By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Bill Posley
Starring: A-F-R-O | Kelsey Caesar. Sheaun McKinney | Me'lisa Sellers | Teon Kelley | Tunde Laleye
Country: united_states
Year: 2022
Running time: 83
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13991504/reference/
Brett says: “Apologies for the language, I didn’t name the film. The title is intended to be a laugh in itself: a colloquial insult that serves as a pivot point for an urban slasher flick that relishes in depictions of ‘life in the hood.’ Of course, it should be more accepted or normalized that the slasher horror sub-genre should not be a part of a quota and rely on more ways to continue to develop the genre. However, the film tries to explain in a humorous manner during the opening prelude what kind of film the audience is about to witness and tie it to the demographic representation therein. With that said, if it was going to be a film that attempts self-awareness, I wish it had leaned into the social criticism of limited diversity in genre films a little more rather than seeming like it needed to joke away why a cliche’ horror premise was being made.
“The first quarter of the film or so sets up potential to have a good time. If deconstruction of the genre is how the film-makers wanted to go, then the ceiling for the amount of laughs and good times is high. After a short while though, the narrative coupled with the actors’ deliveries seem quite restrained and unsure of themselves.
“A team of wannabe thieves has been assembled by a local crime boss to break in and steal a large sum of money from a house whose matriarch is apparently an invalid. The grandson (the title serial killer in question) is the only other resident: a socially awkward and secluded misfit—a justification for which is offered later—and who is the object of the title insulting moniker of the film.
“There are sequences that later become cringeworthy to sit through once the action gets rolling; that is, cringeworthy in a critical sense, not from the horror itself. While it’s presumed this is the director’s sense of irony at work, once the infiltration of the house begins, the killing off of each person is nothing more than a set of ill-conceived and underproduced games akin to the movie SAW. Title cards act as a prelude to each death scene like a 1 versus 1 fighter video game intro with the killer vs. victim listed: a stylistic choice that doesn’t tie in effectively enough to what is basically a board game theme. The film does try to explain why it’s a ‘want to play a game?’ type of movie with backstory once one of the home invaders uncovers evidence that links to the past. Unfortunately, this will require the viewer to somehow forgive the fact that it’s easier to wander upon a high school yearbook in the dark, take time to sit down and read it, and find signings in the back of the yearbook that effectively trigger a cut scene that pieces it all together as to why it makes sense. Yes, much easier to do that and find a hidden dungeon than find the money that you had specific instructions and directions to go get. It’s likely this is part of the tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the genre, but it becomes more apparent that the director is shifting tone into the drama and seriousness of the characters at a certain point, which is an incongruent head-scratcher. The seesaw back and forth from flippant to serious is problematic tonally-speaking. It turns out the only thing more painful than having to play games like Operation and a airplane version of Battleship is have to sit and watch people play those games on screen. 1 cat out of 5 (could narrowly leap to a 2 because of a couple of the jokes/one-liners actually landed).”