Jug Face: Hillbilly Death Cults and Outsider Art

Moonshine and pottery are a wicked combination.  One young woman living in a hillbilly cult understands that only too well.  She knows exactly what it means when the kiln tolls for her in Chad Crawford Kinkle’s Jug Face (trailer here), a Modernciné production which opens tomorrow in New York.

“The pit wants what it wants.”  In return, it cures members of the hardscrabble hill country community.  That was how their grandpappies survived the great cholera outbreak.  All that is required is a periodic sacrifice.  They will know who has been chosen from the special jugs the designated potter casts in a state of paranormal ecstasy.  Ada was supposed to be next, but she chanced upon her jug face before Dawai came out of his pit-induced stupor.  Stashing it in the woods, Ada is determined to live—not just for herself, but also for her unborn child.

Whose child would that be?  Take a lurid guess.  It is not Dawai’s, unfortunately, since he’s not a bad chap, really.  Nor is the boy to whom she is to be “joined” the father (a term that sounds uncomfortably Human Centipede like).  The answer will be pretty easy to guess, given general filmmaker attitudes towards rural border state residents.  Ada is definitely in for a hard go of things and the deadly visions she gets from the pit will not help.

Basically, Jug Face is southern gothic exploitation fare, which co-star and Glass Eye Pix producer Larry Fessenden certainly understands.  As Ada’s cult leader father Sustin, he is not nearly as loathsome or malevolent as one might expect.  He might even be half-human.  In the lead, Lauren Ashley Carter’s eyes are almost supernaturally wide.  Her Ada is also reasonably down to earth for a sheltered cult-child.  Looking not unlike Will Ferrell on a below average morning, Sean Bridgers finds surprising pathos in Dawai.  In fact, if it really were Will Ferrell, it would probably be his best performance ever.  It is hard to recognize Sean Young as mother dearest, but at least her off-screen persona does not distract from the on-screen action.

Evoking the spirit of outsider art, Jug Face’s opening credits effectively set an unsettling tone right from the start.  However, the pit is a little underwhelming.  It just gurgles a little and turns red from time to time.  Regardless, Kinkle really knows how to tap into coastal dwellers’ hillbilly phobias, without going the full Deliverance route.  Unfortunately, the climax is more of a deflation than a conflagration.  Still, those looking to shudder at ritual murder and Appalachian inequities will find plenty of fodder in Jug Face.  Recommended for Fessenden fans with a taste for hicksploitation, Jug Face opens this Friday (8/9) at the Village East.

Slamdance ’13: Jug Face

Moonshine and pottery are a wicked combination.  One young woman living in a hillbilly cult understands that only too well.  She knows the kiln tolls for her in Chad Crawford Kinkle’s Jug Face (trailer here), a Modernciné production which premiered last night at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival.

“The pit wants what it wants.”  In return, it cures members of the hardscrabble hill country community.  That was how their grandpappies survived the great cholera outbreak.  All that is required is a periodic sacrifice.  They will know who has been chosen from the special jugs the designated potter casts in a state of paranormal ecstasy.  Ada was supposed to be next, but she chanced upon her jug face before Dawai came out of his pit-induced stupor.  Stashing it in the woods, Ada is determined live—not just for herself, but also for her unborn child.

Whose child would that be?  Take a lurid guess.  It is not Dawai’s, unfortunately, since he’s not a bad chap, really.  Nor is the boy to whom she is to be “joined” the father (a term that sounds uncomfortably Human Centipede like).  The answer will be pretty easy to guess, given general filmmaker attitudes towards rural border state residents.  Ada is definitely in for a hard go of things and the deadly visions she gets from the pit will not help.

Basically, Jug Face is southern gothic exploitation fare, which co-star and Glass Eye Pix producer Larry Fessenden certainly understands.  As Ada’s cult leader father Sustin, he is not nearly as loathsome or malevolent as one might expect.  He might even be half-human.  In the lead, Lauren Ashley Carter’s eyes are almost supernaturally wide.  Her Ada is also reasonably down to earth for a sheltered cult-child.  Looking not unlike Will Ferrell on a below average morning, Sean Bridgers finds surprising pathos in Dawai.  In fact, if it really were Will Ferrell, it would probably be his best performance ever.  It is hard to recognize Sean Young as mother dearest, but at least her off-screen persona does not distract from the on-screen action.

Evoking the spirit of outsider art, Jug Face’s opening credits effectively set an unsettling tone right from the start.  However, the pit is a little underwhelming.  It just gurgles a little and turns red from time to time.  Regardless, Kinkle really knows how to tap into coastal dwellers’ hillbilly phobias, without going the full Deliverance route.  Unfortunately, the climax is more of a deflation than a conflagration.  Still, those looking to shudder at ritual murder and Appalachian inequities will find plenty of fodder in Jug Face.  Recommended for Fessenden fans with a taste for hicksploitation, Jug Face should have many midnight screenings ahead of it after its Slamdance premiere last night in Park City.

Ghoul: Airing Friday the 13th

This small town carries of load of bad karma. It all started with the cave-in at the now defunct mine, but it also has a great deal of closed door angst to contend with, as well as a local bogeyman. Three pre-teens discover the truth behind a related series of mysterious abductions in Gregory Wilson’s Ghoul (promo here), an original adaptation of Brian Keene’s novel produced by Modernciné, which airs on the Chiller TV network this Friday the thirteenth.

Timmy Graco is the most fortunate of the trio of friends. His dad is a bit of a hardcase about his chores, but that is it. It is pretty obvious Barry Smeltzer’s father beats him like a rented mule. Doug Keiser’s problems will be revealed later in the film, but it is safe to say his father’s absence troubles him greatly. When they can evade their parents, they hang in their subterranean club house in the cemetery where Smeltzer’s father works as the drunken caretaker.

The first death in Ghoul is from natural causes: Graco’s beloved grandfather. However, many more people start disappearing under mysterious circumstances around the cemetery. Yet, that does not dissuade the three boys from wanting to explore the tunnel they accidentally discover in the cemetery service shed, but fate conspires to send other clueless victims in first.

Throughout the film, Graco consults his faux-E.C. Comics as a model of how to deal with the uncanny. Essentially, this means Ghoul start out promising to be Creepshow but evolves into a sinister variation on the Goonies. Probably shot on a budget under $500, the tunnel scenes actually look decently ominous. It is also cool to see Catherine Mary Stewart (star of Night of the Comet, the greatest George Romero rip-off ever), even if as Graco’s mother she only gets lines like “come to dinner” or “it’s time for bed.” However, to put it diplomatically, viewers will probably not be taking down most of the young cast-members names for future reference.

Despite the limitations of ensemble and effects, Wilson successfully conveys a sense of the past’s evil influence on the present and a general lurking dread. Viewers get an impression of what readers probably responded to in Keene’s novel and why Wilson and the Modernciné team wanted to film it. It is also worth noting the town pastor is not an immoral hypocrite, which is quite the welcome departure from traditional horror movie clichés. Though admittedly flawed, the evocative atmosphere and vibe of Ghoul is still worth checking out on television, especially on Friday the thirteenth. After a special buzz-generating screening at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Ghoul premieres this Friday on Chiller TV.