The City

The City may sound like any other violent, low-budget, action flick trying to live up to Scorsese or Tarantino. But a clever premise laced with smart subtext and wicked humor makes this a film worth seeing.

"I'd like people to walk away questioning what it is by their nature that makes them entertained by certain aspects of media," writer/director James Vogel says. "Why do we as an audience expect to see violence and sex in films, and why are we entertained by it?"

Vogel, and his co-writers and stars, Ezra Stead and Greg Hernandez, clearly put a lot of thought into the meaning behind the film's graphic images. Their story tells of a screen writing student who falls in love with a charismatic underworld figure while seeking experience to inform his scripts. The relationship between characters Scott and T.K., who get off on the violent acts they commit, is ripe with barely concealed undertones.

"There exists this kind of tension in gangster films, a homosexual subtext," Vogel says. "Characters who revel in violence are somewhat fascinated with each other."

Stead also points to the relationship between sex and violence. "Wanting to kill someone for the experience is like trying to lose your virginity," he says.

Vogel and Stead met as students at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Vogel asked Stead to help him write the script and star in the film, and Stead suggested his friend Hernandez for the role of T.K. They shot the film in 16 days for a budget of $8,000.

Though pleased with their finished product, the filmmakers are also eager to hear negative responses. "It's a very personalized experience and a polarized reaction, and that's what interests me," Vogel says. Stead agrees. "We'd rather someone hate our film than just brush it off and forget about it," he adds.

THE CITY: DIRECTOR'S CUT (2009) is a true indie horror flick. It's written, directed, produced, and edited by James Vogel (who also did the art direction, the set decoration, was the production manager, in charge of the costume and wardrobe department, and served as the location manager and script supervisor). I also bet he would bring in sandwiches to the cast and crew thereby making him the caterer too!! This is Vogel's directorial debut and I must say that I'm impressed. He gives us a well directed film with above average-looking production values. There are some script problems (more on this in a second), but this is a solid film from someone I'll be keeping my eye on for future projects.

The story centers on Scott (Ezra Stead, who also serves as co-writer and does some stunts), a student in film school who is writing his thesis in scriptwriting. He presents his script to his professor who tells him its crap and that he needs more life experience in order to make the script more believable. So Scott hooks up with T.K. (Greg Hernandez; also a co-writer and stuntman in the film), a sociopath who is more than happy to give Scott all the experience he wants in kidnapping, torturing, and killing innocent people. Scott's professor ends up loving the rewritten script and tells him he'll easily be able to sell it. Scott and T.K. end up becoming partners and continue their murderous spree in order to provide Scott with inspiration.

The film, which runs 68 minutes, follows these two around on their crime and murder spree. Besides having above average production values, you'll immediately notice the solid acting here. Greg Hernandez provides the best performance as the sociopath T.K. After a while you forget you're watching a movie; Hernandez is very natural. Stead does at times suffer from a little overacting but overall puts in a solid performance.

My biggest problems with THE CITY, as mentioned above, are with the script. I didn't buy Scott's sudden turn from a shy, introverted writer to suddenly becoming a sociopath who stabs, beats the poop out of, shoots, and then drinks the blood of his victim. It was too large of a character leap. And even at 68 minutes this does drag at points. I attribute this to there being really only the one storyline (there's no subplots or even secondary characters here). What also hurts the film a little is the too-early character development of Scott. Scott undergoes a major character change early on in the film whereas I would have liked to have seen the transformation occur more slowly over the course of the film. All these "negatives" with the film are marginal to the effect of the overall film. Vogel has given us a well directed and well edited first feature.

Make sure you get the newly released DIRECTOR'S CUT and be sure to listen to the commentary tracks ... there's some really great insight and funny observations about the film. I can't wait to see what his next project is!!

Director: James Vogel (& writer) Plot: 3 out of 5 stars Gore: 3 out of 10 skulls Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains Reviewed by Scott Shoyer for AnythingHorror.com

The first time I saw James Vogel's The City, I have to admit, I enjoyed it. So, why do another review of the same movie...well, because, it's not really the same movie. Vogel has reedited his movie and added some scenes and taken away others to make this great indie movie even better.

The story remains basically the same, Scott is a frustrated screenwriter who needs to have some 'darker' experiences to flesh out his current work. He meets T.K. who's filled with 'dark' and is more than willing to share. The two soon find themselves fast friends and are up to no good! I won't go into much further detail.

Well, in this 'director's cut', the action remains largely the same, but pared down quite a bit. The action feels tighter that story moves faster and Vogel adds an ending that will make your skin absolutely crawl!