The Scarlet Worm (2011)

Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A middle-aged hired gun named Print (Aaron Stielstra) is obsessed with having style and poetry to his assassinations. He has been working with loyalty for his boss, Mr. Paul (Montgomery Ford), for years. But his latest assignment - the killing of a brothel owner (Dan van Husen) who mandates cruel abortions on his whores - presents two challenges. He must train a young understudy during the assignment, and he's been told to pull off the killing "quick and dirty" -- which may not leave time for Print's usual, obsessively imaginative methods.OK firstly, the only reviews for this movie are stellar. Guess what that means? They are written by shills who worked on the film.This move is absolutely horrible. Laboriously directed and no acting and poor writing. The hookers are hideous.Stay away.

1909. Philosophical middle-aged dandy assassin Print (a terrific performance by Aaron Stielstra) gets assigned by his boss Mr. Paul (Brett Halsey in fine form) to kill wicked, yet scrupulous brothel owner Heinrich Kley (superbly played with chilling calm by Dan van Husen), who regularly performs abortions on his whores whenever they get impregnated. Moreover, Print has to show crude novice Lee (well played with scruffy conviction by Derek Hertig) the ropes. As the unusual premise alone suggests, this is anything but your standard shoot 'em up oater. Those expecting a clear-cut delineation between the good boys and the bad guys will be sorely disappointed; instead we get several fascinatingly complex and flawed individuals who aren't exactly endearing (Lee in particular at first is pretty odious and unlikable while Kley isn't entirely hateful because of his strongly felt religious beliefs and stance that his brothel serves a useful purpose for the community at large), but manage to be interesting just the same. In addition, the turn of the century old west shown here is an extremely harsh and grimy place. Director Michael Fredianell's brings a dazzling cinematic style and a fiercely uncompromising gritty sensibility to the dark material while David Lambert's bold and edgy script offers an intelligent and idiosyncratic meditation on style, manners, and morality. Granted, the expected shoot outs are bloody as all hell and staged with real rip-roaring brio, plus there's a handy helping of inevitable nudity from the prostitutes at the bordello, but it's the way this picture subverts basic genre conventions and squeezes a maximum amount of surprisingly polished production value from its modest budget that in turn gives it extra substance and resonance. Further enhanced by Stielstra's moody eclectic score and Michael A. Martinez's striking cinematography, this film overall rates as one powerful and provocative pip.

The Scarlet Worm: Finally! Wild Dogs in mass-release! Longtime fans had a lot to get salivating over: Fredianelli free from starring and cinematography and able to focus on directing, Lambert writing (after his wildly successful two previous outings with Fredianelli), Stielstra starring, special guest stars, and a solid, sordid grindhouse set-up. Everything was in the right place, but with all of these elements, the final product ends up feeling a bit too restrained, a bit too tame to live up to its premise and the promise of all involved. If the earlier Fredianelli efforts sometimes felt a bit slapped-together or a bit rough around the edges, this effort feels a bit too pretty and concerned with professionalism (a gambit that seems to have paid off in some ways). A perfect point of comparison is A Habitation of Devils, Lambert's previous collaboration with Fredianelli. That movie is super rough around the edges, with a script that barely manages to bounce between generic stereotypes and digital video cinematography sometimes so underlit to the point of indiscernibility. However, it manages these hiccups due to a sense of what, for lack of better terms, I'll call "going for it." This same "going for it" mentality is all over other WD pics like The Minstrel Killer and even the recent Apocrypha. Why then does even Stielstra, normally a maniac when facing the camera, play it so cool? Why can't the genre kings (Fredianelli and Lambert) deliver on some of their promises? Why does Print have a reputation for being such a dirty bastard and such a merciless killer but never show us why? Why can't we see what makes his work such poetry to him (as he says over and over and over again)? Even the flick's abortion subtext feels pretty inoffensive and tame (unexpected, consider the distributor Unearthed Films, generally known for stuff like the Guinea Pig and Slaughtered Vomit Dolls). Money was well-placed to grab Dan van Husen, who provides most of the flick's best scenes, but even his work and the (as- expected) excellent shoot-outs feel bogged down by a laborious execution of the basic genre steps. There is a nice father-son dynamic between van Husen and Stielstra, but even that seems to too frequently be displaced in favor of other beats and concerns. I wanted to love this one so much, but in the end, I just can't find as much to love about it as in the cast and crew's other various projects.

Kind of surprised this film (despite being well regarded by critics) holds only a 4.1 rating on this site (as of today). Even though it is so far the only film of Michael Fredianelli's to receive a really wide DVD and Blu-ray release, such is a bit odd given this film is easily Fredianelli's most accomplished and (all around) best film to date. This is a movie that despite being made on a meager budget stands as perhaps one of the best Westerns of the last 12 years or so. It is gritty, violent, and hearkens back to (and was clearly influenced by) some of the genre's best entries in the 1960s and 70s.One critic described this film as a cross between Terence Malick and Sam Peckinpah and they are largely right. Nevertheless the film is quite unique and is perhaps the first Western to deal with abortion. That said, this subject matter is not all that central (the movie just happens to represent it as a reality) and the film doesn't play politics at all or resort to being a message film because this subject is explored. Aside from examining this topic, the film manages to feel fresh and unique all around (even if it's just because films, particularly Westerns, just aren't made like this anymore).David Lambert penned the script for this film and shows great skill paying particular attention to the period in which the film takes place. His characters are interesting and well fleshed out and Print (the lead character) in particular is an extremely memorable protagonist. Actor Aaron Stielstra shines in his portrayal of Print who is a middle-aged gunman; a dandy who has a knack for poetry and a penchant for religion. It's really difficult to compare Print to any other Western protagonist, but Stielstra's character lands right up there with being as interesting and and as memorable as some of the icons of the genre. The rest of the cast is for the most part also spot-on in their performances with veteran actors like Dan van Husen and Brett Halsey making nice additions to the cast. While a Spaghetti Western influence isn't quite apparent, fans of the sub-genre will no doubt recognize these two along with cameos from actors/dubbers Michael Forest and Ted Rusoff.Director Fredianelli and cinematographer Michael A. Martinez craft a great looking film with some truly well crafted scenes and shots. Fredianelli proves to be a highly skilled director especially with the larger budget he has here (although still pretty meager by most standards) and really shines through this work. Set-pieces are abound and many of the shootouts that take place are thrilling and tense. If Fredianelli continues to make films on this level (which I hope he does), he will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with in the film world.THE SCARLET WORM stands as a fine film that fans of Westerns or tough-guy genre and action films in general should find thoroughly enjoyable. Highly Recommended.