‘Red Victoria’ Conjurs a Deadly Muse
Red Victoria (2008)
Studio: Well Go USA
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Directed By: Tony Brownrigg
Cast: Tony Brownrigg, Arianne Martin, Edward Landers, Joshua Morris & Christian Tayklor
Review By: Annie Riordan
Jim is your typical Hollywood tool: uptight, condescending and sporting a fussy wardrobe of bland fratboy duds that practically scream, “I couldn’t get laid in a women’s prison and second grade girls could kick my ass!” He’s also disdainful of horror films, dismissing them as unimaginative drivel, the lowest of the low, the $2 handjob whore in a world of high priced call girls.
So it is with great reluctance and eye-rolling disgust that he agrees to pen a slasher film script in a ploy to earn some quick cash. Lost in a genre that he knows nothing about, Jim struggles with writer’s block and zero inspiration. Late one night, having consumed a tad too much wine, Jim accidentally conjures up the muse of horror: Red Victoria, a busty but half-rotted goth babe who promptly moves in and takes over, much to Jim’s consternation. Victoria isn’t leaving until Jim pens a script worthy of the horror genre, and she’s not above killing off his friends, family and professional acquaintances, both for inspirational purposes and/or because they just annoy her.
The one person she spares is Jim’s friend Carl, an overweight horror geek who thinks Victoria is way cool. Jim, however, is determined to rid himself of Victoria, and the sooner the better. When conventional methods fail, a worn down Jim finds himself following Victoria into a world darker than he ever could have imagined.
Starting off as a horror-comedy, Red Victoria does pretty well for its first hour or so. It’s not a gut-busting laugh a minute or anything, but it’s amusing. Coming off as a cross between Mark Linn-Baker and Arthur Dent (as portrayed by Simon Jones, rather than Martin Freeman, kthxbye), Jim isn’t very likable despite his character arc from prissy loser to suave horror magnate. He’s still an oily jerk, but by film’s end he’s just a slightly more fashionable oily jerk.
Arianne Martin as the title character is pretty, perky and has lots of cleavage to ogle. But it is Edward Landers as the slobby but genuinely likable geek Carl who really steals the film. His portrayal of the atypical couch potato film geek with a literal encyclopedic stash of horror trivia in his pot-fogged head is flawlessly bang-on. I have friends like Carl (for reals!) and his presence in this film is welcoming, to say the least. I would like to hang out with Carl and talk about Czech new wave and Dario Argento over pizza, Pepsi, and Cheetos far into the night sometime.
The film’s final minutes are disconcerting, to say the least. From horror comedy to borderline torture porn in 0.5 seconds, the sudden transition is almost too drastic to accept or fully believe in. Add to that the fact that the character of Jim is incredibly difficult to root for, and you have a ho-hum sorta kinda okay horror flick, worth watching… maybe once…if you have nothing better to do. Yeah, it’s worth a view for Edward Landers alone, but you wouldn’t be in any way lacking if you should choose to forego it.
