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Rum and Hot Peppers
Sacrificial
USA 2018
produced by Chuck Ardezzone, Demitri Blanco, Frank Falvey, Tony Schweikle for HAS Entertainment
directed by Tony Schweikle
starring Carter Burch, Mark Laursen, Ash Hamilton, Elisabeth Ferrara, Chiko Mendez, Marise Jimenez, Frankie Gee, Chuck Ardezzone, Rodrigo Aragon, David John McCoy, Shannon Morrall, Brittany Ressa, Thomas Dubyna, Carolyn Schultz, Brooke Edkins, Shenai Malo, Kaycee Packard, Alexia Giori, Kurt Stephens, Sian Marah, Brian Ballance, Adam Engelhart, Cassidy Beckwith, Cameron Doane, Jonathan Jay, Natasha Love, Martell Walker
written by Tony Schweikle, music by André Ferreira Fernandes
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Somewhere in the Everglades: De Obayah (Chiko Mendez) and Brigitte (Ash
Hamilton) run a fake voodoo cult based on a deity and rituals made up out
of thin air, for those who are in it for the thrill and are willing to
pay. And while the cult involves animal sacrifices and drug use, there are
no major crimes committed by them - but enter Mr. Smith (Frankie Gee), an
amazingly rich person who offer them a fortune if they could provide a
human sacrifice. This is actually a bit over De Obayah and Brigitte's
heads, but for the money they're offered, they can't very well say no ...
Samantha (Elisabeth Ferrara), an attractive waitress, picks up Martin
(Carter Burch) and takes him to one of De Obayah and Brigitte's voodoo
gatherings with her, thinking he might be easy prey for their cult. But
when Martin witnesses the sacrifice, he bolts. First he wants to report
this to the police, but when he recognizes the sheriff (David John McCoy)
to be one of the cultists, he bolts again, and now has the law on his
tail, too. So he hooks up with investigative journalist Reynolds (Mark
Laursen), who has written a series of articles about local voodoo rituals,
and with his help he soon finds out the identity of the victim and how she
came in touch with the voodoo cult, a homeless person, a segment of the
population De Obayah and Brigitte are apparently preying on. So Reynolds'
assistant Kristy (Marise Jimenez) poses as a homeless person as well, and
soon gets in touch with the cult, and De Obayah and Brigitte groom her to
be their next sacrifice. Obviously this is good news for Martin and
Reynolds who make up an army of homeless veterans to raid the ritual -
thing is, De Obayah and Brigitte have seen through Kristy's ruse and plan
to set up a trap for Martin ...
Now Rum and Hot Peppers is not exactly a masterpiece,
and you might have figured from above synopsis already that it doesn't
rate high on the originality scale - but that said, it's actually better
than it sounds, a solid low budget feature that might have written B-movie
all over it, but it wears that banner proudly and basically just manages
to really entertain its audience. And even if the film tries to hammer the
message about homeless veterans home a bit too hard, it at least serves
the story instead of the other way round.
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