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Review: Incall

11013551_921696894530646_2542715303411361422_nIncall was showing up in the HorrorSociety Twitter feed every day. The creators that produced the feature film were really trying to push their movie to the public and they did a good job at grabbing my attention because I watched it, didn’t I? I had never heard of the film before or anyone attached to it, so I went in blind. I guess you could say it was an Incall viewing…? Anyway, here’s my thoughts having watched Incall in full.

Incall is written and directed by Brock Riebe. He also stars in this feature film alongside Ben Muller and Lillian Lamour. Other cast members include David Whitman, Gerald O. Heller, Nicholas Taylor, Frank Ondorf, Collin Bullock and Paul Russell.

“Kasey is down on his luck. He has a crappy daytime job and an annoying landlord who is knocking at the door if the rent is one day late. To make ends meet, Kasey does “incall” massages from his apartment. Unfortunately, some of his married, middle-aged, male clients are more interested in things OTHER than massages. Enter Marco, a sexy drifter in the country under mysterious circumstances. After the accidental death of one of his massage clients that looks like a murder and through a bizarre set of circumstances, Kasey enlists the help of Marco to dispose of the body. What started as an accident soon becomes intentional as the duo lure unsuspecting men to their deaths.” – IMDB

The only place I can think of to start my review is with the running time. Incall is way too long. It’s almost two and a half hours long, and that’s too long when you’re dealing with a movie that has no major gore, nudity or otherwise fucked up content. I understand that Incall is a different kind of horror film, one that’s all about story and character development, but I could have easily shaved off twenty minutes of content if I was the editor. There’s way too much useless moving around, b-roll shots and reiterating of past dialogue happening here. I have to admit that I hit the fast forward button a few times and that will obviously subtract points from this film’s score.

The next point I’d like to make is that Incall is more of a romance-drama with thrilling and bloody moments than it is a full fledged horror film. It’s filled with homoeroticism and I think that should be clarified somewhere so people no what to expect. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with it, but I could see how a crowd would be unhappy with a viewing when they expect a true horror film and end up with a drama about two passive aggressive lovers cutting off the heads of massage clients. It’s not as interesting as it sounds and marketing should really be considered. Is Incall being marketed to the right audience? I think it could do well if it was showcased to the right groups. Are you part of the LGBT community, give this one a try. Looking for an off beat story with a little bit of blood, give this one a try. Are you looking for an in your face kind of horror film that will make you scream and hide, this is not the title for you.

Just because I wasn’t a fan of Incall in terms of run time and placement in the genre doesn’t mean that I’m going to bash the movie completely. Besides the extremely cheesy backing tracks, this movie was actually a pretty decent independent feature. Great locations, an original plot, good actors, good cinematography… I really can’t knock the film from a production standpoint because I can tell a lot of hard work and effort was put into creating this picture and it shows. It’s a solid product with high quality for an independent feature and for that everyone involved with Incall should be proud of their work. As someone with their degree in film & media, if I didn’t spot any technical errors, then you know your work was professional and on point!

Despite my appreciation and respect for the creators of Incall, I have to knock it down a few pegs for being way too long and for not really being what I would consider a horror film. But then again, I could just be missing the point… And you know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s gold. Just because this one didn’t meet any of my needs doesn’t mean it won’t be the perfect match for someone else!

Final Score: 4 out of 10

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Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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