Friday Night Frights at VisionFest ’05: Horror Business directed by Christopher P. Garetano and Firecracker directed by Steve Balderson Written by Ilise S. Carter

On Friday, July 22, VisionFest 2005 presented a double bill of films designed to display the rising stars of independent film. Of particular interest was the festival’s choice to include the often-neglected area of horror. Running the gamut from the small, homespun documentary Horror Business directed by Christopher P. Garetano to the garish thriller Firecracker directed by Steve Balderson, this program was designed to give a sense of the current direction of independent film.

Not for the Faint of Heart!

Horror has long been the unwanted mutant under the stairs of the film industry and, despite the occasional break out hit, has remained a largely marginalized genre since Nosferatu flickered across silent screens. As a result, horror films have long had a reputation for being cheap, low class and accessible to everyone with a home movie camera, a twisted dream and some prop blood – and oddly enough this is mostly true. Perhaps more than other type of filmmaking, horror is truly directed its fan’s appetites.

This fan phenomenon is lovingly documented in Christopher P. Garetano’s Horror Business with interviews ranging from horror legends to homegrown visionaries and every sort of fan in between. Shot with handheld cameras in the collectors’ conventions, the backyard sets and the living rooms where fans and filmmakers gather, the film gives its subjects ample room to explain their personal connections to the world of violence, the occult and fantasy that make up the oeuvre.

This mix of objectivity and affection are what makes Horror Business so much fun. Whether it’s drive-in film critic, Joe Bob Briggs, explaining the three pitfalls of amateur filmmakers (i.e., too many zombies, don’t cast your friends, and lesbian vampires); or Long Island filmmaker “Slave” lamenting the current vapid state of pop culture; or designer Andy Gore showing off his line of serial killer pillows, you can’t help but share in their enthusiasm – even if you do feel a little cooler.

Wonders and Curiosities 

A popular carnie ruse of days gone by was the “Man Eating Chicken” gaff. A lurid banner would be placed outside a tent and intrigued rubes would then be separated from their nickels and allowed to step inside for a look…only to find someone eating a chicken dinner, rather than some sort of carnivorous, poultry monster. This is sort of analogous to the viewing experience of Steve Balderson’s Firecracker -- the initial appeal of the visual belies the disappointment of what lies within.

Firecracker follows a gothic midwestern tale of piety, violence, lies and sex all cast against the backdrop of traveling sideshow. In short, the plot revolves around the old notion of running away with the circus, only in this instance it is young Jimmy (Jak Kendall), who seeks to escape his sexually and physically abusive brother, David (Mike Patton) and their oblivious mother. Enter Sandra (Karen Black), the “Oddity of Nature” and singer with the sideshow and her abusive keeper/boyfriend, Frank (also played by Mike Patton), the ensuing fight for Sandra’s attentions results in David’s murder and a police investigation led by the earnest and intuitive Sheriff “Ed” (Susan Traylor).

Although based on a true story, Balderson’s script weaves jerkily between realness and surrealism, barely stopping along the way to find its bearings. Moreover, even given its larger than life setting, the dialogue seems overwrought, forcing even the best of the film’s performers to engage in operatic level melodrama. Karen Black is particularly noteworthy here; doing the best she can with her two roles. First as the singing temptress, who is written as a damaged ingénue but realized by the slightly older than that Ms. Black; then as one half of the pair of actresses somehow needed to play the boys’ pious but deranged mother, Eleanor. Others, such as Mike Patton, in another dual (yet non-dimensional) role, are simply left to chew on the scenery. The rest of the people who populate the landscape of Wamego, Kansas, such as the resident mystical madwoman (Brooke Balderson as Pearl), just wander around aim as though they’ve somehow escaped David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and are in search of a new address.

Karen Black
Photo: Evan Sung

This lack of character development is especially disturbing in relation to the filmmaker’s use of “freaks”, where it becomes (however unintentionally) exploitive. By not developing a single one of these characters into a full-fledged entity, midgets, giants, fat ladies and tattooed men are rendered little more than living, breathing set dressing. This discrepancy is one of the large fundamental flaws in Firecracker, where the power of the visuals far outweighs the adolescent script and weak performances. It must be noted that cinematographer’s Jonah Torreano’s saturated color schemes and vast horizons are stunning; they are, however, simply not enough to rescue this film.

For more information see:

http://www.domanivision.org/

http://www.horrorbusinessmovie.com/

http://www.dikenga.com/films/firecracker/index.htm