I enjoy doing random things. This sometimes leads me to scour social media “coming events” pages.
My little town doesn’t generally have too many items on the calendar, so when I saw that a slasher movie was being presented at the militia clubhouse, I was all-in before I even knew the international director of said film would be present.
I don’t typically go out of my way to see gore, but it was Halloween week, on a school night, and the event simply checked too many boxes for me to pass on.
The event did not disappoint in the slightest.
It was off to a great start just seeing inside the clubhouse. I would say that I will go there in the event of the zombie apacolypse, but much like techno clubs in Berlin, I’m not sure I’d be accepted. However I am 100% sure that anyone who tries to get in there without express invite has not considered their decision well.
The ambiance continued with the greeters; teens with hockey masks and weapons, “bloody” faces and ninja garb. The group was not large, 11 people. Turns out the event was a late entrant to the Facebook schedule which is suspected to have impacted the turnout.
There was a horror film trivia game that I honestly should not have played. I felt an unmeasurable degree of asshole-ery when I vehemently blurted out answers. I assure you, I tried very hard to 1) not be that guy and 2) when I was that guy, not take all the major awards. But c’mon, man….! Who can sit quietly when the question is “what is the name of the daughter of the actress in the shower scene in Psycho?”?!
Before the movie started there was small talk including some other folks who decided their Wednesday night plans based on Facebook. They were curious about the clubhouse’s activities on other nights. Thanks to the host and my eavesdropping, I learned that there are a lot of classes that happen there such as natural uses for dandelion, medical training, survival skills. There were a lot of others but I probably couldn’t hear them over the crunching of my buffet of tootsie pops.
“Do they do any gun classes here too?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Can you come if you don’ t have a gun?”
“Everyone else does sooooo….”
There was an announcement before the movie started. The director is about to begin work on another film and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Cottonwood Education Foundation. There was a brief exchange in which an attendee asked what the film will be about. The director declined to reveal trade secrets and instead vaguely stated what it’s not about.
“It’s no woke shit.”
And with that, the lights went down and the TV volume went up. Literally, TV.
I don’t want to spoil this 3rd in the 4 film series Playing with Dolls for anyone hoping to start their journey, so stop reading now if that’s you.
“Playing with Dolls: Havoc” is something like the 38th out of 42 ish films by the writer, director, cinematographer and possible Cottonwood-ian.
The movie entertained as expected. Having the creator sitting at the Costco folding table next to you in the bunker really made me think about all that goes into making movies. Writing, choosing people, choosing body parts for the Asset to lob off or tear out, knowing when to have the first topless scene to develop plot (within the first 4 minutes), creating the right pace so people (me) will squeal at the jump scares. There’s a lot to it. I’m sure the scale is exponentially more challenging than my productions from my own “15 Second Films” studio.
The production quality was solid and nostalgic. It reminded me of Fall Saturday afternoons in my kid-dom when the landscape of limited viewing choices wildly expanded with the Friday the 13th series started on whichever of the 3 channels we had. I also felt reminders of the soap operas of all the grandmas I ever knew when the melodic piano established mood one singular key at a time. The acting was certainly better than I could ever do, though I’m working on my impression of “Mia’s” encounter with The Asset. I doubt I could replicate her eastern block sounding accent though. Based on their level of expertise, I’d be willing to bet that Mia and the other female lead have been on a casting couch or two.
The script entertained me. The Asset escaped from captivity to cause mayhem. But he kind of seems like sometimes he doesn’t want to kill. At one point, his handlers catch up to him. A damsel in distress calls out, “He’s killing people!” The handler replies along the lines of “That’s what he does. That’s why the boss paid big money to have him released from the insane asylum.” The Asset has barbed wire wrapped around his face, a very interestingly shaped weapon that looks cool, but doesn’t seem like it’d be a very efficient killing device IRL.
I was curious about him. I wondered if I could see an earlier chapter in the series to explain why he wheezes like he does or what is the genesis for his proclivity for pulling out veins.
Rarely do you get to see a movie with the writer present so upon conclusion I asked him, “Does the Asset have a back story?” “Not really. The boss paid big money to have him released from the insane asylum.”
Yup. That’s what he’d said in the script. Silly me for thinking I’d get info to write Asset’s biopsychosocial assessment.
And with that, a Wednesday night adventure was over.
It was super fun and I’m very thankful for people who create things and make opportunities for interesting experiences. What you got next, Facebook?
Thanks for reading!
Bifocals and Barbells 