Full Review

The Vinegar Syndrome
by Simon St. Laurent

Right off the top it must be said that I have no love for the bloodletting style of horror film, but the odd flick does come along which gives hope to those who truly believe there is validity in the type. A certain horror film premiered at the 2006 version of the Toronto International Film Festival. It's name is End of the line and it was produced, written and directed by one Maurice Devereaux. Admittedly, I showed up to the screening since I am very familiar with this filmmaker’s work – I interviewed him two years ago for the “Articles” page on this site. What is striking about this movie is that it was done for a very small amount of money but looks very polished. It certainly looks more expensive than you would expect it to. Adjusting for inflation, Ed Wood probably had more money to make his opus Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Devereaux has made it known that he has an aversion to organized religion and he explains it in EOTL: He really doesn't like 'bible thumpers' and presents here a freaky, almost Jim Jones blend of blind faith. The director's feelings towards the perversity of faith – or strains thereof – are laid out here in their nakedness for all to see. Even though the religious cult members are efficient in killing, Devereaux renders these followers as people with some dimension – a couple of them actually question their great leader's plan. In today's political climate it is quite heartening to see anybody questioning anything. The brand of religious conviction here is extreme but Devereaux makes it believable – more so as the cult members carry out the imperious leader’s wishes by utilizing only the latest technologies (as of the film’s production date) to get their ‘cue’. The result is actually one of simple humour. The gang has issues with civilization, to put it bluntly, and yet they are clearly utilizing the advantages of progress. This joke is very simple, easy to understand, and does not hold a lot of subtext which only makes it funnier. (Maybe this is a result of Gilligan’s Island’s influence on the director’s sense of humour [Read my interview with Devereaux on the “Articles” page]. One almost expects to hear Gerald Fried’s ‘goofy’ music playing under these scenes.)

Devereaux has a knack for creating tension. I had heard days before the premiere from someone who saw a rough cut of the film that there were three or four pure jump-out-of-your-seat moments and that one of these happens in the first couple of minutes of screen time. They were right – I will leave it at that. (The buildups to these moments help a great deal and the shocks themselves are not just for the sake of having shocks.) The director moves through the tunnels with a sure hand as though he has shot in these very same tunnels before… he knows what is around the corner and moves his characters accordingly – they are all chess pieces, though ones sporting crowbars.

Films like Blood Symbol, and Slashers – though imperfect to various degrees – do display filmmaking prowess from someone who is obviously driven to make films and probably wants to do not much of anything else. Theoretically, a filmmaker or any artist should get better and better at his or her craft through sheer repetition. With Maurice Devereaux this theory more or less is realized. EOTL is the project of someone who – through repetition, artistic and technical improvement – has made a film for which he can be proud. EOTL is a ‘real’ movie in every sense of the term, accomplishing so succinctly and beautifully what many of the type try desperately to attain but rarely do.

Devereaux uses unknown actors and with a lot of gumption – which he seems to have in spades – makes a straightforward and accessible film, and he does this in Canada. Not to make too great a point about it, but I am only half joking when I say that this film should be road-showed around this great land, pushed about as an example of commercially minded filmmaking done for so little money and in a country where the mentality is to produce Atom Egoyan-type pictures. I am exaggerating, of course, but not by much. “Artistic” films should be made but through insecurity, or some other unseen force, we in Canada tend to make films which don’t promote film as “industry”. Making feature length movies is too expensive a proposition to come off exclusively as anything else. After architecture, filmmaking is the most expensive art. (The down side of arts council-type funding – at least here in Ontario, Canada – is that films or their scripts that have the least bit commercialism are neglected or bypassed altogether.) Of course, access to our own movie screens is a whole other issue.

My point is that Canada needs more people like Devereaux who – in a very American-style fashion – risk their own money to make pictures that have a chance of people wanting to see them. Commercial filmmaking is a dirty word here in Canada, to many. Yes folks, you can make a film here which is unabashedly commercial in it’s intent, although one with true artistic integrity and propelled by a modicum of showmanship.

Like any collaborative art, this isn't the “Maurice Devereaux Show” but the man sure does know how to pick them. Director of Photography Denis-Noel Mostert succeeds in shooting the picture in a naturalistic way. As a viewer one is not sure where the source and artificial lighting both begin and end. In this sense EOTL isn’t of the typical horror vein where stock conventions might apply such as colourful and or subdued lighting at the right moments. (I should note that Mostert told me after the screening the ‘print’ was about two-thirds to one full stop over where he wanted it.) This definitely does not look like a Mario Bava movie. A natural look makes it all the more scary.

