Snuffet

SNUFFET
Writers:Dustin Wayde Mills, Brandon Salkil, Allison Egan
Director:Dustin Wayne Mills
Starring:Brandon Salkil, Janet Jay, Allison Egan
Availability:DVD available at http://dmp.storenvy.com/
Rating:

    Have you ever watched an episode of Sesame Street and felt the world would be a much better place if someone would do something about all those fucking puppets?  Well, Dustin Mills feels the same way, and his new movie explores the hard hitting reality of what life would be like if someone finally put those puppets in their place.  To some, it could be seen as exploitation.  To those of us who harbor a strong resentment towards those cuddly little bastards, it's poetic fucking justice!

    A few years back, I saw my first Dustin Mills flick.  It was a charmingly offbeat little flick called The Puppet Monster Massacre.  Being a huge fan films like Peter Jackson's Meet The Feebles, I was immediately drawn to this flick.  It didn't take long before he became one of the few indie horror directors I followed religiously.  Every film he makes is something unique, and his Crumpleshack Films line is showing him branching out into films that are a lot more dark, demented, and depraved.  Her Name Was Torment was a fascinating piece of extreme, experimental cinema.  Snuffet takes that formula and adds puppets.  The results, needless to say, won't be for everyone, but for folks like me, it's a breath of fresh air.

    Brandon Salkil, yet again, proves why he is the perfect muse for Dustin's strange cinematic universe.  He is absolutely menacing in his role as a man who wants to rid the world of the menace that is puppets.  Janet Jay is equally fantastic as the woman who shares his passions, and wants to join him in his pursuits.  Throw in a porn star by the name of Giggles Mouthworthy (what a name, right?) and you have one of the oddest, most eccentric group of characters you're likely to encounter in a film for quite some time.  These aren't cardboard cut-outs.  These are characters that truly feel alive.  With each film he makes, Dustin's ability with actors proves immensely.  He has found a group of actors willing to "go there," because they believe in his mad, funhouse vision.

    Snuffet is a movie that plays around with structure.  There are moments where it captures the serial killer home movie feel of Fred Vogel's August Underground.  There are also interviews, webcam footage, autopsy footage all coming together to form one of Dustin's most radical experiments yet.  That he is able to juggle all these elements in a way that's not only compelling, but somehow brilliant, is a true testament to the skills that Dustin possesses.  Despite the presence of puppets, the movie never feels lightweight.  It's disturbing, revolting stuff, with just the right balance of genius and madness.  Watching it is an experience that's hard to shake.  This is what underground cinema is all about.  I'm fed up with shock cinema, slasher homages, and all that other rubbish.  This is a movie with some real imagination.  It's a beautiful myriad of haunting images and surrealist perversions.

    In a career that has already carved two bona fide masterpieces with The Ballad Of Skinless Pete and Kill That Bitch, Snuffet definitely fits into the top tier of Dustin's movies.  It's an hour long assault of the senses, including senses you didn't even realize you possessed.  It's fascinatingly strange, dementedly funny, endlessly inventive, and maddeningly brilliant.  It's a film tailor made for those who love their cinema weird, dark, and wonderful.  When you consider that the film was made for a paltry sum of around 500 dollars, you wonder why more people aren't just picking up a camera and following their dreams.  Snuffet's a thing of beauty in a world of tainted mediocrity.

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