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Released by: Sub Rosa
Released on: 10/25/2005
Director: Eric Spudic
Cast: Jason Contini, Eric Spudic, William Clifton, Nick Hearne, Rory Stumpf, Linda Webb
Year: 2005
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The Movie:
Eric Spudic has been a presence in the underground/b-movie/indy cinema world for a while now, having been involved in a few notable Sub Rosa releases such as The Undertow and Psycho Santa - and Killers By Nature marks his feature directorial debut.
The premise? Cory Buckner (Jason Contini) and Jeffrey Mordrid (Eric Spudic) are a pair of dorky teenagers who got picked on a lot in school. Since graduating, things haven't gotten a whole lot better for the pair and their lives haven't taken much of an upswing. Cory works a crappy job for little pay while Jeffrey lives at home with mom and spanks it online in his spare time. These guys aren't really shining examples of today's youth, but at the same time, they don't deserve to be the object of ridicule either - after all, life doesn't always deal everyone the same cards.
While sitting around drinking one night, the two guys decide that it's high time they sent a little pay back to the jocks and jerks who used and abused them during their high school years and they set into motion their plan to get revenge. Things start off innocently enough but when their first victim winds up dead in an accident that they could have and should have prevented, they figure why not go all the way and once they get a taste for blood, they find out that they like it. The cops set out to stop them, the city cowers in fear, and Cory and Jeffrey just keep on killing.
Kind of a Columbine High meets Natural Born Killers story, Killers By Nature aspires to be a lot more than it's able to be. Some of the satirical elements are clever enough but unfortunately you can't say the same about the effects or most of the performances. While Spudic and Conini are decent enough in the leads and a supporting role from William Clifton (China White Serpentine) isn't half bad, the rest of the supporting cast members don't fare so well and as enthusiastic as a lot of them appear to be, they just flat out don't work. The fact that there are a few scenes where the generic metal soundtrack overpowers some of the people we're supposed to be listening to doesn't help matters either.
The film isn't completely without merit, however. Killers By Nature actually looks quite good and demonstrates that Spudic has a good eye for composition and a decent feel for editing. Some of the camera work is very professional looking and everything moves along at a good pace - it's just shame that the story weren't more original and that the effects and performances didn't work a little better than they do. That being said, for a movie made by a first time director, it could have been a lot worse. Spudic's got real potential and if he keeps at it the way that he has been for the last few years and is able to look past negative reviews such as this one, he's probably got a solid future in independent film making. The skills are there, they just need some tweaking and fine tuning (and maybe a bit more money to play with) is all.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.33.1 fullframe image is sharp, clean, and quite colorful. For a movie made with next to money and shot on video, there's a pretty decent level of detail present thanks to some fairly professional lighting and camera work. Though there is a bit of mild shimmering present on the picture, there aren't any major problems with mpeg compression artifacts or with edge enhancement, and color reproduction and skin tones look lifelike and natural.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track isn't so hot. The levels fluctuate a fair bit and certain performers in the movie come out way louder than others. The music comes through loud and clear and there are moments where everything is fine but the track flat out lacks consistency and as such, you'll find yourself straining to hear some of the actors and reaching for the remote to turn down others.
The main extra feature on this release is a surprisingly strong and interesting commentary track from writer/director/actor Eric Spudic - the man behind this movie. Never short on words, Spudic explains the origins of the project, where some of his inspiration for the movie came from, and how he put it together. More interesting than that are his thoughts, hints and tips on low budget film making and how to make it happen. While this isn't the most successful project, and he acknowledges a lot of the obvious shortcomings in this track, Spudic has been involved in enough underground cinema to know what he's talking about and this track does afford him the opportunity to prove that to anyone willing to listen. He comes across as sincere, genuine, and intelligent and his take on how to get a movie made and how certain aspects hurt the production at hand here are insightful and well worth listening to.
Rounding out the extra features are a trailer for the movie, trailers for a few other Sub Rosa Extreme releases, a still gallery, and a drinking game option that prompts you to swig during when certain occurrences play out on screen.
The Final Word:
Well Killers By Nature is a technically accomplished film and the commentary is quite interesting, Sub Rosa's DVD suffers from piss-poor sound and the feature itself from a few too many clichés. That being said, the potential is there. Here's hoping it shines through more in Spudic's next project. For a no budget effort, this one has it's moments, just not enough of them.