CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Film Review: Indie Horror Fans Flock to Frustrating ‘Jug Face’
CHICAGO – Chad Crawford Kinkle’s Slamdance hit “Jug Face,” opening this Friday, August 9, 2013 at the La Grange Theatre just outside Chicago and now available On Demand, would have made a great episode of “Masters of Horror.” It has the feel of a memorable short story with its memorable use of setting and sketch of a very unique community on the other side of civilization. Yes, there are still close-knit communities in the woods who pray to Gods and demons not recognized on public access TV and Kinkle’s film captures something often mesmerizing about these people who could be relatives of the lunatics of “The Wicker Man”.
Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
With stylistic and cast echoes of producer Lucky McKee’s excellent “The Woman,” “Jug Face” has a lot going for it at first but it’s a film that ultimately frustrates by not knowing its own limitations. The special effects are not just weak but entirely unnecessary as Kinkle creates a better mood without the gore and camera tricks. And one cannot ever shake the feeling that this is a piece that either needed another act or to be turned into a short film, where it really could have been a powerful, effective gut punch of a horror flick. As is, it just misses its mark – something that should intrigue indie horror fans and definitely contains a number of elements that work, but doesn’t come together as a full feature worth recommending.
Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Jug Face” in our reviews section. |
Ada (Lauren Ashley Carter) lives in backwoods community that not only arranges marriages of their young women for procreation but also sacrifices members of it to “the pit,” a muddy hole in the ground that supposedly keeps them safe from harm, as it did generations ago during a pox outbreak. A mentally challenged member of the community named Dawai (Sean Bridgers), has a vision of who the pit wants as its next sacrifice, and the visage of that person is than sculpted into a jug. Dawai isn’t even fully conscious when he’s sculpting, his hands guided by a higher power.
Whose face is on the latest jug? Ada, of course. The headstrong young girl, who happens to be pregnant by her brother (yes, her brother), refuses to give into the will of the pit. She buries the jug deep in the forest and, believe it or not, the Gods don’t take this too well. Unlike a lot of films about cults, “Jug Face” takes its mythology at face value. Ada steals the jug designed to appease the Gods and, well, the Gods are not appeased. Members of the cult start ending up gruesomely murdered and they begin to scramble to figure out how to appease the powers that be. Larry Fessenden and Sean Young steal scenes as Ada’s parents but the setting and Kinkle’s commitment to his bizarre community are the stars.
By BRIAN TALLERICO |