Sutures

It never ceases to amaze me just how far American horror as fallen as a film genre. It has declined from a once proud type of movie capable of playing on the deep seated psychological fears of the audience providing s fright that remained long after the theater lights went up. Now, unfortunately, we are in the age of mindless torture as the foundation for most flicks of this type. Mindless carnage depicted by gallon after gallon of fake blood and guts often accompanied by as much gratuitous nudity as possible has become the standard formula for horror. Boiler plate scripts and cardboard acting has become the norm. When I sat down to watch one of the latest horror movies released by MTI Home Video. ‘Sutures’, I thought that this would fall squarely within that lamentable category. While not up to the lauded stands of horror film’s golden age I was pleasantly surprised that ‘Sutures’ was better constructed and presented that most independent horror movies I have encountered lately. It is not a matter of a vast deviation from currently accepted formula but more a matter of degree. In fact if dissected casually on paper this film would hit practically every element required by a slasher flick. The difference lays in the details of hoe those various components are blended together. It took a second viewing for me to fully appreciate this fact but once I did I had to reevaluate my reaction to this film. There was something different that began to emerge from the production that I haven’t seen in the genre for quite some time; sufficient dedication to the craft to make an honest attempt at a good solid film. There are flaws here and some pandering to the baser elements of the type but the overall sense that is conveyed are the people involved in this production made the effort to try something off the beaten track.

This is an initial opus for screen writers Brian Moon and Carlos Lauchu, the later also producing and staring in this film. The story is much more textured and complex than your usual teen romp blood bath flick. While there is a degree of both gory effects and sexuality contained here such aspects of the movie are not as all pervading ass they are in the usual movie of this sort. As similar observation holds for the director, Tammi Sutton. Her only previous work was a minor league horror sequel both this movie demonstrates a lot of potential in both writing and directorial style that remains to be tapped. The first indication of the different path is the fundamental format of the storytelling. A young woman, Sienna (Allison Lange) is found wondering along a road. She is badly cut and battered taken to a hospital. Much of the story is related as part of an interview by police detective Zane (Jason London). While flashbacks can frequently become extremely tedious the fashion they are handled here managed to pull you in and keep you interested. Rather than having the core set of victims are not spring break bound college kids; they are medical students on a little getaway. Again this is a minor change but it does provide a fresh spin. The small group is composed along standard lines with the fun loving Ben (C.J. Thomason), quiet guy Jason (Nick Holmes), busty Shannon (Kate French), and African American Scott (B.J. Britt) and his girlfriend Kristen (Azie Tesfai). Naturally that puts Sienna in the role of the straight forward, dedicated member of the troupe.

Following closely behind their SUV is a dark figure, Alexander (Carlos Lauchu); as he stops following the he stops for a cigarette, his black hair falling in his face we get to see the origins of this creepy figure as his flashbacks recount an abusive past. Rather than having some supernatural creature mindlessly killing everyone in sight this story utilizes a much more frightening villain; an insane surgeon with plenty of sharp instruments and little in the way of conscience, Dr. Hopkins (Andrew Prine). I have been a fan of Mr., Prine for a long time enjoying him in creepy roles ever since my wife and I saw him in l little TV movie, ‘Mind over Murder’ back in 1979. There he told a young woman he was going to rape and kill her and had no preference as to the order of events. Prine takes his performance up a few melodramatics notches up from that here as a doctor with a knack for surgical perfection and a side business of selling the freshest human spare parts in the world. His product is much better that those harvested by hospitals since he takes them from still living donors without the polluting factor of anesthesia. Of course this does mean he has to be more proactive in obtaining the donors but then again there is no need for all that messy paperwork. He is giving back by also using his covert medical facility to train the next generation of psycho-killer doctors. Why wait for massive trauma to happen by accident when you can inflict it on demand with those kidnap victims not suitable for the transplant donation room. The storyline does get too crowded when the writers heap on to all this the plot device of Andrew infecting some victims with the same retro virus that killed his sister, purely for research purposes, of course. The ending offers an emotionally satisfying, albeit gory conclusion with twist that many horror fans have always wanted to witness. In all this is a movie that shows potential and makes me anxious to see what the writers and director do next.

Posted 07/16/2010