There is an element of EOTL which is more obvious to the viewer… the music score. With the opening titles consisting of a trip through a subway tunnel, composer Martin Gauthier delivers from the get go with a driving theme. This music is presented in the best Hollywood tradition: Powerful and loud and played by a full orchestra (albeit rendered electronically). Bernard Herrmann meets Jerry Goldsmith – that is the sound. Two of the greatest composers to have ever worked in cinema are alive and well according to Gauthier. With the opening titles being so right for the picture, in hindsight, I must have missed seeing Saul Bass’s name come up as one of the credits. The title sequence is special insomuch as it shows that Devereaux knows how Hollywood would typically treat this. Like many moments to come in EOTL the title scene illustrates that the director knows how to steal effectively… but in a good way. (Legendary film composer Max Steiner once said, “good composers borrow, great composers steal”.)

It should be added that Martin Gauthier knows how to write a tune – from film to film this skill is not always necessary but is all too rarely displayed these days. (Many producers today consider it almost distasteful to use music containing any real melody when required. Not that the typical producer would know about taste anyway.) The composer for this film realized that there had to be a gentle and straightforward melody in the underscore to help keep the on-screen shenanigans somewhat human.

Special makeup artist Adrien Morot, who has worked on many a Hollywood film, produces (with perhaps one exception) convincing Human distortions, blood letting, and the like. His product at the picture’s end scene is necessarily outstanding and only adds to the effectiveness of the denouement.

The actors are surprisingly good. The actors' perfomances in Devereaux’s previous efforts were unpolished for the most part – he works here with ACTRA (the Canadian version of SAG) members. Even though adding to the productions costs this decision pays off handsomely. One carryover from Slashers, actor Neil Napier, who was excellent in that film as two of the villains, is solid in EOTL playing a very different kind of role. Elona Elkin, who is probably the only ‘name’ in the bunch, plays her lead role with some dimension. Naturally some back-story was worked out between her and director Devereaux – in some scenes you can see it in her eyes. Though the cast needs minutes of screen time to hit their stride once they do they get right down to the proceedings with conviction and aplomb.

As our main cast – the good guys that is – are knocked off one by one you the viewer along with the other characters in the film feels some loss. With a lot of these films I find that you don’t see any baggage carried by the survivors. There should be some adjustment when someone ‘goes’ and you get the impression in this show that every one of the immediate survivors are a little different, even though they didn’t know each other hours or minutes before.

During one scene in particular the cast looks authentically nervous as they slowly make their way down an under-lit access tunnel. It must be the way they hold their improvised weapons. They look nervous and we feel the same way. These characters generally behave the way you would expect them to in such a situation. I didn't ever get the urge to yell out, “you idiot… don’t go in there!” As they stop on a dime (after hearing something odd) and grip their weapons, we too feel nervous. This isn’t just an image on a screen. You don’t get the sense there is a film crew stuffed into the locations with the actors. Not only do you forget that these are actors – as you lose yourself in the film’s action – but you really feel that they really are alone.

Perhaps my favourite scene is the very end. It is highly reminiscent of one of the very end scenes for the 1957 horror film The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (Directed by Val Guest). While that film’s version is truly chilling, EOTL’s comes pretty close which is why it’s my favourite. If Devereaux hasn’t seen the Hammer classic then his ‘homage’ to it is uncanny.

End of the Line could perhaps use a little bit of tightening at least in the overall running time. It’s more of a case of how long the film felt when all is said and done rather that impressions you may have regarding time from scene to scene. This however is a moot point: If you find the film entertaining then what does it matter? There is a degree of character development but as the film rolls along you realize that this expository material helps any payoffs for the audience. (I could imagine that any prospective distributor would ask for little trims here and there. Without giving anything away, there is one scene that would definitely disturb some. As a matter of fact, at the film fest screening I attended, a couple of people got up together and one of them yelled out something to the effect, “you are laughing at this?! How can you watch the screen?!” My answer to this is, “hey buddy, it's only a movie!”)

The essential difference between EOTL and it’s contemporaries is that where most directors and producers of this strata of films are in love (and often display an obvious fondness) with blood and gore first and some kind of movie comes out of it, Maurice Devereaux shows he is in love with ‘film’ first, then is in love with horror films. More complexity comes when there is honesty in the storytelling and knowledge of the 'film language'. Besides, filming bloodletting, murder and mayhem is easy to do in principle. Presenting it effectively (as Hitchcock was able to do) where the audience is entertained and convinced in the on-screen proceedings, is the hard part. (To be blunt about it, the geeks have to be discounted as they furnish the built-in market and aren’t exactly critical most of the time.)

As one gentleman said to the director during the Q & A after the film festival premiere, “I don’t normally like films like this but I have to say that I was totally captivated by your film”. And as a young woman was overheard remarking in the theatre’s lobby afterwards, “… I don’t know, I had my hands over my face most of the time!”

Yes, I can safely spew out the old and cliched saying, “this is just about the most fun I’ve had at the movies in a while”. Without question, it is Maurice Devereaux’s best film. A cynic could opine that if you’ve seen the director’s earlier features then this isn’t exactly saying a lot. But it is better than that.

Visit :: The Vinegar Syndrome