If you are a comedy horror fan and like your films very ghastly, gruesome, gory and grisly, then you should get a charge out of Appetites an indie shock movie that’s strong on characters, light on acting and with fair directing. When it comes to production values, Appetites lacks a good meal and needs some upgraded utensils. If you just want to get together with some men for laughs or just gross out some gal pals, this movie will do the trick.
The film starts out with Leland (David Harper), a repugnant man, sitting on the porch of a shack in a backwoods somewhere watching a male and female deer getting it on. Kind of an introduction to how the rest of the film is going to play out. Walking into the house, he heads for the cellar where he beats on Bubba (Scott Barrows) his feeble minded son who’s chained to a wall. He then walks over to where his daughter Daisy (Lauren Parkinson) is tied up and tries to sexually accost her. Bubba breaks loose just in time and kills his father.
The film fast forwards 10 years where we find Daisy and Bubba living in the shack together. The two have developed a hunger for hunting down young men for the sport of it and dinner. The film goes on from there with Daisy wanting to find a ‘better’ life and maybe someone she can trust and love. When she meets John Doe (Bret Roberts), she senses that this could be the one, but he’s got some weird ticks of his own.
If writers Darren Bevill and Brennan Freemantle could have injected more mayhem and bloody killings in the film they probably would have, but it looks like they ran out of time and money, ending the film abruptly. Director Cameron Casey does a fair job of putting all the scenes together, the special effects make-up crew makes it all look quite gruesome, and close-ups of some gory action shots actually look as good as the big studio filmmakers. Trying to make good out of a bad script Casey does accomplish some good comedic interaction to offset the horror. But when it comes right down to whether the movie entertains or not, it didn’t for me.
As for the acting in the film, outside of a couple of well written characters, the cast has no exceptional talent in bringing interesting characters to the screen. Of the actors that did pull off good performances you would have to include Travis Eberhard as Charlie the motel clerk, Scott Barrows who plays Bubba the impaired brother to Daisy and Bret Roberts for his evil portrayal of the serial killer John Doe. While Lauren Parkinson does show her ability to provide the legitimate Southern twang, her character becomes a little too sassy and not enough lassie.
There’s not much more to say about the film so I’ll just end it here with the rating.has not been rated by the MPAA, but does contain, explicit sex/nudity, violence, rape, gore, language and smoking. The sex and violence gets very vicious and gruesome in some scenes so those who are timid, easily sickened, repulsed, modest or meek should avoid seeing the film. Be extremely cautious if you acquire the DVD to put it in a safe place away from young prying eyes.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Not one of the better of the genre. (D)
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Lauren Parkinson, James Duval, Bret Roberts, Travis Eberhard, David Harper, Scott Barrows
Director: Cameron Casey
MPAA Rating: Unrated, contains sex, violence, language, gore
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr. 46 min.
Video Release Date: August 4, 2015
Language: English
Reviewed Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen for 16×9 televisions, Aspect Ration 1.78:1
Subtitles: CC
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RLJ Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
