Hole In The Wall

HOLE IN THE WALL
Directors: Derrick Carey, Cory J. Udler, Rob Michels, Greg Johnson, Carolyn Baker, Kevin Summerfield/Steve Goltz, Andrew Shearer
Starring: Greg Johnson, Draven Wagner, Rob Michels, Tom Runnings, Judith O'Dea, Heather Dorff, Tom Lodewyck, Matt Kenyon, Alyssa Spangler
Availability: None at the moment
Rating:

    I'm starting to be quite convinced that the folks over in Wisconsin are batshit insane.  I don't know if there's something wrong with the water there, or if the governor has been unleashing poisonous gas into the atmosphere.  Either way, they are nuts.  Derrick Carey is a guy I've been talking to for quite some time on social media.  He turned me on to a movie he was involved with called Swamphead.  This was a true definition of underground cinema.  It was crude, strange, hilarious, and wrong all at the same time.  Needless to say, I loved it.  When he told me I was a handful of people he was trusting with screening Hole In The Wall, I jumped at the first opportunity to upload it all over the internet.

    Hole In The Wall is a strange little anthology made with a certain type of audience in mind.  This isn't the type of film that a typical horror audience is going to know what to do with.  I was asked not to give spoilers, so rather than talk about boring stuff like plot details, I'm just going to try to express in words the "experience" of Hole In The Wall.  Fuck!  Now I'm sounding like one of those pretentious armchair critics with a stick up his ass and shit in his smile.  Scratch the experience bullshit.  I'm just going to talk about the fucking movie, and we'll leave it at that.

    The movie starts with a very Criswell-like opening from the great Andrew Shearer.  We then jump right into the wraparound.  The wraparound comes from the warped imagination of Derrick Carey, and is actually one of the most unique wraparounds I think I've ever seen in an anthology.  (This compliment was paid for by Derrick Carey...check awaiting approval.)  The first wraparound leads into Scumbag, from director/actor Rob Michels.  Holy fuck, this was absolutely vile and repulsive.  I actually found myself laughing hysterically, because I couldn't believe how far Michels took this short.  It's possible he meant for it to be funny, or maybe I just have a depraved sense of humor.  Definitely a highlight, especially if you're one who loves to have the contents of your stomach removed all over the living room floor.

    The next short comes from exploitation wunderkind Cory J. Udler, the wicked cool daddy-o who gave us Mediatrix, the Incest Death Squad films, and The Girl Who Played With The Dead.  His short here is Ed Gein DDS, a wonderfully warped, inventive, and hilarious short that is by far one of my favorites.  Cory never ceases to amaze me with his originality of vision, and while Ed Gein DDS may lack the depth and gravitas of his earlier work, it still shows that he's a force to be reckoned with in the indie film world.

    The next short is Last Dance from Greg Johnson.  It's probably one of the sillier shorts of the bunch, but still good for a laugh.  The last two shorts are where things take a turn for the surreal and artistic.  Carolyn Baker's short Siren might be my favorite short in the bunch.  It was beautiful and stylish, surreal and cerebral.  I've never seen any of the films the Screaming Like Banshees team has done before, but when I see a film like this, it makes me want to remedy that real quick.  Powerful stuff for sure.

    This leads us into Derrick Carey's second contribution (aside from the wraparounds), Our Song Is My Blade.  I didn't know Derrick had something like this in him.  Taking a page from E. Elias Merhige's Begotten, it was definitely the most experimental of the bunch, and was the perfect short to close the film on.  I hope Derrick directs more often, because I was blown away by Our Song Is My Blade.  It was a real piece of bravura film making from a man who has a real love for the medium.  Fantastic stuff.  There is a post credit short from Slasher Studios.  To be honest, I found it sort of stupid, so I'm not really going to talk much more about it.

    Hole In The Wall is exactly the sort of thing I look for in an anthology.  You have several unique, original, gifted voices joining forces to create a film that, while showcasing their individual talents, still feels like a cohesive film.  These films belong together.  You have something for everyone here.  You have a little John Waters, a little HG Lewis, some Lynchian surrealism, but all infused with that Wisconsin personality.  This isn't a film that dares to be perfect.  It's a film that dares to be different.  It doesn't want to entertain the masses.  It wants to speak to the weirdos like us who not only embrace high art, but also appreciate the beauty of trash culture.  Try shaking this film from your memory, and you will find a barrage of fantastic images that will inevitably stay with you for years to come.  This was a truly one of a kind achievement in underground cinema, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

    Until next time, my fellow freaks and weirdos...