Directed by Tyler MacIntyre and starring Tory Stolper, Tracey Fairaway, and Maria Blasucci, “Patchwork” is a throwback horror movie in a class by itself. Together with his partner Chris Lee Hill, MacIntyre notched another win since recent films such as “Beyond the Gates” and “The Void” seem forced while trying to capture the nostalgia of eighties cult horror. Drill and Kill, his latest film, pull off something no other production has managed in the last few years – nail the aesthetic of the golden age of cinema perfectly. It’s not perfect but it never set out to be. And that is more than enough for this generation of film lovers.
The plot focuses on a mad scientist who has sewn together three murdered women and transformed them into a single, life-sized Frankenstein monster, thus bringing them back to life. The movie is separated into different chapters which dive deeper into the woman’s different life’s tales and sets it up for the predicament they are in. In a cool twist, the three women are depicted as existing inside the mind of the creature and they decide to band together in order to track down their killer and make them suffer the same fate which was inflicted upon them.
I was initially drawn to the movie because of its gimmick of having all the three women represented as different personas in a single body and I was totally impressed by how well Tyler MacIntyre was capable of pulling this off. The various ways he works this into the movie were more numerous, and often savvy relative to the budget of this production. The tight direction this film was guided with allowed it to coast along at a speed that was always high, and kept me absorbed from the azz backwards opening all the way till the last crazy blood filled actions scene.
Similarly, it is impressive to watch him capture such subtle details in the different parts. I was stunned that he managed to execute such a bizarre idea where, with a more mediocre director, there would have been complete chaos. Bravo Mr. MacIntyre, bravo.
The acting is superb from nearly everyone, but the lead actress Tory Stolper does deserve accolades. Her portrayal of the creature has to be one of the best indie film horror performances I have witnessed this year. From wildly animated facial expressions to extremely effective physical comedy, she brings to life the titular creation. She did a superb job, and I can only imagine how difficult this transformation must have been for her. For their part actresses Tracey Fairaway and Maria Blasucci do a good job and keep pace with Stolper. The four of them combine to balance the pieces of this film which are otherwise precariously held together. If I had to pick a weak performance, however minor it may be, it would be James Phelps from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He occasionally has a wooden delivery of his lines, and its peculiar how he chooses to deliver his dialog which can be distracting. Yet he has some of the films funniest lines, so even with a wobbly performance, he makes an impression.
I’m now getting to the part of the review that I believe goes into the most interesting details of the movie. Some reviewers have said that this movie is “obviously” a tribute to Frankenhooker (which it really is not) and Re-Animator. My feeling is that people missed something very fundamental about this project. Yes, it pays homage to Re-Animator, but I am almost 100% confident that this is the fourth movie in that franchise! If you are okay with the spoilers allow me to make my argument.
For starters the film cold starts with the insane scientist addressing the decapitated head of one of the women. The head is sitting on a waffle tray and reminds one of the first Re-Animator movie. He then goes on to animate the creature using the glowing green re-agent from that series. After that, we cut to an animated title sequence with music and credits that are more or less identical to Re-Animator. That is to say there is a cold open followed by an animated title sequence, the latter is used in all Re-Animator films.
The eccentric researcher is also a great hint. The filmmakers were careful that the character’s name was never revealed. Even if we catch glimpses of a commercial of his medical practice and one character visits him in a flashback, his name is never mentioned. He also somewhat elliptically refers to a father-son relationship where the father has expectations to prove something during the successful experiments. The fact that he possesses the re-agent, together with some of his personal characteristics, shouts that this guy may be the son of Dr. Herbert West. He even has an owl-cat hybrid thing he created which is a throwback to Dr. West’s wild experiments in Bride of Re-Animator.
The final piece of evidence is the conclusion. Every Re-Animator movie ends in a crazy fight between the protagonists and a bunch of corpses reanimated by the mad doctor. This film does as well. It is also important to point out that in every movie, the mad scientist survives and this one is no exception. They even succeed to incorporate, in the last frame and without messing the shot, another major plot element from every other film in the series that the protagonist’s love interest gets killed and then resurrected.
Categorically, there is much more context which changes this from an homage or a copy and this is simply the tip of the iceberg. This is an invention that seeks to mask the effort to create a Re-Animator film within its textures without actually uttering the name that’s clever. One can hope this “audition” pits Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Lee Hill at the threshold for approval. Let us hope some draft pages for what I presume will be titled “Re-Animator And His Sons” are in preparation. Hollywood, do your thing! *Spoilers*
As a final point, I find that no words and no praises are enough to describe this film. Without a shadow of a doubt, it is at the top, if not the very top of my favorite horror films I’ve seen this year. It is weird in an appealing way, funny and terrible at the same time, but most importantly it’s fun. horror movies must see or even better, add this one to whatever you are doing and watch it. I mean it. Look, right now. Strictly speaking, is good.
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