Sculpture. Review. By Brian Kirst
“I just can’t get enough of that beautiful face.” – Ashley, Sculpture
ScreamKings’ latest release Sculpture (just starting to play the festival circuit and currently going through some minor tightening from director Pete Jacelone) is a visceral treat on many levels. With a stabbing female lead, some fine performances, plenty of nudity (both male and female) and enough blood to sink a couple of ships filled with convicts, Sculpture’s uniqueness is primarily enforced by what is quickly becoming ScreamKings’ seeming forte – making films that women and gay men can embrace and that all horror fans can truly enjoy.
Ashley, an artist, returns to home for her father’s funeral. Flashbacks soon reveal that her fitness expert poppa was not only abusive, but murderous. Therefore, Ashley’s decision to stay put and help her overly devoted brother run the family gym soon turns out to be a bad one. Determined to create the sculpture of the ‘perfect man’ for an upcoming art show, Ashley’s mission soon turns into a chunk strewn nightmare.
Starring indie horror film regulars (Raine Brown, Misty Mundae, Alan Rowe Kelly, Susan Andriensen and Jeff Dylan Graham) and professional body builders (several making their acting debuts here), Sculpture’s unique casting works well and, at times, the muscle men even appear to be the most comfortable performers onscreen. Newcomer Austin Dossey is naturally sweet as Ashley’s love interest David and his spasmodic contortions in a stinging scene of violence contribute to one of the most realistic final throes ever presented on camera. Marv Blauvelt, in his second screen appearance, smartly underplays his character’s evilness and creates a very real and scary villain. (Blauvelt who helped create Sculpture’s emotionally taut story has also become an indie horror god of sorts with a role in Terror Overload with Ari Lehman and his own upcoming anthology among his recent credits.)
All of the fright film regulars rate highly as well, with Alan Rowe Kelly’s stinging sense of comedy and Misty Mundae’s gritty naturalness deserving special mention. As Ashley, Raine Brown creates a quirkily compelling character, but she truly lets her skills show when she quietly creates Ashley’s final leaps into madness.
The special effects are bountiful and fun even as they occasionally swerve into Herschell Gordon Lewis terrority. (Chunks of flesh fly, realistically, at certain moments while brutal stabbings produce no wounds yet copious amounts of blood.) Ashley’s artistically inventive sprees also maintain a certain sameness after awhile. Still, these issues seem based mostly on budgetary issues (not lack of creativity) as ScreamKings truly flies into the fray with this one, their heads swept downward for battle, not letting up until the final delirious moments. They have traveled far from the rudimentary (fun filled) simpleness of such features as Beef – You Are What You Eat and, above all, Sculpture is grisly evidence that the best from them is yet to come.
