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Released by: Heretic Films
Released on: 9/27/2005
Director: Miguel Coyula
Cast: Adam Plotch, Talia Rubel, Diane Spodarek, Jeff Pucillo, Limor Shopen
Year: 2005
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The Movie:
Set somewhere in an unspecified future where acid rain falls from the sky and strange insects live in the sewers, Red Cockroaches follows the story of a young man named Adam Zarrasky (played by Adam Plotch). On the surface he seems like a normal guy and he's certainly lucky enough to have a cute girlfriend who spoils him rotton, but there's something off about Adam. You see, back when he was younger, he had some problems with his relatives in that, yes, he was taken advantage of.
Cut to the present day, a girl named Lily (Talia Rubel) shows up while Adam is waiting for a train in the subway station. Adam sees in her his dear departed sister and soon his heart starts going pitter patter over her. Soon after, she shows up on his doorstep on night now sporting an odd French accent under the guise of wanting to rent a place to stay from Adam. He's obviously hung up on her already, and he obliges, and soon the two are out in the nearby cemetery getting it on.
The next day, Lily is gone again. Adam doesn't know where she went until he finds out that she's gone to his (read: their) mother's house where she claims to not remember anything from the night before as she seems to suffer from some serious memory loss. She's trying to get back in with the family who thought her lost so long ago, and Adam is hoping to get back into her pants. What Adam doesn't realize though is that there is a lot about Lily that he still doesn't know. Their relationship grows in strange ways, and soon it seems like they're in way deeper with one another than brother and sister really ever should be - as if you didn't already know that.
This is a pretty twisted little low budget movie that unfortunately bites off way more than it can chew. The concept is interesting, if a little sick, and the performances are reasonably well done but where the movie really falls short is in the realm of piss poor digital effects. The CGI inserts in the film are so obvious that they really, really hurt the tone and pace of the film in that whenever you see them, you're instantly sucked out of the strange and twisted story that the filmmaker's are trying to unload on you. If you can get past that and the sickly storyline that I honestly couldn't get my tiny little brain around, you're left with a well made film on a technical level, despite the obvious flaws.
Sadly though, decent cinematography and a few clever camera angles aren't enough to save this one, despite the evidence of some potentional from the film's director. The film was shot for around two grand, and with that in mind they accomplished a lot but maybe they should have set the movie in the present and ditched the science fiction aspects of the movie as they don't go anywhere, and put that money into a better story. I will, however, commend the director for casting real looking people in the lead roles. Not that I necessarily wanted to see the freakishly hair Adam Plotch in his birthday suit but it's a bold move to use people who don't fight the mainstream norm of what an actor or actress should look like. The end result is a messy film that could have at least been interesting and instead ends up smelly slightly pretentious.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The film was shot fullframe and that's just how it's presented on this DVD - in short, the movie looks pretty good. For a film made without a whole lot of money the crew took the time to light things properly and there's some obvious care put into the shot set ups and the cinematography. As far as the transfer goes, compression artifacts are only visible once or twice in a couple of the darker scenes, there aren't any print damage problems, and edge enhancement and line shimmering is kept to a bare minimum. Skin tones look decent, there's a surprsingly level of detail present, and there's not much to really complain about here in terms of presentation.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix has plenty of atmosphere for such an obviously low budget production. While the movie didn't rock my world, I've got to hand it to the filmmakers for making the most out of the limited resources that they had at their disposal as the movie looks and sounds quite decent on this DVD. There's some nice directional change ups, some solid bass in the lower end, and dialogue is always clean and clear and easy to follow.
First up is an audio commentary with director Miguel Coyula who is joined by performers Adam Plotch and Jeff Pucillo. This is a pretty interesting track to listen to and it is dominated by the director who spends a lot of time explaining the casting decisions and why he chose to work with the actors he ended up putting in front of the camera for the movie. He also discusses shot set ups, the use of CGI, and offers plenty of insight into the film itself, explaining some of the more unsual aspects of it. Pucillo is there, but doesn't contribute too much though Plotch is an amusing and interesting particpant, particularly when he discusses his working relationship with his co-star, Talia Rubel.
Up next is a strange black and white short film from Coyula entitled Valvula De Luz. It's a pretty abstract film, more of a series of strange images than an actual narrative story, but it makes for an interesting look as there are some truly odd images contained in its short running time.
Rounding out the extra features are a trailer for the film, a quick six minute look behind the scenes at the making of the film, some storyboards, and a series of deleted scenes and outtakes from the production. There's also a text based biography for Miguel Coyula included in the supplements as well.
The Final Word
Overall? Blech. Red Cockroaches wasn't my thing at all. The DVD looks and sounds okay and the extra features are reasonably interesting but the movie isn't really worthwhile - in fact it's quite tedious.