Morbid Musings: A Review of Anti-Wonderful from MovingFast Pictures!
It’s a weird way to start a review (I’m 48, maybe I’m getting a bit crazy or whatever) but I’m remembering flicking through the TV channels early morning many years ago. I chanced upon a kid’s game show thing for schools. There was a man and a woman dressed as Jesters and a child, obviously very intelligent, but not very excited or full of fun. It was a math question, way beyond me. This lad answered it quickly. “Oh yes, that’s very good.” replied the female host. Then silence for a while, as it all became very awkward. I felt it through my TV. I don’t know what they all expected to happen, but for moments they all just stood still. I flicked off.
That same awkwardness returned whilst watching the comedy elements of Anti-Wonderful, for me anyway. My Partner in Gore, Willow, and I had high hopes as we had heard a few whisperings beforehand. You know, it’s not forced humour, it’s just not delivered right, aside from Sam Salerno, the man behind The Darkside of the Womb (read review here) and many others I’ve reviewed, who, I must say, steals the show (now that’s different to what I used to say about his small roles).
Anti-Wonderful begins with a young skinhead kid walking along the street with bags of shopping, finding a disk on the kerb called ‘Anti-Wonderful’. The skinhead goes home and plays it. Old school medical footage flashes the screen in an almost Eileen Dietz style before a geeza faces us. “Did you know there’s been human remains found in Disney Land? Disney promotes murder.” Throughout this short, he appears at regular intervals spitting facts.
There’s a kind of horror host, Granny Alice Cooper (my Partner in Gore, Willow, said Granny Gene Simmons before I had a chance to say Alice Cooper). Her table is adorned with an American flag, a plastic skull, plus a picture of Aleister Crowley. She asks the viewer if they like depravity. Fuck yeah! We do, Granny! Bring it the fuck on!
Miss Hornabee is rather light and comical, but as we watch a girl thinking of suicide then walking outside with a blade to slice her throat, it dawned that we’re in a more gentle Der Todesking (see the review of Jörg Buttgereit’s Der Todesking here) region. There is nothing wrong with that.
“Did you know that messy handwriting on doctor’s notes kills approximately 7,000 people a year?” After this fact we meet Matthew, who has cool tattoos. He sprays a cockroach and eats it for no reason whatsoever then looks mildly surprised as he begins to gob up blood. Clever lad. The forty-two-minutes continues with morbid speeches, whilst our host who seems very distant, and attempts to be funny. There’s the first of a selection of interviews. A fella talks about the death of his friend, Cody, what lead to it, and the aftermath. This is a subject that has touched near enough everyone but he’s so fucking annoying! If he’s genuine, then I am sorry. If it’s scripted, you are a terrible actor! Willow ended up getting angry at him. “Stop saying ‘like’!!! He’s said it a thousand times! Stick his tongue in a blender!” This man needs to trim his moustache a bit as well. It’s a right ruddy mess.
Sam Salerno plays Jeff, a serial killer for hire. We love Jeff. Jeff is brilliant. He shows off some of his gory work and achievements to a pounding metal soundtrack. Jeff discusses why and how he feels. Jeff wears a 555 t-shirt. If you don’t know why that’s awesome, please look the movie up. We both agreed that he needs his own film. Or at least a 15-minute segment. “Death is fun.” Plus, the makeup effects are fantastic — cheers Lisa Lex (Terror Toons 4, The Amityville Rising).
Interview two is a far more captivating affair as the guy tells us about his pal who overdosed. He is very open, and his emotions are teetering. The description of events cut deeply. Then his grandfather is spoken of. We go to Dr. Death, who somewhat looks like the tunnel spirit in Patrick Swayze’s Ghost. He is unashamedly pure uncut pathetic weak comedy. Willow laughed, I growled. I sense I shall marry her, then divorce her the next day. Interview three is a murder…
I get where they were going with this. Samuel B. has done an okay job in parts, but the comedy is mainly forced, like there should be a crappy laugh track alongside. It’s simply distracting. Natural spoken comedy works better in any situation. I don’t know, perhaps a lot of folks will dig it, but I just couldn’t sink inside deep enough. Jeff was outstanding. The interview sections, mostly, were nicely done and placed in excellently. The wrap-up with our skinhead person is cool, by the way.
Forty-two-minutes did drag after a while which isn’t a great feeling. Chris Severed called this an “experimental comedy” and it definitely is, but some of the ingredients are wrong. Samuel B. worked on Frog Pimp (see the review for Frog Pimp here) which is the same sort of humour, so if you liked that, you’ll totally understand this. Either way, I’ll rate it fairly cause I’m a fan of the subject matter, plus my friend, Daniel Valient (aka White Gardenia), contributed to the soundtrack. In fact, most of the rating goes to Jeff.
Directed by: Samuel B.
Written by: Samuel B.
Produced by: Samuel B., Knife Soleto, Ross KInder
Cinematography by: Samuel B.
Editing by: Samuel B, Mason Scott Hellar
Music by: Daniel Valient, Balazs Imre
Special Effects by: Lisa Lex
Cast: Rhona Poll, Kit Dezout, Sam Salerno, Erik Donovan, Averly Kennedy, Mily Mariena, Matt B. Smith
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 42 min
Studio: MovingFast Pictures
