Patrick Roddy wrote, shot, and directed this indie horror film, in which he goes about melding atmosphere, gore, and surrealism into a fairly potent whole. Gary Shannon plays John Mercy, a tight-lipped loner who's spent over 20 years in prison for some crime. Now being released, he's eager to slip into a "normal" routine, including trips to a local bar for orders of club soda. Soon, he has accepted the overtures of friendship from Eve (Shelley Farrell), a barfly / aspiring actress. But he worries that she will awaken whatever pathologies lie within him.
Roddy deliberately creates a story that threatens to become boring for a while with its repetitiveness, but it slowly works its way under your skin. It becomes more interesting as it goes along, as Roddy illustrates the deterioration of Mercy's world and mind. He creates some not-bad macabre imagery; periodically, Mercy will lose a body part, and the addled ex-con gets more and more unhinged. People could easily accuse Roddy of some pretentiousness, but this viewer did warm up to his approach after a while. The filmmakers created a stark, black & white world where lots of things feel very off-kilter, including a bartender (Bryan Trahan) who sometimes just stands around creepily when he's not serving drinks.
The performances are obviously not as slick as what you would get from more mainstream actors, but the people do here do a decent job. Mercy comes off as a cipher without much personality at first, but the character comes to life more and more as the film progresses. Contributing memorable turns are Julie Ann Fay as a ghost, Carol Anne Gayle as an old woman, and especially Charles McNeely III as the sardonic, judgmental parole officer.
No, Roddy is not in the same league as David Lynch, but what he's done here is a respectable effort at playing in the same sort of sandbox.
Seven out of 10.
