| The Ungodly | |
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Things are not what they seem and we soon learn that Mickey has been perversely following Jimmy and filming his life and actions. So Mickey begins to blackmail Jimmy into letting him film him for his latest documentary project threatening to leak the footage to the Police if anything happens to him during the filming. But Jimmy is not dumb and what follows is a psychological game of cat and mouse as Mickey and Jimmy try and get one over on each other in order to succeed. And you know that life will not be the same for Mickey ever again. Okay, for the sharp horror fan out there you may already be aware of two excellent films one from Belgium called Man Bites Dog and the other from the UK - The Last Horror Movie that both deal with exactly the same idea that this film from director Thomas C. Dunn does. They are both superior in ever way shape and form to this one. But there is enough here to warrant looking at this and not dismissing it right off the bat. Jimmy appears at first to be a rather simple blue collar killer much like Henry Lee Lucas but we learn he has read William Blake and he offers us the audience the idea that surely he has the right to compassion just like any other human being. It’s this nice idea of a killer arguing about why he became what he is through a process of change, by his parents and by his actions and that he wants Mickey to film and understand him further. This search for the truth leads Mickey to research into Jimmy’s past as Mickey tells him that his mother is dead but he begins to doubt this and wants to learn more. What emerges is a deeper story into the possible creation of a killer from an early age something that similar films have not really pursued and the one thing that makes this film worth checking out. Bentley is suitably dark and brooding here and does well in the role of a troubled man who really should not be so obsessed with this killer as it hints at something inside him that we will probably learn about far before he does. Having not seen Borkowski act previously adds believability to his killer as we do not really know what is going to happen in the story and this works extremely well with Borkowski being charming one minute and deadly the next. In fact the ending is something that was actually surprising about the film and is effective and strangely satisfying. Overall its not original in its story ideas and derivative of other better films, but is well shot using its DV roots well and has enough clever ideas and scares to make this well worth watching at home in the dark. Raing: *** DVD Extras – None – what a treat, not even a trailer, so vanilla it hurts! Extras Rating: ZERO Starring Wes Bentley & Mark Borkowski Directed by Thomas C. Dunn Running time: 96 Mins Cert: 18 Available on DVD now
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Films about serial killers are ten a penny, but good films about serial killers are rare. They can either be as fascinating as the killers themselves or just as boring. This new film arriving straight onto DVD on these shores stars Wes Bentley (American Beauty) as Mickey a struggling filmmaker who one night seems to stumble across an urban killer Jimmy (Mark Borkowski) and films him carrying out a brutal murder. 
