Gothkill (2009)

Touches You

the audience applauded

As Good As It Gets

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I'm sure this was a lot of fun to make and the people involved probably got a kick out of watching the finished production, but the rest of us could do with a warning up front: this is not even a 'B' movie.This really is the kind of quality I associate with a decent high school production. Not a GOOD high school production, mind you .. just decent. It was extremely poorly acted with very amateur equipment and little attention to quality.I watched it expecting to be entertained by a campy plot and a little action .. some blood, gore, and nudity hopefully .. but even those were in short supply.Unless you're obsessed with the goth / metal-head subculture (or whatever), don't even watch this to satisfy your curiosity.

"Gothkill" is not an especially great movie, but it is a fun movie. A campy, shoestring-budget, shot-on-video horror flick produced by the previously-unknown (at least by me) Wild Eye Studios, "Gothkill" stars a cast of New York City-based unknowns headed by an underground pyrotechnician/performance artist known only as "Flambeaux." A short cameo appearance by FUSE-TV's metal hostess, Julia Chernetsky (a.k.a. "Mistress Juliya") in a leather bikini will provide "Gothkill's" drawing card for the metalhead population."Gothkill" has a great tag line ("It's Open Season on Goth Kids!") and the DVD has impressive cover artwork. Once you crack open the package, though, things get a little bit rougher than expected. Put it to you this way...I've seen better but I've also seen a hell (pun intended) of a lot worse! Our story: Back in the days of the Inquisition, Dread (Flambeaux)was a Priest who came to the realization that people were being burned at the stake for Witchcraft merely because the Church wanted to claim their land and fortunes for itself. Naturally he is quickly proclaimed a heretic and put to the stake himself in order to keep him quiet; luckily before expiring he manages to make a last minute deal with Satan to serve him instead. He spends the next couple of centuries collecting 100,000 souls for Lucifer, in anticipation of receiving his own Kingdom in Hell when he's fulfilled his end of the deal. Captured and executed in present day New York City once he reaches his murder quota, Dread awakens in the afterlife to find himself not in a Kingdom, but alone in a dark netherworld. Needless to say, he's ticked off and swears vengeance, once he finds the way out of Hell.His escape route comes in the form of our two protagonists, youthful Annie and her cousin Kate, who have just moved into an apartment together in New York City. Annie is about to begin college and her older cousin is more than ready to introduce her to NYC's thriving underground "Goth" subculture. While getting outfitted in proper leatherwear at the local Goth store, they are invited to a party thrown by the "Scorpion Society," who are apparently the coolest Goth group in the city. At the Scorpion party the innocent Annie is exposed to techno music, guys dressed as vampires, hot half-dressed chicks gyrating around in leather gear, and all the stereotypical "goth" stuff you see in Marilyn Manson videos. The pasty-faced group's leader announces that the girls have arrived just in time for a "special ceremony" which turns out to involve date rape drugs. Once Annie and Kate are passed out he reads from a spell book which unfortunately brings Mr. Dread back from the dead and taking over Annie's unconscious body. Now unleashed on Earth again, Dread/Annie delivers a hilarious soliloquy berating the Goths for being posers who don't know what "real evil" is before going on a comical killing spree, dispatching everyone in the club in loving (low budget) bloody detail and finally gaining the souls he needs for his private Hell Kingdom. The final scene, showing Dread on a throne lording over the writhing, tortured bodies of the Goths against a cheap computer generated flaming background is worth the rental price all by itself.In a nutshell, "Gothkill" has plenty of boobs and blood (none of the boobs are Ms. Chernetsky's, unfortunately; if they were my rating would go up an extra star) in its short running time (75 minutes) so if that's your bag, then feel free to rent this one. Flambeaux's performance as Dread is an absolute hoot to watch and he obviously had a lot of fun with his over-the-top role, which is a good thing, as the rest of the cast are less than professional caliber. Director J.J. Connelly squeezes the most that he can get out of his micro-budget, with some nice scenes shot on the seamier side of NYC. If you've ever looked down upon those snotty, pasty faced Goth kiddies hanging around the food court at the Mall and wished they'd get some comeuppance, "Gothkill" should satisfy. This is the kind of thing that could become a cult horror/comedy in years to come, but lovers of more serious horror will probably want to pass on it.

Catholic priest and Inquisitor Nick Dread (marvelously essayed with deliciously lip-smacking gusto by Flambeaux) renounces his faith in God and vows to serve Satan instead when he gets burned at the stake for trying to expose the church's true reasons for persecuting and executing witches. Dread proceeds to murder 100,000 people throughout the centuries for Beezlebub, but still gets betrayed by the Devil and consigned to his own nothing corner of Hades. Fortunately, the local New York City Goth vampire group the Scorpion Society hold a ceremony which conjures forth Nick's angry and lethal spirit from the great beyond. Nick possesses the body of sweet college student Annie (an appealing performance by the pretty Erica Giovinazzo) and opens up a king-sized barrel of ferocious cackling butchery on the wholly deserving poser Goth crowd.Do-It-Yourself indie writer/director JJ Connelly has a grand time joyfully mocking the inherent ridiculousness of the whole obnoxiously arch and trendy Big Apple Goth underground scene in this nifty little low-budget fright feature. Connelly pours on the expected tasty female nudity, brutal torture, and excessive over-the-top splatter (blood spurts and squirts all over the place with crazed abandon) by the pleasingly plentiful bucketful. Moreover, Connelly even tosses in a hysterical martial arts fight for good measure. The cast have an absolute ball with their parts. Scottish-accented Flambeaux really sinks his teeth into the role of the delightfully diabolical Dread, tossing off sardonic quips and killing folks with infectiously deranged brio ("You people want to see something evil? I'll show you *beep*ing evil!"). Giovinazzo likewise impresses as Annie, showing real range as both an endearingly naive innocent and a fabulously wicked murderess. Eve Blackwater is solid and likable as Annie's hip and loyal best gal pal Kate. Michael Day amuses as the extremely pompous and dandyish Scorpion Society leader Lord Walechia. Luscious brunette stunner Juliya Chernetsky burns up the screen as an enticing demonatrix. Of course, the ladies are all insanely hot and a few of them show off their lovely naked bodies. The climactic sequence set in a fiery hell full of moaning and miserable writhing souls totally smokes. Kudos are also in order for the polished cinematography by Jarrod Kloiber, which gives the picture a cool slick look. Lyris Hung's roaring score set to a pulsating electronic beat totally rocks as well. All in all, this flick sizes up as an immensely entertaining tongue-in-cheek horror blast.