundy. Goodwin seems as though he prepared for his role by watching rerun episodes of “Married with Children” and some George Lopez on late night cable. Watching him stomp around, rub his hands together, gesture and listening to him yell at himself and others, so reminded me of when Lopez does his “I CAN NEVER DO NOTHIN!” bit. Godwin’s over the top acting, and his overall pouty persona is quite annoying. Sadly, he narrates the film and is on screen for just about every frame.

William also sort of bumbles along with no method of operating. Some times he simply picks up strangers during his late night cruises around Sin City and strangles them in his car. Other times he picks up women at bars and even his place of employment. Actually, he doesn’t work to get his victims; they come to him. They pick him up at the bar and at his job. There’s even a scene with victim after victim stepping foot into William’s romper room and being killed. Perhaps William uses “The Secret” or he sent out a Twitter message that said “cum 2 my house, go 2 back room and get slaughtered, k. :).”

This all could have been played up in a humorous way, but it wasn’t. And again, perhaps none of these things actually happened, but that is not made clear if that is the case. William’s lack of ambition and motivation brings me to the big issue that separates “The Back Room” from the indie classics “Scrapbook” and “Amateur Porn Star Killer,” or Ryan Cavalline’s “Aspiring Psychopath” even.

Though the visuals and editing work well together in an attempt at giving the viewer a look into a killer’s mind, there isn’t too much substance aside from that. Like its killer, “The Back Room” sort of starts to bumble and stumble on itself. The “Natural Born Killers” and “House of 1,000 Corpses” bombardment approach of violence and bloodiness sort of desensitizes you. Unlike those films, this one doesn’t have a story or characters to carry it. Around 50 minutes in I was ready to move on to a front room. The in your face shock-for-shock’s sake followed by more shock-for-shock’s sake wears thin and things start to feel quite repetitive.

A bit more substance to the film and/or some humor could have went a long way. I think “Scrapbook” and “Amateur Porn Star Killer” worked so well because they asked questions, provoked me to look within myself, but also did a bit of answering of questions as to why their killers do what they do. Because there seems to be a lack of a coherent theme, “The Back Room” doesn’t trigger any of this and seems a bit incomplete. As is though, it is still leaps and bounds above serial killer films like David DeFalco’a “Chaos” or Nick Palumbo’s “Murder-Set-Pieces.”

Humor would have been an easy addition. It’s already unintentionally there bubbling below the surface. The over acting, the repetitive posed dead body scenes, cheesy burning newspaper headline graphics, the series of victims entering the room to be killed, a faux cannibal buffet, the voice over, the often times high school play feeling due to set decorations and an after school special vibe all would have worked had they gone for laughs. Maybe some of it was meant to be funny. But if Stover was going for laughs with these things, they didn’t work for me.

What “The Back Room” does offer and what makes me like it, is its atmosphere. The visuals, the editing and the soundtrack all mesh well, giving Stover’s debut more energy than many indie horror projects and most Hollywood remake. So much so that I can accept the film’s warts and scars, and enjoy it for what it is - a depraved baseball bat to the face that takes me to dark corners of a character’s home and mind. It probably goes without saying, but these are both places of fear I hope to never visit in real life.

- CCF, June 2010