Art of a Hit

Art-of-a-Hit
Art of a Hit

Coming up with one hit album is already a big problem but coming up with the second one is more difficult than the first. And as the movie Art of a Hit continues, the band Excelsis realizes just how hard it is. In the ’90s, they enjoyed their fame after recording their first album, and it was after leaving that their lead Miles, played by Rob Raco from A Beauty & The Beast Christmas and The Breakfast Club Live, they never managed to return to this height again.

Eight years have passed since then, and in 2003 Ryan Donowho from Soldiers of Fortune teamed up with the rest of the band, Cristin, played by Allie MacDonald from Pacific Rim: The Black, Mat played by James Earl from The Belko Experiment, Timmy portrayed by Tim Jo from Division 19, and miles’s replacement David, to try once more to reach the zenith that like, they were once at. But it seems that Michael and Gary had quite a few disagreements before making it to the studio and those arguments had more than just some heated comments.

Coincidentally, the studio they will be using is in a castle located in Dordogne, France, owned by the reclusive producer and author of the book Art of a Hit, Charlie Dupont (Charlie Saxton, The English Teacher, and Betas) who will be working on their record album. This might be a dream, but as this is a horror film, it is reasonable to assume that this will end in a catastrophe, something that the first encounters between David and the members of the band would tend to confirm.

Now, it should be noted that horror films with a musical element started in the era of The Phantom of the Opera, and the storylines involving old rock bands seeking to regain their former glory are rather verbose. We have even had our share of their reviewing including the Dark Roads 79 and Archons which also has the newcomer Rob Raco. There are more drama and comedy films on the subject. For director Gaelan Connell (Streamer Stalker, Blood, Sand and Gold) and Charlie Saxton who acted and wrote the screenplay with the rest of the cast, the challenge was to try and be unique in the saturated market.

Setting the movie in the castle works from an aesthetic standpoint as well as it provides a perfect environment for a horror movie. However, quite a bit of the writer’s block-suffering band members ring a bell the latest being whether it makes sense to go for broke and attempt to make an album that will be played on the radio, or David’s attitude that he is not devoted to the group as he considers it just another job in his career path.

Additionally, in the script, Charlie has some interesting inconsistencies, one of which has him leading a band in self-healing exercises to the point that they became overly excited about hammers and other techniques to justify the existence of a medieval weapon, and how to make them. But then it goes back to clichés such as his trademark glasses, worn even indoors and at night, and indeed, why didn’t he have the band cover Corey Hart’s Sunglasses at Night?

The overarching band turmoil and tribulations leave Art of a Hit forgetting the fact that the focus of this film is horror as well. At some points within the first few hours, there is a scene where Ryan appears to hear some odd sound and one where he insists he witnessed Miles. Is it anxiety, or the other world? Joe Simon the Director of Photography (Omar, and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, The Get Together) manages to exploit the location; the shots in the sequence were supposed to be chilling, with no ending however it becomes pointless drama.

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