Kweeny Reviews GUT

Sorry for my absence, but after New Years I got really sick. I partied it up and got to see a show though. I spent my New Years with some friends and Abney Park, a really cool indie-steampunk band. And they are not just steam punk, they are STEAMPUNK PIRATES!

Here, enjoy a video of one of their songs:

Friggen cool right? I thought so. I know I've mentioned them before, but they are even better live. Believe me. the energy levels of this band are impressive, not to mention the costumes, the catchy songs...so much to love. I rang in the New Year dancing, so if I had to get sick a day afterwards, so be it. Best New Years EVER.

But enough about airship pirates, I bring you a movie review!

KWEENY REVIEWS GUT

One of the things I love about indie films is that I don't go into them with expectations because they aren't overly hyped up by the media. Of course, there is a downside to that as well. It means unless you know where to look in the genre's you love, you might miss out on gems that come out. 

Gut is one of those gems.

Gut is a simple tale at it's core. Two friends, one being a huge horror buff, end up watching a disturbing  and slightly snuff-style video that ends up creeping them out. The thing that really makes this film special is the little things. The way creeping dread is used in this film is beautifully done. The use of minimal, subtle music and excellent camera work locks you in to what is happening on screen. You can really get into their characters heads by just watching how they react to their lives spiraling slowly downward. The lives of these two friends seems so simple at first, so blissfully normal. We see them being just a couple of buddies at work. One is married and has a kid, the other, just a geeky single guy. I love the geeky guy Dan's apartment though. He's got cool posters on the walls of other horror films. I even saw a poster for a Troma film in there! Hey, if you wanna be an indie film maker, who better to learn from them Troma!

The slow building horror happens over time, and we see it move subtly throughout the film. It creeps over everything. The friendship starts to sour like bad milk, and so does the relationship between husband and wife. Hell, there is a great scene where family man Tom is trying to play with his kid, when he gets a flashback from the movie he watched with Dan. Just little touches that show you how disturbed these guys are after watching the film. Their acting is top notch!

If you like your horror fast paced, this movie is not for you. It's quiet horror, and really captures something that a lot of movies have a difficulty doing without going for the cheap scare: Dread. Dread is psychological, needs only the imagination guided just the right way to disturb you. There's blood and some slicing, but the gore is used sparingly, and used with intent. No jump scares. No over saturation of meat and blood. It's as if the director was painting it on the screen, using it to make a statement. What that statement is, I will leave up to you. The ending, is very much a sucker punch to the gut.

For more on the film check out http://www.gutmovie.com/ or their Facebook page!