Lilith: The Acid-Drenched Nightmare of Jay Crimson’s Darkest Vision
Jay Crimson is one of those astounding underground talents that floats along the crimson river of madness and art, generally making music with his band, Chemical Valley Mutants (see Unapologetic Punk Fury: Chemical Valley Mutants’ ‘Poisoned’ Album Review), dabbling in the occult, podcasts, the hippy life, and movies such as his last offspring, Green Hell (see review here). Usually it would be the case to say, if you’ve seen that, you know what to expect, however, with Lilith, Jay has turned his creative fucked-up brain onto something kinda different.
Lilith is practically a one person acting show, as Judith Perrywinkle takes on the role of Lily (soon to become Lilith), a metal head goth chick who leads an empty hollow existence brought on by her past. She is a hooker, wandering dark alleys picking up many tricks (“Wanna party?“) which can result in violence, courtesy of Jay himself in a brief role.
A montage of drugs, needles, and cock sucking showcases her night and day routine. The music is heavy, as are the scenes with ants and randomly placed stop motion. It’s cold and reeks of despair. The film style is drained of colour, washed out, reminding me and my Partner in Gore, Willow, of Nekromantik or Combat Shock. It’s drab, claustrophobic, and desolate.
Whilst Lily is shopping, she’s being followed by a hooded cowled figure. She reads a book on witchcraft, brushing ants from the pages. Hold up, these are big steroid abusing ants! Are USA ants usually that brutally massive? We have tiny ones on the UK compared to those monsters.
Back home she makes up an alter and smokes — all intercut with some alarmingly filmed bloody crosses, goats headed women and stuff. This is some old school Reception label and Cradle of Filth visionary gems right here! Then something bad happens.
Afterwards, our girl wanders the streets, seeing insane amounts of junk everywhere, subtle signs that something is coming. “This isn’t real!” as she sees it all, then graffiti clocks spin their hands.
So far, Lilith is Jay Crimson’s masterpiece. It’s more mature and patiently paced so not to lose control just yet.
Then suddenly the acid psychedelic ingredients drop like an explosion of dark hippie clan crazy. Lily is beginning her transformation into something… does go on a bit too long here though. The visuals are colourful, similar to that ‘80s flick, Redemption (see Neon Nightmares, Glowing Eyes, and Fisher-Price Synths), Santa Maria, Mother of God, and such.
Back at her place she shouts at her reflection whilst wearing an ugly blue wig, then we see her pissing from the POV of the ground. She visits the Anatomy of Death Museum in Michigan (Jay’s turf). The camera work has loads of crackles old reel fried chicken sounds with brooding music. Oooooh.
Her eyes are changing bit by bit. The museum sequence, by the way, is worth the admission to the movie alone, unless you live in Michigan, of course.
Like Green Hell, this is ground zero street level underground shit. Lilith is like a freak show side of a carnival, you never know what to expect for your money.
A quick vision of her eye gouged out, Lily sits and boils up a hit, then injects. Fuck, she doesn’t know what’s happening to her, so she’s gonna just try and escape.
God damn, Jay finds some shit hot locations, trust me. Tunnels, graffiti streets, abandoned buildings, Combat Shock has nothing on this!
Whilst dipping her toes by a septic sewer pipe, an infested demonic version of herself emerges from the water. She runs and is suddenly engulfed in smoke, a big monster WTF skull scares her. We have no idea what’s going on now; we’re just enjoying the ride. Judith Perrywinkle is absolutely amazing, by the way. She holds this film up high. More horrors engulf her, a dead foetus in the shower, then she shaves her head. Demons are calling, they’re waiting for her.
By the 40-minute mark, it all kicks off. Mad visuals, a dick bitten off, creatures in mirrors, a nun puppet, then Lilith is born…
It’s like watching a Lucifer Valentine production, minus the over-the-top editing, abuse, and vomit (well, there’s one vomit scene).
Actually, does anyone remember the Cinema of Transgression movement in NYC with Nick Zed, etcetera? Lilith is a modern variant of that very thing. Experimental, low budget, silly, demented, and full of heart.
The nun puppet does totally steal the show, though.
Directed by: Jay Crimson
Written by: Jay Crimson
Produced by: Vulgar Minds
Effects by: Jay Crimson, Judith Perrywinkle, Henry Ciul, Stephen Goad, and more
Edited by: Justin Squires, Jay Crimson
Music by: Jay Crimson, Justin Squires, KFR, Chemical Valley Mutants, Na Da, Dave Peters, First Jason
Cast: Judith Perrywinkle, Chris Stotler, Henry Ciul, Phoenix Stotler, Nicholas Gilbert
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 6min
Studio: Dark Forest Media, Vulgar Minds, Crimson Videos
