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Almost Mercy
USA 2015
produced by
Chad A. Verdi, David Lussier, David Gere, Tom DeNucci, Michael Chase, Seth Rosenblit (executive), Dawn Van Zant (executive), Taylor Van Zant (executive), Michelle Verdi (executive), Joshua Sason (executive), James Cillizza (executive), Fadlo Haber (executive) for Woodhaven Productions, LDI Entertainment, Magna Entertainment
directed by Tom DeNucci
starring Danielle Guldin, Jesse Dufault, Bill Moseley, Kane Hodder, Fred Sullivan, Alexander Cook, William DeCoff, Eric Nyenhuis, Tommy Dreamer, Tanja Melendez Lynch, Beth Campbell, Tess Degen, Eva Senerchia, Jonah Coppolelli, Sean Leser, Michael Zuccolo, Gerald Lovelace, Tammy Brown, Noah Tully-Sanderson, Brandon Garvey, Quenten Mangum, David Gere, Melissa Randall, Ian Lyons, Rj Heim, Mike Bennett, Kelby T. Akin, Nick Principe, Bernard Dolan, Diana Porter, Jose Guns Alves
music by Bernard Dolan, DS3K, Adam Schneider, Roz and the Ricecakes, special makeup effects by Ben Bornstein, visual effects by Sam Eilertsen
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Emily (Danielle Guldin) and Jackson (Jesse Dufault) have always been
the outsiders of their school: They behaved slightly oddly, didn't like
what the mainstream liked, had macabre predilections, were no cheerleader
and football crack respectively, and thus were the prime target of bullies
- not only students bullied them of course but also teachers like the
dim-witted coach (Kane Hodder) - but they had each other, were each
other's respective anchor. But then, after a vicious piss bomb attack,
Jackson snaps and beats up good three of the bullies ... and is thus taken
out of school, serves some time, undergoes anger management classes, is
taught how to fire a gun by his parole officer ... in other words, nothing
is done to improve his situation. Emily in the meantime grows to be a
woman - with all that comprises of in this day and age, including having
meaningless sex, getting wasted on alcohol and drugs and the like. Then
one day the football team get their hands on her, drug and gangrape her
... and when Emily wants to report it to the police, her school's
principal (Fred Sullivan) tries to talk her out of it, emphasizing on the
importance of the football team as such, and the importance of the jocks'
parents for the community in particular - in other words, he tries to buy
her silence without even bothering to offer compensation, appealing to her
"common sense" instead of using his own. She turns down the
offer of course, but the sheriff (William DeCoff) is in on the thing with
the principal so there are no consequences. Eventually, Jackson comes
back into Emily's life, but he has grown disillusioned and a gun fetishist
- the only thing that hasn't changed is that he's very fond of Emily and
hates his school. So she and he plan to stage a high school shooting, but
while for her planning's just a game, he really tries to go through with
it one day ... but ultimately can't shoot anybody and is arrested before
the fact - no media frenzy, nothing. Emily on the other hand is much more
unscrupulous, picks up his guns and decides to have her revenge on those
who have wronged her and Jackson - only with a slightly different (and
more effective) plan ... Horror veteran Kane Hodder plays a priest who
has raped Jackson as a kid, when he was an altar boy. Almost
Mercy is a very audacious little film, first and foremost because it
does not take the easy approach to its subject matter and just condemn the
perpetrators of a school shooting but actually asks questions, and gets
into the heads of these perpetrators for a bit to find out what's wrong
with not only them but mainstream society at large to even grow such
characters. Now it's almost certain that some will find this approach
alone controversial even if the film never condones the actions of its
main characters, just dares to show them as victims of a heartless
society.who are not content with the place given to them - but there's
never any doubt left that their ways to change that are pure madness, not
their motives though. And that all said, this makes the film sound like
a brain-heavy and boring exposé - but Almost Mercy is anything
but, it's a rather entertaining and well-paced genre film that winkingly
borrows from grindhouse cinema, shows quite a bit of love for its own gory
excesses (again, without actually condoning them), never shies away from
irony (Emily's off-screen narration alone is a hoot), is light-footed in
approach, and features a pretty great key cast. Sure, it's not what
would be considered as 100% politically correct by mainstream society, but
exactly for that it's all the more thought-provoking ... and also all the
more entertaining!
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find Almost Mercy at adultvideouniverse.com
