Beast Mode: A P.G.A. Horror Story

As the producer of the biggest box office bomb in Hollywood history, Breen Nash would kill for a hit. He more or less does so unintentionally, when he unknowingly sets in motion a bizarre pseudo-lycanthropic monster in an effort to save his latest production. The show must go on, but the price will be high in Chris W. Freeman & Spain Willingham’s Beast Mode, which releases today on VOD.

Nash applied Truman’s advice regarding DC to Hollywood and got himself a dog for his best friend. He doesn’t even kid himself about the rest of his associates, but somehow, he still managed to package a deal to produce Beast Moon with surly, hard-partying Huckle Saxton. There is no deal without Saxton, so Nash is understandably concerned when he accidently backs over the troubled star with his car. He feels bad, but the deal still needs to be finalized, so he hires a lookalike to take Saxton’s place.

The nicer Saxton is the star’s spitting image, except for his blemished face, but fortunately Nash can call in a favor with old school makeup goddess, Zelda Zine. She knows a guy who has this cream derived from a rare South American flower that works wonders. The only drawback is it literally brings out the beast in people—round midnight. Suddenly, nice Saxton isn’t so nice anymore and neither is everyone else who came into physical contact with the cream.

Freeman, Willingham, and co-screenwriter Drew Fortune tell a nutty, chaotic story, but they certainly find fresh ways to skewer Hollywood. Seriously, this is not like dozens of other tame show business satires. They really draw blood, so to speak.

Digging Up the Marrow: Don’t Call It Found Footage

Thanks to the found footage sub-genre, the horror movie community hardly knows what to do when the real thing comes along. At least that it sort of the premise of the new meta-meta mock-and-shock doc from the team behind the Holliston television series. Director Adam Green, playing himself and riffing off his Holliston persona, starts to suspect monsters are real, so naturally he sets out to film them in Digging Up the Marrow (trailer here), which launches on VOD and opens in select theaters this Friday.

Green really does get a great deal of intricately constructed fan fiction sent to him, in some cases much like the incredibly detailed but presumably barking mad missive that starts his on-camera excursion down the rabbit hole. A retired Boston cop named William Decker claims a secret band of the freakishly deformed live in a subterranean world he calls the Marrow. The entrances are closely guarded, but he has discovered one, logically located in an out of the way cemetery. Thus begins a series of futile stakeouts, with his reluctant cinematographer Will Barratt (played by cinematographer Will Barratt) in tow.

Of course, just when Green decides Decker is a complete nut leading them on a wild goose chase, they finally see something that changes everything. However, they still have to convince their colleagues to take their footage seriously. Green’s real life editor Josh Ethier (who also played the killer lumberjack-alien in Joe Begos’ Almost Human) is particularly skeptical, but he is perfectly willing to cut Green’s stolen shots. “It’s not found footage, it’s . . . footage” he insists.

Frankly, this is one of the best postmodern self-referential genre films since Wes Craven turned his signature franchise on its head with New Nightmare. It is light-years better than the Vicious Brothers’ knowing but disappointingly flat Grave Encounters 2. While there are plenty of creepy moments, the film is more about exploring how the horror industry and sub-culture would respond when confronted with possible evidence that maybe some of this stuff might just be real.

In a pleasant turn of events, Ethier and Hatchet star Kane Hodder (best known for his stint as Jason in the old school Friday the 13^th films) are totally hilarious playing off each other and Green. They give the film a major energy boost during their scenes. Green himself is a good sport as the straight man for their quips and all of Decker’s macabre madness, whereas Ray Wise, the only cast member assuming a fictional personal, is reliably looney as the unreliable Decker.

Inspired by the Alex Pardee’s monster art, Marrow is a strong creature feature that might even be more interesting when it operates in the ostensibly real world. Sadly, the film also marks the last screen appearance of Green’s late series co-star Dave Brockie. Green also was disciplined enough as a director to keep the scenes of actress Rileah Vanderbilt playing his actress-wife Rileah, even though she would now have to play his ex-wife should there ever be a sequel.

Given all that seems to transpire, fans will not be expecting a third season of Holliston anytime soon after watching it, but they should enjoy appearances from leading genre filmmakers like Don Coscarelli, Mick Garris, and Tom Holland. Highly recommended as a clever, fully developed, ironically meta genre film, Digging Up the Marrow hits iTunes this Friday (2/20).