Upsidedown Cross

Director - William Hellfire (Duck! The Carbine High Massacre, The Duct Tape Killer)
Starring - Erin Russ (Porkchop, The Bunnyman), David Yow (Southbound, Bleed), and Colleen Cohan (The Green Monster, Psycho Street)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Drama
Tagline - "Exploited, Abused, addicted and sick: Nadine Survived the Streets, but can she survive an exorcism"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Writing for Horror Society has brought about so many amazing opportunities over the last few years.  I have met so many amazing people and some of them are behind several distribution companies.  Now I never know what is going to show up in the mail on a day to day basis.  I recently received the film Upsidedown Cross on DVD from my friends over at Alternative Cinema.  I knew nothing about the film but two names really caught my eye.  The first was that it was directed by William Hellfire.  When I was an RA in college a group of us watched Duck: The Carbine High Massacre as part of a training exercise.  The movie was pretty fucking brutal and very realistic.  I soon learned that the director of that film worked on several films with Erin Brown (Misty Mundae).  What a lucky mother fucker.  The second name was Erin Russ who is known as the hottie that fucks Elron the robot in the West Virginia slasher Porkchop.  I knew nothing about this one but I sure was excited to check it out.  

     The film follows Nadine (Russ).  Nadine is a junkie that is living with a man who continues to give her the junk she craves as long as she poses nude for any man willing to pay to take pictures of her.  That is until her little setup is raided by the police.  She gives a detective a handy and he lets her slip out the back without getting arrested.  She goes home to her mother where she learns that she has fallen on hard times and her home has been foreclosed on.  She is still staying there until she is forced to leave.  Nadine decides to stay with her and prepares for the sickness that is sure to follow due to lack of drugs.  Her mother sees an infomercial on demon possession and calls a priest to come in and exorcise the demons from her daughter but Nadine is no simpleton and refuses to give in to the strange man forcing him to torture her in the name of the god.  

     My initial impression of Upsidedown Cross was that it was an extreme horror film that tried to cram "Christianity is bad" down the viewer's throat like so many other flicks before it.  Though I share that sentiment, I'm sick of all these sudden horror flicks doing that.  Instead, the film was one hell of a drama that really pulled me in and refused to let me go.  The acting in this one is a little uneven which threw several scenes off.  David Yow and Colleen Cohan were great.  Yow brought a level of intensity to his performance that will go unmatched for a long time in indie cinema.  He was great and made every scene difficult to look away from.  Cohan is great as a religious fanatic who is stuck in her own ways.  She made a character that was very frustrating to watch and that was the point of her role.  Now, as for Erin Russ.  I was very disappointed in her performance.  Russ brought about a very fun and lovable character in Porkchop and showed she has some amazing talent on screen but her character on Upsidedown Cross came up as flat with her performance.  I feel like this is a waste of her amazing talents and would have loved to see her take on a role with more depth.  The story for this one is fucking fantastic.  The opening following Nadine as she models nude for drugs is greasy and really sets the tone for the film.  The film follows that up with the religious angle and the viewer never truly knows if the priest is actually a priest or not.  He does some questionable things but never breaks character.  I loved that.  Finally, those of you looking for blood and gore will be disappointed in that respect but the film does offer up more story than most indie productions.  Overall, Upsidedown Cross is one brilliant film.  The film is raw and shows just how far people will go to prey on the weak minded that believe in superstitions.  I can not recommend this one enough.  Check it out!