directed by:
J Lee Vertz written by: Johnny Criscione genre: Horror |
If we’re to judge a man based on the scars on his face, it’s fair to say that Graves (Giovanny Vazquez) has seen some shit! Yet when we meet the guy, he’s anything but humbled in life – in fact, he seems to pride himself on being as much of an A-hole as he can be to his partner, Carter (Daniel Anderson), as they drive together with their captive prisoner bagged in the back of their truck. “S86” aims to make a big, confusing impact right from the drop, so don’t be surprised if it takes you a second or two to adapt to everything going on before you figure out where this movie’s going. You’ve got a dude covered in blood before the credits even roll, a dude with a bag over his head in the back of what looks like it could be a company vehicle, and a harmless doctor/scientist type of dude getting the crap kicked out of him all within the first ten minutes or so. “S86” is more than happy to move maniacally quickly – try to keep up!
Dr. Black (Georgina Mercedes Black) tells her two henchmen to bring Dr. Jensen (Robert Snow) to “the farm,” which sounds wonderfully ominous, dangerous and threatening if you ask me. Listening to Graves and Carter try their hand at figuring out the philosophy of being in a relationship, while likening the plight of marriage to chopping the balls off of a cat. “Ain’t that some shit?” asks Graves as his lesson comes to an end. It certainly is, friend, I’ll give you that. I’ll fully admit that my own marriage sounds like it has been far less dramatic by comparison than anything these two goons have been discussing so far. It’s not long before we’re into the basement with the saw blades on display, the jumper cables frying someone in the ol’ underground dentist’s chair, the ball-gagged victim with the black eye, a very tense amount of muscles on display and an unknown “medical” test being administered. Cue the convulsions! We’re clearly here to make some monsters in this crazy, unknown place, and from the first test subject that we encounter, who can shout loud enough to set off all the alarms in the building and break all the lightbulbs overhead, it’s pretty damn clear that business is going well. Of course, that is, until the dude with all the muscles gets his head bashed in by the new monster with the silver dinner tray. That’s when you have no real choice but to acknowledge that maybe not everything is quite on the level here. How we go from a massively brutal scene where it seems like just about all that could go wrong, did, to a voice claiming that the drug they’ve been testing is a success and ready for mass production, I do not know. If this is what everything going right looks like, I had to wonder what it would have been like if the test had gone wrong for the dinner tray guy. Regardless, as a plot device, it’s not that far-fetched at all, really – science only ever does two things…it either takes forever, or it’s rushed ahead of schedule to perilous results. Carter makes a reference, in fact, to the early stages of these strange trials, where the test subjects were actually eating people. I don’t know if that’s all that much worse than their friend Danny’s fate with his brains all mashed in - by a basic household object used to carry food at the end of the day, but suffice it to say they’re probably not following along with the guidelines of health & safety. Now, if you somehow assumed this was going to get any less grim than where it all started, what holes in your body are you watching “S86” through? Jensen has become death – all his hard work & research has now officially fallen into the wrong hands, and if he did feel like he was one of the good guys at one point, I’d doubt that he did while he was beaten, tied up, and awaiting his fate. Ain’t no honour among thieves, as they say, but from what it looks like, there’s even less to be found in the criminal medical community. Jensen tries to persuade Carter and Graves to do the right thing, but unfortunately for him, we’re already long past the point of reason. Not much else left to do other than to let the monster loose to do some monstering, right? But that’s where this movie slows down instead.
So…where am I at with “S86”? First and foremost, it makes enough sense for this to work, which is kind of an achievement given the plot. Writer Johnny Criscione makes the right call by not allowing himself to be bogged down by too many of the technical details that would have discredited this story or disturbed our suspension of disbelief. Instead, with the help of Director J.Lee Vertz, they charge ahead with damn near reckless abandon, not worrying about going too far into any specific points of the plot. Typically, that’s not going to be the best approach for most films, but for the pace of this one, it worked. Acting-wise, I don’t think there are a whole lot of major demands being made of the cast here; it’s pretty even across the board. Most of these people, criminals, scientists and monsters seem to fit, with maybe the exception of Black, who kind of felt like a strange choice to make for that particular role. What do I know, though? It’s not like I have any experience filling the positions of an underground organization that deals exclusively in making monsters come to life – maybe Dr. Black was overqualified compared to everybody else that applied! The effects, blood, and gore…all of this stuff worked out well onscreen and felt like a good fit. Monster-wise, with the controls that the company was looking to instill in their new horrific creation, you might find it to be a lot more logical, reasonable, and self-serving than you might have thought. That doesn’t mean that he’s about to go being charitable or spare the life of anyone that might cross his path, but yeah…you go through a large portion in the middle of “S86” where he ain’t all that bad. And maybe he shouldn’t be, right? It’s the drugs that make him the monster that he is today. Could the look of the monster be a little more intense than it is? I think it’s fair to say yes to that – I dig the way he moves, but in the scenes with natural light, it’s kind of a generic makeup that doesn’t exactly instill a whole lot of fear. Vertz is able to help compensate for that with the way he’s filmed him, but at the same time, a crazier look to go along with his brute strength and quick movements could have gone a long way, too. With about ten minutes to go, you wonder how this movie will find some kind of final resolution that will work strongly enough to be a satisfying ending, which is, of course, a little concerning. I’ll leave you to be the ultimate judge and jury as to whether or not you felt like Vertz & Criscione were able to pull it off. From my perspective, it probably could have used a few more details to keep us fully engaged, or at least would have given “S86” the opportunity to be more memorable than it became. By skipping right through so much at its quick pace at the start, and then slowing down right where you’d figure this movie would find a whole other gear for its intensity, I think it’s fair to question whether or not “S86” found the right balance to get the maximum potential out of its story overall. On the other side of the spectrum, I mean, hey, it’s only making a seventy-minute demand on ya, so to watch a movie like this ends up being pretty easy from the viewer’s side. Sure, we might want a bit more of this or a bit more of that, but in the end, there’s not really a whole lot of time to worry about any of that as you’re watching. Personally, I think the scenes that were more medically and philosophically complex were the parts of “S86” that made the most impact, whereas the scenes with the monster and the bad guys didn’t quite land as concretely as they could have. While it certainly had some visual strengths and good ideas, as well as areas of opportunity that might have missed more than they hit, there are far worse ways for you to spend your time. I’m going with three and a half stars out of five for “S86” – it tells a cohesive tale that feels complete by the end, even if we’d likely want a little more meat between the bread than we get. |
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