- “…the ultimate relationship between the Director, his camera and his star.”
You can imagine why I was apprehensive at first when delivered Warning!!! Pedophile Released and Amateur Porn Star Killer from Cinema Epoch. Justifiably worried that when entered into any web search engine, my name would now turn out Warning! Pedophile Released and Amateur Porn Star Killer, along with all the other expected results; hot guy, smart brain, super-hero-muscle-winner-best-person-Canadian-Gandhi. With that being said both these films proved to be more than their titles suggested and surprised me like a bear in an alley killing a porn star while on stilts (Shouldn’t you be in the woods? Stupid lost bear.)
Warning!!! Has a lot going for it. At times the gritty next to no dialogue film can resemble both the absurd beauty of a Harmony Korine film, with the straight to DVD bargain bin feel of a modern trash film. Regardless of how the film looks or works, the emotion and heart is inarguably present. Crafted under the able hands of one-man wrecking crew, Shane Ryan, along with the help of star and co-writer, Kai Lanette, Warning!!! develops into the ultimate relationship between the Director, his camera and his star. Using this intimate relationship the film creates an unabashed look into street life and what it’s like to be a vulnerable girl in a dangerous world, which as a young man I’ve never experienced, but through my D & D performances I can imagine the dangers (i.e. dragons, wizards and date rapists.)
- “…(Ryan) perversions don’t seem to be something he wants to leave in the closet.”
Another fine example of this young filmmaker’s gusto is Amateur Porn Star Killer. Shot entirely on hand-held grainy digital film, APSK mends both the exploitative trash you’d expect out of a 70’s Grindhouse picture with a contemporary artistic flare and command over it’s new digital medium. Using inter-titles, multi-projections, and shot exclusively through a home video look, APSK is a rough cut into the world of Snuff films. The film’s amateurish cast both adds a genuine feel to the film and yet at the same time pulls the viewer out due to their off attempts at over-acting. Think bad acting and overacting as in John Waters or Lloyd Kaufman’s early films, now assume that this films isn’t as good as those and you’re getting warmer. However, slandering this film for its lack of talent would be cheap. If these films fail it isn’t due to their lack of effort but simply due to their repetitive nature.
The occasionally awkwardly performed or poorly executed scene, serve to remind us that this truly is an independent film, constructed almost entirely by the writer, editor and director, Ryan. For this I applaud the filmmaker, who’s perversions don’t seem to be something he wants to leave in the closet like the majority of us do, instead he release them onto the screen in a foray of wanton amateurish smut (and I mean all of that in a good way.)
Both these films at times can be trying but their determination and drive in being higher-grade exploitative cinema, make them like the real ugly girl at a party whose willing to do anything, you just can’t get them out of your mind. So take these films home, make them a strong drink, put on some Roberta Flack and just do it, but don’t tell any of your friends about it because they might call you a manwhore.
-Detroit Burns