Likely to be the most incendiary, controversial 34 minutes of film you'll see in 2024, this is the latest offering from firebrand filmmaker Rene Perez. The average viewer might know Perez from his 'Playing with Dolls' horror film franchise or 'Death Kiss' which made a star of Hungarian Charles Bronson lookalike Robert Bronzi, and managed to steal thunder away from the official Death Wish remake a few years ago.
Subsequent productions have however seen Perez drift away from being the heir apparent to Michael Winner, and instead edge closer and closer towards being the 21st century version of Ron Ormond. Using exploitation film techniques to espouse deeply conservative views, Perez's films are likely to find as much favour at a Trump rally, as they would in grindhouses of old. Given there uncompromising politics, distribution of these newer style
Perez productions- which could be dubbed 'QAnon-ploitation' films- have been limited to Perez's own Rebellion Flix website. The exclusive home to the likes of ONLY FANS ALLOWED, in which the Illuminati sends a superhuman, masked killer after an anti-vaxxer, or PRO-GOD, PRO-GUN, in which a Vietnam veteran asks for god's help to battle atheist bank robbers. Perez's latest 'THEY WANT US WOKE, NOT AWAKE' has managed to escape the confines of Rebellion Flix and onto YouTube, albeit with a few choice cuts for political content and female nudity.
They Want Us Woke reunites Perez with actress Chelsea Evered, a stand out performer in Pro-God, Pro-Gun where she played the lesbian head of the atheist bank robber baddies. Rightly recalled by Perez, Evered is an impressive, powerhouse of an actress, who like her director, appears willing to sacrifice a mainstream career in favour of political beliefs. Here she's the heroine of the piece, an unnamed woman who has walked a hard path in life due to her conservative stance. One that has seen her lose her husband to a feminist, her mother due to differing views on abortion, and her son due to her gender critical beliefs.
As in Only Fans Allowed, They Want Us Woke begins as pure political sandboxing, as Evered's character launches into a monologue that touches on just about every socially taboo topic... reparations for slavery, the death penalty, abortion, the trans issue, sex education in schools. While the politics of They Want Us Woke is limited to just two early scenes, Perez manages to squeeze allot into them, serving up a McControversial sandwich, with a side order of hot potatoes.
They Want Us Woke then takes a hard right into horror/exploitation territory, as Evered's character gets kidnapped, along with a Trump supporting radio DJ. There captor being a mysterious, gas mask wearing figure who has been trafficking the organs of outspoken right-wingers for his liberal masters.
I wouldn't say They Want Us Woke is the ideal place to start with Perez, his 'above ground' productions like Cry Havoc and Cabal are a better showcase for what he can do on a larger budget, and are more subtle in their social commentary. If you want to be thrown in the deep end though, They Want Us Woke is undiluted, industrial strength Rene Perez, if you will. It gives you an idea of the talent he has for staging action and suspense, which by rights should be seeing him currently asending the ranks of B-Movie filmmakers, while at the same time amplifying the extreme politics that are likely to further ghettoise him to smaller scale, tub-thumping like this. A hill that- career wise at least- Rene Perez seems willing to die on.
