“There is a tradition in Slavic mythology of a noon demon. She is dressed in white, surrounded by the winds and forever roams the fields, spreading illness, pain, madness and death. If you happen to see her, you’re already dead.”
And so begins Sacramento filmmaker, Jason Rudy’s latest film, “Lady M.”
Taking its cues from the revenge film, the story follows a demon while it avenges the death of a young woman, murdered at a car accident. Or so it would appear. More on that later.
The demon, “Lady Midday,” or “Lady M” spends her days hunting down the people responsible for the death of this woman. From the person who caused the accident, down to those who merely drove by and did not help, Lady M is out to kill them all. One at a time.
One thing you soon realize is that this story is going to be pretty straightforward. Like “Kill Bill,” this woman has a list of people she wants to kill and she is going down it. However, when each of her victims are set up in a very fun, drive in kind of way, you hardly mind.
LADY M
These range from a horny car salesman, lesbians using the woman’s death as inspirational art, a pimp, satanic demon worshippers, etc. Each character has their moment in the sun before they are axed and it’s fun. Their deaths are graphic in that low budget drive in film kind of way, buckets of blood. Hell, she even kills Lizzie Borden.
That’s right. This demon, or woman possessed through time (?) originated in the Garden of Eden and has avenged herself through time. It made the film a little unclear in some aspects, but apparently the director, Jason Rudy meant for it to be inconclusive. I’m just glad I didn’t miss anything.
The film is simply beautiful to behold. Many times the film uses superimposes to convey a dreamlike atmosphere and it worked. The music too really made the film feel like an otherworldly dream.
There is very little dialogue in the film and what there is, is spoken through the use of subtitles (ala silent movie). At first, it’s a little jarring but it works after a while. Narration from the noon demon herself lays over some of the film and I felt this was very effective. It actually sounded like a bat shit crazy demon talking to me–and that was cool.
And for all it’s nastiness, the film flirts with the notions of good and evil, right and wrong and I thought that was a nice change a pace from the bleak horror films that have been coming down the pike for so long.
If the film has a flaw, it’s that some of the scenes, particularly a strip tease scene, go on a little long. Since the girl does the same moves over and over and camera holds on her for quite a long time, I felt that could be tightened up a bit. Also, some of the actors struggle with the nervousness of being on camera—so perhaps some of their reaction shots and pauses could have eliminated.
Nonetheless, this is a highly entertaining film and I recommend it.
As a bonus, “Lady M” is on DVD with another one of Jason Rudy’s films, “Chump Change.” I don’t want to ruin the film for you but what if every time you masturbated, you turned into a slot machine? Enough said.
This bonus film is graphic but still pretty funny.
“Lady M” and “Chump Change” is a co-production between Jason Rudy’s Desperate Visions production company and Vchi Studios.
Submitted by: Jason Rudy
Review by Bodian
Original Post: https://horror-movie-reviews.com/lady-m/
