Applecart Movie Review!

Applecart is that kind of movie which beckons you daring and twisted telling you how different it is and promising you that you’ll come out of the other end affected and darkened.

“We all wear masks” thus states the back cover of my DVD (a different cover variation to the ones I’ve used here but I can’t find mine anywhere on Google 🙂), which is quite apt in this day and age I suppose but the masks in Applecart are solemnly deep and inspiring thought.

Director Dustin Mills is no newbie to filmmaking, with over ten years in the game thus so far and throwing out a remarkably vast output – sometimes up to five movies in one year which could mean they’re rushed and totally suck. Well, no, not by what I’ve seen so far. Kill That Bitch, Skinless, plus The Hornet’s Sting and the Hell it’s Caused (I’ll be reviewing that one soon) don’t stagger in quality nor wobble in their aims.

Applecart was made in 2015 using a small cast who play many characters in this anthology behind bland and clone like masks. The aim was obviously to convey so many emotions using body gestures, taking away features and voices. The excellence of the script and the acting creates a rich cauldron of feelings far beyond the normal.

Opening to a brief pre-credits segment of a masked top-heavy lady masturbating for just over a minute or so, which is probably (in my eyes) the most pointless piece of the complete puzzle. There is no reason other than perhaps a tester for viewers, to be here, but as the title flashes by with the eruption and spoiling of a bucket of apples (of course) we are into part 1 – The Sleepover.

The film is black and white and generally mute aside from the wickedly brilliant fake studio audience who applaud, laugh, boo, and so on. What is so wonderfully put over and is perhaps hard to describe with mere words is the way good and bad is reversed with the crowd. For instance, a badly abused female character is constantly laughed at, scorned, or booed, whilst the evil and woman abusing man is cheered and laughed along with. Later, as a character abuses an old man, the treatment is the same. Never once does this ingredient become worn or tired, it’s great.

The Sleepover is portrayed as a silent comedy along with the angles and the accompanied music. We are introduced to Dad — pipe and a moustache upon his mask — spying his nude teenage daughter in the bathroom. Mom sees him and tells him off with overexaggerated gestures and he shrugs. One evening, Daughter’s special friend comes over to sleep, and behind the mask via his eyes plus the stroking of his chin, Dad is very lustful of this new teenage arrival. He peeps through the keyhole as both girls undress and change (with much applause and hoots from the audience). As the tale proceeds, Dad constantly rejects his wife’s affections and needs (the audience loves it, cheering and laughing him on), aiming more at the two teens until things come to a head and Mom takes the ultimate action (to many boos and hisses).

Top marks to Allison (Primordial, Her Name Was Torment 2) Egan as Mom who shows seriously heart-breaking reactions to constant rejections, questioning herself and losing everything she believes in, staying faithful until she cannot take any more – all silently from behind a mask.

Story 2, Caretaker, has a son leaving his wheelchair bound and immobile father in the ‘care’ of a nurse. When the son goes, she turns the elderly man to the wall, then pisses in his food. That’s just for starters, and things go from bad to worse, though the audience love it naturally. This plays like a silent version of the Cousin Kevin scene in The Who’s Tommy movie but far more graphic in parts.

The pay-off is a bit EC Comics and predictable which kind of dulls the effect but no matter, both key players – Haley Madison (who incidentally plays a role in three segments) and Josh Miller work brilliantly together, again the masks do not hide any emotions.

Chapter 3, Dad, brings us a stern old-fashioned religious zealot Dad and his routines put upon daughter. He is very strict, turning violent when catching her masturbating for instance. When he retires to bed, she sneaks a young lover in, desperate for affection and warmth for which she gets none in her shallow severe life. The young man is livid when he sees the remains of one of her father’s violent outbursts, but she holds him back.

Late in the night, her Dad, drunk, heads into her room whilst she sleeps, seeing the bloody wound he caused and is racked with guilt and remorse for his actions, curling up on her floor to fitfully sleep. Deep within his overprotective bible-waving exterior, he obviously cares for and loves her. When he discovers a pregnancy testing kit, everything comes apart quickly…

This is a very powerful vision and plays in slow building waves without much of the silent comedy aura of the prior two but laden with melodrama. Brandon (Zombie A-Hole, Kill That Bitch) Salkil as the extreme father is outstanding, showing a man torn by religion and his love for his little girl.

The final chapter, Let me Show you Something, is absolutely diverse and totally opposite to everything before. This one goes all-out. A worker fancies the hell out of his co-worker. Encouraged by his friend he asks her out but is rejected. The next day she goes missing. It transpires that his friend has kidnapped her and is holding her naked and tortured in his attic.

Our bewildered and mortified hero now has a chance to save her and perhaps win her affections. Unfortunately, he undoes it all by giving in to his own perversions…

Apples play a huge support, characters eat nothing but apples, on the walls is sometimes apples, and in between each story there centres a turning apple before the cart is tipped. A special mention to actor Dave Parker, who is in each part and, like Allison Egan, really makes you feel his characters. Playing Dad in segment one and the psychotic friend in the finale are two wickedly unpredictable personas so top marks to that chap.

Small little details count. Some are essential whilst others mere observations. For instance, I noticed on second viewing how all the women are Euro hairy whilst the brief view of the men are smooth and shaven in a role reversal. This means nothing to the plot but is interesting all the same.

Acting-wise there are no weak links at all. Applecart is pure expressionist cinema without faces, and they aren’t needed because what we have is just sublime artwork. I feel in so many reviews the film is termed “experimental” which might put some potential viewers off so I am terming it instead as essential art… which could also put some folks off… oh just bloody watch it, it’s worth it!!

The DVD that I have is basic – film and chapters, so there’s no point in me breaking it down as I usually do. As for Dustin’s direction, it’s the complete opposite to basic. His concepts and framing, where the camera is placed and how the cast move and react are all carefully laid out for us. Applecart needs two watches to truly see the richness and thought presented.

Applecart is a great achievement in its originality, sitting alone in a corner, quite content to play and watch you from behind a mask.