Film Review: Victor Juliet’s Director’s Cut
Sorry I’ve been away for so long dearies…life and school and blah blah blah excuses. Fuck that, let’s get to the good stuff shall we? I want to bring to you today my lovelies a rare feature here in ManDuhLand – a film review, complete with spoilers.
I’ve literally just finished watching Victor Juliet’s Director’s Cut, so my impressions are going to be raw and all those little things you catch on subsequent viewings I haven’t caught yet. Also, I have to disclose this bias: I’m indirectly personally connected with this movie. Victor Juliet went to high school with my husband and we’ve attended opera together in the same group of friends. I’m friends with or know from school seven of the cast and crew members, and my husband with another nine. Some scenes take place in the apartment complex I grew up in, and one of the main characters later in the film is my wife (we won’t get into my polyamory right now though). However I wasn’t personally involved in the making of the movie and I was never on set while it was filming.
Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way. The beginning of Director’s Cut came off as a pretty stereotypical “B” movie – rough camera angles, slightly stiff acting. But as the acts progress, the film making improves quite a bit (the actors don’t always, but the ones who are strong make up for the weaker ones).
The movie is actually a collection of 5(ish) acts, all centering around Victor Juliet’s quest to make an authentic, no-budget horror movie. The first act is the roughest of the bunch; but the second act more than makes up for it. “Will Direct for Food” is a behind-the-scenes making of the first act (“Will Work for Food”), and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. It’s here we’re introduced to our central characters throughout the movie: Peter, Rachel, and Victor.
Allow me to stop right there and profess my undying love for Rachel Ward. She was by far my favorite character and favorite actor in the movie (Sorry Feather! Sorry Dustin!). If anyone came off as a professional actor, it was Ms. Ward. Her lines seemed the most realistic, her character’s ever-increasing pleasure in ever-increasing violence was hilarious and convincing at the same time. Mr. Juliet, you have yourself a real prize there; I suggest you treat her well!
Now, back to the movie: In the third act, we see the lengths Victor Juliet’s willing to go to make his scene just perfect, and are set up for the events of the fourth act. The fourth act easily had the best special effects of the whole movie. The zombie transformation scene is BADASS. It’s a perfect example of the lost art of understatement and understated horror. Big budget studios and their flashy CG special effects seem to have completely forgotten how much more intense and powerful a scene can be when it’s understated, when more is left to the imagination of the audience, when it’s more realistic and believable. The zombie transformation scene is just that – it’s gory, but not unrealistically gory It’s a guy turning into a zombie, but it’s not over the top.
The fifth and final act was probably my favorite. The cinematography was at its best, and the fight scene where Victor and Abigail discuss filmmaker vs. film critic conflicts is engaging, if slightly superficial. The movie closes with a group of film critics plotting to kill makers of bad horror movies and the almost promise of a sequel.
At $7.50, this movie is a steal (click the link to buy it from the Fiendish Films Myspace page). It is literally a no budget movie, and in places it shows. But it’s totally worth it! This weird-horror movie is definitely worth adding to any horror fan’s collection and Victor Juliet is a filmmaker you might just want to keep your eye on.