flesh of the unforgiven

Directed by: Joe Hollow

 Starring: Debbie Rochon, Joe Hollow

 Jack is an author facing a tight deadline with his publisher, and suffering from writer's block. Meanwhile his  marriage to Sienna is on the rocks after she had an affair with Jack's best friend. On top of this, Jack receives a mysterious VHS tape which contains terrifying,  strange and grotesque scenes…

The prologue for Flesh of the Unforgiven is a blood-smeared, unsettling affair which promises a gory, nihilistic journey for the viewer. Unfortunately, after this strong opening we are treated to a kitchen sink drama which occasionally piques the interest.

Jack, who is the film's protagonist, is stuck in an emotional nightmare. His wife, Sienna, had an affair with Jack's best friend and its caused a huge rift between them. Unfortunately, Sienna's attempts to mend the rift conflict with Jack's need to complete his manuscript and meet his deadline. Jack is also better facing down a bottle at the local bar, than facing his wife or his typewriter.

But then, a videotape arrives, with a card saying "Inspiration". On the tape are a series of disturbing scenes involving different characters wearing leather and latex S&M gear. At first Jack is repulsed, but keeps returning to it, believing it came from his publisher - bit who sent it, really?

Meanwhile, Sienna starts to have bad dreams in which she meets The Death Dealer and his assistant “nurse”. She even tries to tell Jack about them but he doesn’t put two and two together to figure that the video and the dreams might be connected!

 Produced on a very low budget (I read somewhere it was in the region of $8K), director, writer and star Joe Hollow does a reasonable job of developing his characters and presenting a decent drama interspersed with a little horror. However, there are issues with the script and the film's epilogue. I'm unsure whether this was the intended conclusion but there is a huge info-dump at the end to explain what had happened to one of the characters and to explain who and what was on the video tape. Its much needed, but perhaps should have come a bit earlier and be directed at the protagonist, rather than the viewer as an afterthought.

It is clear from this that Joe Hollow is a talented individual. Not only did he write, direct and star in the film, he also edited and contributed a large part of the film's admittedly impressive soundtrack, writing and performing some of the atmospheric dark metal tracks. He manages to keep the narrative pretty lean (compared to some other directors filming their own scripts) but a sanity check through the eyes of an outsider would have helped.

THE VERDICT

Judging from the moniker "Diary of Death", it could be that this is the start of a series of films, containing some or all of the dark supernatural characters created here. There is definitely something to be tapped into here, to be developed into something broader. I hope that is the case, and we get some more world-building which is better integrated into the story, next time.

5 out of 10

MIKEOUTWEST