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Episode 165: The Feral Man (2002)

Ya know cow in astrophysics we know about the presence of a black hole in space, not because we can actually see one, but because of the effects it has on udder stars and planets, how it sucks energy and matter and stuff away and towards the hole? That’s kind of this moovie: its a critter moovie that doesn’t actually show a critter, just the effects it has one everyone. In particular, one poor schlub named Danny, played by nun udder than writer/director/producer Brett Kelly (My Dead Girlfriend, Prey for the Beast, Pirates Quest for Snake Island, Jurassic Shark, et al), who ain’t having a nice day, and it gets even worse when…something sorta does something to him at his dad’s funeral. And Danny gets a lil…nutso. He’s becoming a werewolf! Well, only if your definition of ‘werewolf’ involves not actually changing into anything, and just wandering around a yapping a lot. That sort of ‘werewolf’. Naturally, Moody, along with special guest co-hosts Ana Xaden and Mark D. Valenti, had to check it out and yap about it on the newest edition of Indie Film Cafe!

Ummmm, yeah, we needed a lot moore of that!

Now we here at Indie Film Cafe loves us some Brett Kelly moovies, and Canuxploitation in general, but this moovie…there just ain’t much to it. It was only Kelly’s like second moovie, so we can cut him some slack, and the idea might could have been pulled off as a short film – the moovie is kind of short to begin with, and just feels mercilessly padded out – but as a full length…not so much. The acting isn’t so bad, nor even the direction is a real problem, and yes it is a microbudget production, even by Canadian standards (it prolly cost moore to fill up at Timmy Ho’s that day), its just the screenplay doesn’t do nearly enough to keep the audience’s attention. Just need a whole lotta moore!

Oooooh yeah, bath full of blood, never a good sign!

The moovie definitely has a sort of camcorder feel to it, and the FX are fairly cheesy, and one cannot help but thank Kelly that he didn’t try to show a critter ’cause that would have made things even worse – decent critter suits are expensive! The acting is earnest enough and and there is definitely some nice eye candy to look at, one just can’t help but want a hole lot moore claw-claw and blood splatter. Is ok, Director Kelly will be on to bigger and better things down the road; for a young filmmaker’s early attempts you cud do a lot worse than this. Some good, some bad, some meh, not too much of anything.

‘Ware yee mah Canadian pew-pew!

Well the votes are in, and the Indie Film kids gave the Feral Man a total Stink Score of 15 – that’s 4 from Jonathan Moody, a 6 from Ana Xaden, and a 5 from Mark D. Valenti – that’s a Stinky Average of 5.0, which seems to the MooCow to be cow spot on. That score puts it right in the middle of the Ladder of Stink, along with It Waits, Don’s Plum, and a bunch of udders.

You can find the trailer for this flick right HERE. You can find it on Youtube, but only the 49 minute version. The full version is streaming on Prime, and you can pick up the DVD pretty cheaply from Amazon as well as SRS Cinema – the DVD comes with loads of extras, so for you Brett Kelly fans having the physical media is a must-have! It is also streaming on Google Play. It is also out in the re-sale market, especially Ebay. This flick also appears on a double feature special cowllection called Night Creatures which is notoriously difficult to find, but every now and then pops up on Amazon. That one is on Ebay as well. Sorry, there does not seem to be any schwag out there for this moovie, not even a poster, and it is out of print in moost places apart from SRS so go gets yer hooves on a copy from them and check it out!

Please…only you can keep independent moovies alive…unlike me

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