Gut (2013)

Gut (2012)
Directed by:  Elias
Starring:  Jason Vail, Nicholas Wilder, Sarah Schoofs
Genre:  Psychological Horror
Format:  NTSC 1 Private Collection

     Yet another fine example of independent filmmaking at it's best.  Gut focuses on Tom (Vail) and Dan (Wilder) two friends who grew up together having fun watching horror films.  Tom grew up, got married, and has a young daughter.  Dan however has not really grown up and has no life or family of his own and of course he expects Tom to come out and have fun on a regular basis as the two used to do back in the day.  Who hasn't had this problem with one friend or another from either side of the equation.  Me, I've been on both sides so right away the film identifies with a common issue for most of our daily lives.  Always a big plus when the viewer can immediately identify with the characters in the film they are watching.  Now the movie does not just start out introducing our two main

characters, it starts out in the middle of a kill scene involving Tom and an unknown victim which leaves a lot open as to number one who is being killed and number two why?  Bang!  Shoot to a warm scene with Tom's family sitting at the kitchen table.  It's obvious from the get go Tom has a very loving and happy family.  No problems but then your mind turns back to what you just saw at the beginning of the film.  Tom strangling some mystery person with some blood spatter on his head and clothes.

     Then we switch to the office where he and Dan are laughing and carrying on about different films they've seen.  Tom mostly is just laughing at Dan who in the end is a little irritated that Tom won't come out and watch horror films all night with him.  Dan keeps referring to Tom's balls being taken away, I was in stitches for a bit at this point. I must say the dialogue in this movie is very believable yet another problem with a lot of the underground/independent films I've seen is a lack of good writing.  Most especially dialogue, hell even Hollywood blockbusters fail in this arena half the time, Transformers anyone?  Oh wait nevermind that's a Michael Bay film what can I expect. 

   Anyway Gut is a psychological journey from sanity to insanity and to compare it to any film it for me would have to be one of my top favorites Repulsion.  Repulsion deals with a similar plot line of the main protagonist slowly going crazy from the film's beginning to the film's end.  Although in this one we basically have two main characters instead of one and they aren't stuck in one apartment the whole film.  I don't know I just kept thinking of Repulsion while I was watching and that my friends in my book is a huge compliment to the filmmaker. 
     Jason Vail is an exceptional actor and Nicholas Wilder didn't do a half bad job either.  Yet another great example of a director who knows what he wants and how to get it from his actors.  Even the waitresses in the coffee shop the boys frequent were so good at nailing the smart ass teen aged snide that comes with a lot of waitresses I've had in my life.  Again the writing here Elias knows just how to bring his actors and actresses down to earth. 
     Without entering into a lot of spoilers for the movie I will go on to say the two friends become addicted to watching an underground copy of what at first they assume is a fake sort of snuff film of a woman bound to a table and having her mid section sliced and guts pulled out.  That's what they assumed...that it was fake.  After watching the short snuff movies Tom especially begins to have nightmares and see strange things.  Paranoia sets in and soon it becomes clearer that the girls in the so-called movie are not in a movie after all and may just be a live video of someone murdering young women over and over.  Dan becomes completely obsessed with the videos and won't leave Tom alone about it.  Eventually people in their lives start to disappear and both our friends are spiraling out of control.  Are one of them the murderer or is it some crazy out there on the net?  I mean it's obvious from the start that Tom is a killer but who was he killing and again why?  Highly recommended independent film by Elias Ganster.