In
1930’s Universal movies, Transylvania is the homeland of monsters. In Larry
Fessenden’s latest film, monsters come from Brooklyn, namely Gowanus. That is
much more believable, isn’t it? In fact, this is could well be the grungiest,
most realistic take on Mary Shelley’s classic characters yet. New sentient life
will get sutured together, but it isn’t exactly grateful for the favor after it
experiences the Brooklyn scene in Fessenden’s Depraved, which premiered as the opening night selection of the
What The Fest!?.
Alex,
an obnoxious Brooklynite, is about to be murdered, but he will be back—at least
a piece of him will, as a ghostly remnant within the hulking body Dr. Henry
(surname cagily not identified) has stitched together from body parts. Occasionally,
the new life form dubbed “Adam” experiences flashes of Alex’s memory, but not
enough to help him make sense of the world.
His
name is not intended as a Biblical reference. Instead, it has more personal
meaning for the former military doctor turned mad scientist. This Dr.
Frankenstein is not as blinded by vainglory and hubris as his cinematic
predecessors. His desire to conqueror death was kindled by his service
performing battlefield triage. Unfortunately, he largely lost his sense of perspective
in the process. Needless to say, his financial backer, the entitled hipster
Polidori was not a constructive influence.
Depraved looks like it was filmed
in a shuttered Gowanus industrial building, because it really was. The is
definitely the grittiest, least tweedy Frankenstein riff that openly advertises
itself as such (for the record, there is an even grimier film involving a
Frankenstein-like mad doctor on the festival circuit, but its Modern Prometheus connections are
supposed to come as a surprise revelation). Regardless, Fessenden’s film
definitely feels like it came straight out of Gowanus, with all the attitude
and industrial waste that implies.
As
Adam, Alex Breaux brings to life (so to speak) one of the most doleful movie
monsters since Universal’s glory years. With his awkward hesitancy and
confusion, he resembles a more nebbish Lon Chaney Jr. Likewise, David Call’s
portrayal of Henry is unusually morally conflicted by genre movie standards.
Joshua
Leonard (returning to his Blair Witch horror
movie roots) is abrasively annoying and convincingly petulant and immature as
Polidori. Yet, Addison Timlin might be who genre fans remember most, combining
humor and pathos in her all too brief appearance as Shelley, the Iggy Pop
listener Adam kind of-sort of picks up in a hipster bar. It is a very
well-written and well-played sequence that serves as an analog to the Karloff
monster fatally throwing the little girl into the lake.
