Red Victoria

an Anthony Brownrigg Film

First allow me to say that I like this film enough that I'm watching it for the second time right now as I write this. I fully expect to watch it several more times.

I saw this film screened at Texas Fear Fest 2, not knowing what to expect.

The film in a nutshell is about an artsy-fartsy film writer who cannot sell a meaningful script. So his agent tells him that he has to write a horror movie, because the genre is buying anything.

This was an encouraging sign, any time a film pokes fun at its own genre.

So the writer in his inability to write horror begins to recite a some Shakespeare in the middle of the night and accidently summons a muse.

The muse, Victoria, starts killing people in the writers life in order to inspire him to write horror.

The film has three incredibly powerful good points.

For one, it really is funny.

Its not funny in a particular cheesy way, its funny in a sarcastic, cynical, self-depreciating kind of way that makes it funny. For one, he lures his friend the horror enthusiast, into a conspiracy by promising him glory in "the chatrooms."

As a pop-culture enthusiast who spends too much time on the internet, this is really funny.

Second the film is in fact scary.

As it really crescendos at the end there is a powerful and beautiful tension that caused me to yearn for my own murder.

The closest thing that I can compare it to in this regard is Shaun of the Dead which is very funny at the beginning, and scary at the end.

But that doesn't quite cut it.

The movie is a lot more in the vain of May than it is in the vain of Shaun of the Dead. If you haven't seen May, its about a tormented heart broken girl who makes finally makes a friend out of the parts of her lovers who betrayed her.

That movie is not funny at all, its fascinating.

Even though Red Victoria is funny it is truly a horror movie.

There are scenes that are intense enough to engage the audience with the kind of depth of film making which expects its audience to be intelligence.

Which brings me to the third thing. Red Victoria is a very smart movie.

The movie maintains its verisimilitude, which I need in order to take the a movie seriously.

The movie also maintains a true philosophical argument about art, and the use of suffering and fear in art.

It was beautiful and I'll be analyzing this movie for years to come.

I found this movie reminded me of why I find the darker things in life so appealing, without just following the cliche braggart who proclaims loudly how desensitized they are.

I am as sensitized as when I was a child.

But I need the baptism of fire which smart horror provides.

Its amusing to write about this because Red Victoria does a great job of making fun of the literati while living up to the standards of literati's snobbery.

The movie can be purchased, as I have done, and if it sounds like something you'd like I encourage you to do so.