Nutbag

Released by: Fright Flix
Released on: N/A
Director: Nick Palumbo
Cast: Mack Hail, Rennee Sloan, Alicia Murphey, Jessie DeRoock, Carrie McKinney, Davia Ardell
Year: 2000
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The Movie:

In Nick Palumbo's feature debut, Mack Hail (who would later direct and star in Mr. Ice Cream Man, not to be confused with the similarlily titled Clint Howard masterpiece) plays a nameless maniac who, as maniacs are prone to be, is a few sandwiches short of a picknick. He lives alone with his pet tarantula, who he talks to quite often, and is surrounded by filthy adult magazines. The prostitutes that roam the streets of the Las Vegas he calls home repulse him and this overwhelming sense of uncleanliness finally causes him to snap, at which point, much like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, he decides to clean up the city his own way. Unfortunately for the ladies of the evening who prove to be pretty easy to obtain, his way happens to involve a very sharp knife and a lot of yelling and screaming.

Nutbag doesn't have much of an actual storyline beyond what's written above, but there is enough going on to keep it interesting despite some rather obvious flaws. The basic premise of the film isn't so much what happens but lies more along the lines of how and why it happens and in that sense, Palumbo attempts to get the viewer into Hail's mind as he slaughters his way through sin city. A lot of how this happens is through the expository dialogue that, oddly enough, takes place between the killer and his spider, and through a few flashbacks that show us what a horrible childhood he had, how he found his father dead after he committed suicide, and we see the results of this in his interaction with Mandy (Renee Sloan, who Palumbo would use again as a hooker in Murder Set Pieces), the pretty girl who lives next door to him. This serves to give us some basic reasoning as to why he is the way he is and while it hardly justifies the atrocities that he commits, in a sense, he is a product of his environment and his upbringing.

With his origins explained, Palumbo then shows us exactly what this character is capable of. While there are certainly gorier films out there, Nutbag spends a fair bit of screen time detailing the kill scenes and it borders on the sensationalist in that regard. Much like Palumbo's follow up film, the nortorious Murder Set Pieces, the cutting up and disposing of the victims takes center stage in the film. Though the movie was made without the backing of a major studio and on a pretty low budget over two months, the gore effects on display in the movie are definitely better than your average independent shot on video slasher film (they seem to be a dime a dozen, really) and this, along with aspects of Hail's performance, are what makes the movie worthwhile.

Hail throws himself into the role completely and without restraint and this proves to be both a blessing and a curse. Much like Svet Garrett in Murder Set Pieces, Hail proves to be an imposing force when the rage takes him over and he is actively involved in committing the deadliest of sins. He has a primal presence on screen during these moments and when the blood is flowing and his anger is searing he's impressive in his performance. On the opposite side of the spectrum, he suffers from the same flaw that Garrett showed in the later film and that is that he has trouble with the down time. The character development, which is minor at best in this film, doesn't flow as well as one might hope for, a curse which hurts a lot of low budget movies that aren't always working with seasoned professionals. Most of the time, however, is spent in the throws of murder so in that regard, Hail gets more right than wrong here, and in terms of the bigger picture he works well within the confines of the script.

From a purely visual standpoint, Nutbag looks quite good. Filmed entirely on location in Vegas in and around the strip and the old Fremont strip, there's plenty of glitz and glamor contrasted with the seedier side of life in the big city. Palumbo's camera captures the lights and the colors well, but doesn't shy away from the ugliness that lies under the glossy surface either. In terms of compositions there are some striking images here in both the cityscape scenes and the kill scenes as well. Although it might have been done as a cost cutting measure to save on effects expenses, the elevator scene (in which we see a woman get inside with Hail, then the door closes, only to open again seconds later revealing her mutilated corpse) is quite stirring even if you can see it coming from a mile away once it happens.

Video/Audio/Extras:

You know what? For a movie that was shot on video for no money, Nutbag looks surprisingly good on DVD. There aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts and only slight edge enhancement and line shimmering issues. The colors are bold and bright on the 1.33.1 fullframe transfer (which retains the movie's original aspect ratio) and the blacks are pretty strong as well. Some of the usual issues that crop up on shot on video presentations are here as well, such as some mild softness and lack of truly fine detail in a couple of scenes, but for the most part Nutbag looks a lot better than this reviewer expected it to.

The English language Dolby Digital Stereo mix is quite capable of handling whatever the movie throws at it. There are a few spots where the levels go off just a tad but other than that, dialogue stays clean and clear and there aren't any problems with hiss or distortion to complain about. Everything sounds fine here.


Well, the menu design is kind of odd for this release. Rather than have a chapter selection menu, the chapters are right here on the main page and spread out over three screens in total with the first page providing a 'trailers' link that brings you to both an R-Rated and Un-Rated trailer for Nutbag. That's all she wrote in terms of supplements. A documentary or commentary would have been nice…


The Final Word:

Despite its flaws, Nutbag is a decent low budget debut that manages to exploit some effective murder set pieces (ironic, huh?) and some disturbing imagery to reasonably good effect. The plot meanders and the character development is certainly weak in spots but the film is worth seeing for those into slasher/serial killer movies as it certainly delivers on that level.