By SHAWN MACOMBER
Starring Allen Valor, Michael Hanelin, and Honda Kong
Directed by Kevin R. Phipps
Written by Kevin R. Phipps, Craig W. Chenery, Kirk Levingar and Allen Valor
Lion Heart Distribution
“Monogamy is like using a twenty-watt light bulb to read,” playwright John Patrick Shanley once opined. “It works, but it’s not enough.”
Of course, when the stronger bulb is screwed into the socket, and the strictures of society’s mores are loosed, most aspiring adulterers probably expect to see a more exciting partner with come-hither eyes. But what if that isn’t what lies in those shadows? What if it’s something darker… Something more horrific?
Enter writer-director Kevin R. Phipps’ feature-length horror anthology, DR. SAVILLE’S HORROR SHOW, in which Michael (Michael Hanelin), a husband and father stranded in an airport lounge far from home, finds himself tempted by a mysterious woman promising hush-hush, no-accountability hotel room debauchery. His surrender proves as fateful as it is harrowing.
In short, Michael soon finds himself strapped to a seat in a dirty subterranean lair as an audience of one at a film festival where a tray full of old-school torture instruments passes for concessions. The host, as you may have guessed, is the titular Dr. Saville (Allen Valor), a spirited comingling of Jigsaw and Freddy Krueger possessed with the fanatic belief that outré shorts can serve as purifying fire.
And so, we are likewise submersed into three pitch-black tales of morally questionable decisions made corporeal and manifest. There is “Consume,” an affecting, pathos-laden body horror short about a woman driven by the unrealistic body ideal championed by mass media and society to swallow a bioengineered tapeworm in the lead-up to her wedding day, which, alas, will transform “Here Comes the Bride” into a cacophonous chorus of screams. Next, there’s “It’s Complicated,” in which a smarmy, cowardly player who has the passive-aggressive harm he has meted out to women returned tenfold by an otherworldly beauty. And finally, “Break,” a survivalist tale set in a zombie outbreak where not everything may be as it seems.
While Michael’s torture is real, he (and by extension, we) are at first left to wonder, is all of this just so much practical effects and storytelling? But when the characters start showing up to cameo with Dr. Saville, it’s clear the film is more about bridging the gap between cinéma-vérité and Hell itself.
So is DR. SAVILLE’S HORROR SHOW effective outside of the maniac’s realm? It is, indeed. As horror anthologies go, this one definitely feels like a cut above in terms of both originality and presentation. The wraparound scenes are full of “let’s make a new horror icon!” scenery chewing, balanced well by the straight-playing of the segments themselves. Although no one will mistake this for a $10 million feature, the film looks and flows well. (It’s not difficult to see how it took home awards at Tucson Terrorfest, Worldwide Women’s Film Festival, and the Sweden Film Awards.)
Here’s hoping it serves as a calling card for Phipps and his deranged band of co-conspirators to get to the next level – or at least secure a bigger soundstage on the Hades backlot.
DR. SAVILLE’S HORROR SHOW is now available on digital platforms.
