The film enjoyer part of me hated this. Felt really surface level with how it handled the obvious subject matter (rape). To me, Ricky was painted in too much of a sympathetic light. His multiple return trips, and inner battle to decide to finally do what's right say everything about him we need to know. He's weak willed and constantly fighting with his desire to submit to JT and join. If he truly felt any sort of disgust/shame/guilt/empathy/etc. towards this woman/zombie/thing he would've broken up with his sweet emo bestie and never went back. But he did. He wanted to join but elected to take a moral high ground in order to grandstand his morality in an attempt to feel better about his attempts to woo over a girl 100x better than he ever could be. And that's the thing, in a film where rape is the name of the game I'd love to see some women have some sort of character and not only be there to drive the men's agency.
Though I will give credit where it is due: it's very well made on what I assume to be a budget of pennies, the acting (specifically JT) was surprisingly good, and I the implications of the first 30 or so seconds was cool once the ending puts it all together.
However, the exploitation enjoyer part of my brain says: hell yeah. This elicited such strong feelings of disgust and overall moral depravity that it was great.
But alas, this is why I'm so conflicted. It's fun, well made, and original with a killer ending. But I think it misses the mark entirely with how it portrays it's awful acts and reactions to them that we as an audience aren't really rooting for the freedom of the enslaved, but wishing for the death of the boys as they're just plain annoying.
Though I will admit I spend most of my exploitation time with Japanese pinku cinema where themes of female sexual liberation are thoroughly and thoughtfully explored, so maybe I'm just spoiled by more skilled filmmakers.
I dunno. Did I have fun? Yes. Did I get what I was looking for? Kinda. Do I like it's portrayal of characters and treatment of women? No. Am I writing too much about this? Yes.
The film enjoyer part of me hated this. Felt really surface level with how it handled the obvious subject matter (rape). To me, Ricky was painted in too much of a sympathetic light. His multiple return trips, and inner battle to decide to finally do what's right say everything about him we need to know. He's weak willed and constantly fighting with his desire to submit to JT and join. If he truly felt any sort of disgust/shame/guilt/empathy/etc. towards this woman/zombie/thing he would've broken up with his sweet emo bestie and never went back. But he did. He wanted to join but elected to take a moral high ground in order to grandstand his morality in an attempt to feel better about his attempts to woo over a girl 100x better than he ever could be. And that's the thing, in a film where rape is the name of the game I'd love to see some women have some sort of character and not only be there to drive the men's agency.
Though I will give credit where it is due: it's very well made on what I assume to be a budget of pennies, the acting (specifically JT) was surprisingly good, and I the implications of the first 30 or so seconds was cool once the ending puts it all together.
However, the exploitation enjoyer part of my brain says: hell yeah. This elicited such strong feelings of disgust and overall moral depravity that it was great.
But alas, this is why I'm so conflicted. It's fun, well made, and original with a killer ending. But I think it misses the mark entirely with how it portrays it's awful acts and reactions to them that we as an audience aren't really rooting for the freedom of the enslaved, but wishing for the death of the boys as they're just plain annoying.
Though I will admit I spend most of my exploitation time with Japanese pinku cinema where themes of female sexual liberation are thoroughly and thoughtfully explored, so maybe I'm just spoiled by more skilled filmmakers.
I dunno. Did I have fun? Yes. Did I get what I was looking for? Kinda. Do I like it's portrayal of characters and treatment of women? No. Am I writing too much about this? Yes.
