Holly

Director - Jason Toth
Release Date - 2015
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Show us on the doll how they killer you"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Snuff films has always mesmerized hardcore horror fans for years.  The thought of actually see a real murder or a death from automobile accident and so forth has been a wet dream for many horror fans with a sick taste for blood.  This has been the subject for several documentaries and films over the years with several filmmakers, mostly in the indie horror scene, trying to recreate what it would look like to see a snuff film.  The most popular of these films is Fred Vogel's August Underground trilogy.  A few days back I saw several horror fans posting pictures of their newest DVD additions and many had the film Holly on DVD.  I was unfamiliar with this film and tried to track it out down.  I was able to find director Jason Toth on Facebook and he was kind enough to send a review copy of the film my way.  Thanks Jason for allowing me a chance to see your short!

     The film follows a young woman who is trying to pick up another girl for a little tongue and coot action when she is kidnapped and brought to her basement.  The other girl has a dedicated girlfriend and is finally sick of her hitting on her so they plan on torturing her for being persistent.  They invite over their male friend to record the entire ordeal.  The start out by verbally assaulting the young woman by taunting her and calling her names.  They then result to physically torturing her while making it a game.  Soon, they realize they went way too far and are forced to kill her and dispose of her body before they are arrested for kidnapping and torturing her.
     A few weeks back I reviewed the now infamous indie horror flick American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore.  The film was an attempt at creating the snuff vibe which they achieved by using various types of cameras.  The film dialed up the gore and delivered a visually disturbing film but it was way too fucking long and I found myself wanting to turn it off.  A movie should never bore the viewer.  Holly was a film I was afraid would bore me as well in a similar manner as AGP but I was very wrong.  The film knew the story was simple and did not drag it out any longer than it had to.  Also, the film is able to capture that shot on video vibe that makes it feel even more like an authentic snuff film.  I had a hard time telling if it was real video or not.  The acting in this one is not that great.  The film is a little one sided with just one actress visible at one time.  She tries her hardest to be convincing but I never got the feeling that she was in jeopardy.  She does a lot of fake crying and not a lot of acting.  This is not her fault because it is hard to try and be convincing when a film is shot as if it is trying to capture that sniff vibe.  The remainder of the cast is only there in voice.  There lines are so absurd that it makes me believe that no actual script was involved.  The dialogue really has no direction and does nothing to further the story along.  Listening to them randomly curse with nothing being said about the plot was actually a bit of a buzzkill.  It almost felt like a bunch of teen girls giggling in a mall.  The story for this one is simple as fuck and effective as hell if you mute the movie.  The film itself flows fairly well and is easy to watch.  The story is simple and the filmmaker does very little to change it.  A lot of these directors that try to make snuff like flicks try to throw something different into the mix which ruins the movie completely.  Toth is not one of those idiots and leaves the story alone.  I really enjoyed the simplicity of this and it worked very well with the grainy video look.  Finally, we only given one kill and that is nothing spectacular.  The kill offers up nothing new nor is it that bloody and gory which is what you would expect from a snuff inspired film.  The effects are minimal in this one as well which is a minor problem but a problem none-the-less.  Overall, Holly is a short snuff inspired film that was actually fun to watch (with the film on mute!).  It offers up nothing new but it does entertain and that is all we can ask for from a movie.  Check this indie flick out!