The Fappening Review from Full Circle Filmworks!
Having recently reviewed Sean Weather’s, Scumbag Hustler (see review of Scumbag Hustler here), made slightly before this one, I discovered Sean can be a bit of a hit or miss sort of filmmaker. Wherein, some of his films such as Scumbag and Ace Jackson is a Dead Man, simply bristle with fast paced ideas and scenes, some like The Fappening kind of drag in many places. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. There’s still so much contained within its micro budget to make it a watchable romp. See, a lot of low budget films chucked together simply drain you and you question why they exist at all. Sean’s films are fun. It seems everyone has a good time, but he is savvy enough to know where every piece of his jigsaw goes. It’s just unfortunate that the pieces are kind of hard to fit into this one. Mind you, he does everything himself this time around.
Top marks for getting Joel (Bloodsucking Freaks) Reed and Lloyd (Troma) Kaufman in for some sight gag cameos. I thought for a second he’d bagged Paul (Straight Outta Compton, Hangover II) Giamatti as the landlord character, Gabriel, but the guy just looks like him. Another top mark for having a cheeky spoof of Kim Kardashian played by Erika (Bite Me!, Shock-O-Rama) Smith.
The Fappening is inspired by the 2014 incident when over one hundred female celebs had their phones hacked via iCloud and their nudity exposed to many a porn site (Jennifer Lawrence nude The Fappening was a major search trend on Google at the time). Caught up in a similar scandal is, Alan Smithee, a struggling in debt filmmaker (based a bit on Sean and played by Sean — like Scumbag Hustler, as a reason to roll with naked women), who has spent a lot of time selfie filming himself in various nude poses with many girls. Soon after, his phone is hacked and the multitude of women aren’t too happy about it. “You’re a pervert and a fuckin’ asshole!” A lot of their lives and careers are in trouble. “I brought my mace over ’cause you’re a sexual offender!” Girl after girl start to hate on him as he tries his best to worm out of the tightening noose.
He lives in squalor and owns a major coke habit. Next he’s punched by Jennifer, a tough gal. “You soulless fuck! I fuckin’ hope you get AIDS and if you have any kids, your kids are raped!” When she leaves, he receives a call from another pissed off woman. “You pencil dick muthafucka!” Alan finds his reputation and his life is shattered. His landlord, Gabriel is on his case for back rent. Producers are quitting on him due to their wives. Joel M. Reed won’t entertain him. Hell, even Mr. Troma himself laughs and spits at him. “You’re not even a piece of shit on the ass of God!” is a fraction of a huge eccentric speech which Lloyd performs without the help of topless women or cheap Toxic Avenger masks! It seems to come down to a lot of his past attitude to people as well.
Next we get a painfully unfunny scene as he sweet-talks a girl he still trusts, Rachael, by quoting the Human League. This outstays its welcome like a guest wiping boogies on your coffee table. Alan owes around 70k in credit card debts, 20k in back rent, and over 10k to his dealer. He hopes Rachael can help him. She won’t. He rings past stars he’s worked with, his family, no happy endings.
Finally, his sinister agent, Tina, has bagged him a good deal with a shit hot producer who loves controversy. However the impending court cases that so many women have launched against him isn’t the best thing. They are portraying him as a monster. Perhaps he should become one! “I know what I have to do. I’m willing to do it!” He is sent a list of those against him.
The first is Rachael, and this devastates him. It’s helped her career by keeping The Fappening in the news. As she says to him, “You cannot swim with sharks and not develop a taste for blood.” Since he refuses to leave her apartment, she locks herself in her bedroom and calls 911, pretending to be terrorised by an intruder. Alan starts to snap. “I’m gonna kill you! I’m gonna kill all of ya!” Sneaking out, he catches her and stabs her. Rachael lays dying. Alan leans over. “You died young, you’ll be a legend like Marilyn Monroe. I promise.” Then he cuts into her throat.
Alan now has himself a black mask and a big sharp knife. He hacks up his dealer after a lie he told earlier backfires, then takes what drugs he can. In a B/W sequence, he slaughters girl after girl to a pounding beat. In the meantime, Jennifer gets herself let into his apartment and waits with a gun. However she gets herself drunk and falls asleep. She never wakes up.
His killer persona is gradually taking him over. He makes quips such as: “She had a splitting headache.” Alan’s killing spree continues onwards. He says “#serial killer!” at one point.
The further he murders, the more metal the soundtrack becomes to associate death with metal. Aside from a fair few dragged out minutes here and there, the movie is paced and routine as a slasher. The cheap as chips gore is all over the tasteless apartment walls. What I like about Sean and his flicks is his NYC trashy way of merging models, freaks, cult directors and fire dancers together; somehow it all makes sense.
If I have one big criticism with The Fappening, it is the fact that Weathers cannot seem to set up a decent conclusion. Sometimes his endings must look good on paper, but when they’re filmed, it’s a big no-no. Girls like Erika Smith and Rachael Robbins have made themselves a career in underground boobs and shock films. Sybelle (Scumbag Hustler, Dirtbags) Silverphoenix makes herself known as Jennifer. She tends to appear in a lot of Sean’s work. The biggest name has to be, Tina Krause. This lady has been in over a hundred films which many have never heard of. Psycho Sisters, The Infamous Bondage Murders, Evil Streets, Cannibal Doctor, Shoot the Girls and on and on. The kind of things you wish you had seen. He he he.
Extras on this DVD from Full Circle Filmworks include a great gag reel which does make you laugh a lot. As I said, there’s a lot of fun in these movies. Then there’s the standard public domain bad quality extras like The Killer Shrews with an introduction.
I’ll keep on watching Sean Weathers because if you know his style and what to expect, you cannot be disappointed.
Directed by: Sean Weathers | Written by: Sean Weathers | Produced by: Sean Weathers | Cinematography by: Sean Weathers, Jerry Landi | Special Effects by: Sean Weathers | Editing by: Sean Weathers | Music by: Judas Booth, Demonboy, The Rhythm Coffin | Cast: Sean Weathers, Erika Smith, Tina Krause, Lloyd Kaufman, Rachael Robbins, Joel M Reed, Amona B, Mr. ShoBiz, Adonis Williams, Jerry Landi, Sky Soto, Steve Karlin, Vlad Zee Dragon | Year: 2015 | Country: USA | Language: English | Color: Color | Runtime: 1 h 16 min
Distributor: Full Circle Filmworks
DVD SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Region: NTSC R0
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
– Bonus Films – The Vampire Bat, The Killer Shrews
– Deleted Scene
– Outtakes
