Here’s another one that I knew nothing about until I saw it on Tubi. The description sounded interesting and it has both Chase Williamson and Lauren Ashley Carter in it. Sweet! I appreciate seeing those two in horror movies. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Artik, a slow-talking beast of a man, and his wife keep a gaggle of boys in squalid conditions as domestic slaves. They’ve singled out one of the boys as having potential in the man’s line of work – serial killing. Boy Adam, as he is known, goes along with the man but his heart isn’t in it. When he is allowed some freedom, he spends it tagging “ATK” on walls with spray paint and bashing his head repeatedly while killing a bug. The boy crosses paths with a straight edge punk artist who shows him some baseline compassion. This sets off a chain of events that could lead to disaster for the boy and the punk.
I am not kidding or being facetious when I say that I appreciate Chase Williamson and Lauren Ashley Carter. They are modern indie horror icons (or deserve to be). John Dies at the End, Sequence Break, i, etc. from Williamson and Jugface, Darling, Imitation Girl, The Woman, etc. from Carter. They are both great additions to any movie – especially horror – and this movie is no exception. WIlliamson sells his caring but not controlling character well and Carter inhabits her psychopathic funhouse mirror version of an idealized mother and wife perfectly. I also want to shout out Jerry G. Angelo who plays Artik with some bold choices that pay off excellently. He talks very slowly from the back of his throat and enunciates carefully in a way that is offputting but not overtly menacing. When he does turn on the menace, it quickly elicits a fight or flight response in the viewer. The story itself is engaging with just enough mystery retained to keep the audience on our toes. Why is the boy special? What is Artik’s purpose he keeps alluding to? Is he the hero or the villain of the comics he draws? What is wrong with these people?! Failing to answer questions can become a problem for some films, but this one keeps those questions unanswered without compromising the logic of the character’s actions. These people and their motives are just unknowable. They’re clearly mentally ill. We just know that they are the very obvious bad guys and we root against them. In the end, that’s all we need for a perilous journey through their depravity.
The Final Cut: Artik is a tense indie pseudo-slasher told from a different perspective. The casting is perfect for this brutal good vs evil tale.
