Make Out With Violence

Directors:  The Deagol Brothers

I really wanted to like this movie.  The concept is just so original.  A surreal, genre crossing story focusing on twin brothers Patrick and Carol Darling and their circle during their summer after high school that deals with last chance crushes, future uncertainties, and the disappearance of their friend, sweet, beautiful Wendy Hearst. The twist comes when on a drive through the countryside they find Wendy, dead but inexplicably reanimated.  They sneak her back to an empty house and over the course of the summer Patrick, who had a deep unrequited love for her, becomes obsessed with taking care of her and bringing her back from full-on zombie to some semblance of life while Carol pursues her best friend. 

The concept has the potential to be something really powerful with a “Heathers” or “River’s Edge” flair, especially if the entire group of teens had found out about her sooner and we had seen how each dealt with the situation of not wanting to fully let her go.  There’s a great movie there.  This just wasn’t quite it.  Though stylistic and different, it was long, boring at times, without much suspense, pacing, or interesting dialogue.  The characters were unique though, just like the premise.  Re-shot with consistently better sound, a rewritten script with better pacing that ties the separate storylines together more, and several of the roles recast, you’d have a winner.  There is a great movie to be made from this concept, and I’d really like to see it.

Lucy Cruell