Sixteen Tongues

Sometime in the future two people are hiding in an S&M motel: Adrian Torque (Crawford James) should now be dead. He is a renegade cop whose skin was reconstructed out of the sixteen tongues of fellow officers who died next to him in a terrible explosion. He is not a Frankenstein only on the outside, but he is also slowly driven mad by a never-ending stream of tastes. Adrian is not your average cop. The opening scene shows him interrogating a prisoner, then he forces him to perform graphic fellatio on him before blasting his brains against the wall.

Ginny Chin-Chin (Jane Chase) is a female assassin who has a clitoris implanted on her eyebrows; every blink triggers her incontrollable impulses. She stays in a room with her hacker girlfriend (Alice Liu). Their lives are about to collide with Adrian Torque.

Unfortunately Sixteen Tongues falters on the technical side. This movie would have benefited enormously from a more elaborate (not expensive) "mise en scene," simply because of its claustrophobic nature and stylized ideas. After all, this is a film set in the future. I'm not saying that it needed a bigger budget. Sometimes stunning cinematography can disguise a low budget. After an impressive opening credit sequence the visuals lose strength. The lighting is poor, or let's better say non-inexistent, for a big part of the film. The lampshades in the rooms are just not enough to keep the image clear of video noise. Maybe it is the ultimate realistic lighting, but it just doesn't looks good. However, the flickering blue light from the TV in Adrian's room is adequate and atmospheric.

The camera-work is uneven. Sometimes it is imprecise in its framing and sloppy in its movements. I like darkness and/or hand-held shots, but only when it is purposefully intended for a specific reason, with some kind of stylization behind it, to achieve a determinate goal.

The sound mix needs some equalization; mostly the voice-overs are sometimes hard to hear. But the music is pretty effective, adding greatly to the dark cyber-punk atmosphere. The opening and end credits tracks are both pretty good.

The actors all look like they are supposed to. Adrian is tall, tough looking. Virginia is cold and sensual at the same time. Although there are some weak moments, the acting is passable for the most part.

On the other hand, the sets evoke the seedy atmosphere of the location very effectively. The hallways are filled with porn photos. There is some of A Clockwork Orange's resonance in an ice machine shaped as two buttocks, the ice spurting from between them into the glass, and a doll with her legs spread over Adrian's TV. The S&M costumes, special effects, make up, gunshots are pretty well done for microcinema standards. The intricate animated sequences depicting web surfing deserves special mention. The live action scenes should have had this level of elaboration.

The pacing of the film suffers from some well-written, but sometimes extended voice overs. They serve the purpose of providing the background stories for the characters as well as some interesting concepts, but less is more. I would have rather have the film find a low budget, yet effective way of "showing me" rather than "telling me" some of its ideas.

But at the end, the power of this film lies in its ideas, original plot, and characters. If you are able to put the technical flaws aside, it succeeds tremendously in creating a uniquely grotesque world invaded by porn and genetically-altered people. In this world you have to swipe your credit card to be able to shut off the never-ending porn ads on your TV, or to use tap water or to take a shower.

There is a tasty amorality permeating all of the characters. If you think the protagonists are deviant, wait till you meet some of the guests from this motel. Despite what I said about the visuals, there are many memorable images. One comes to mind now: A penis ejaculating blood on a female chest. It left me wondering how life outside the motel in that world would be like.

One feels the script was written without any kind of self-censorship. Scooter McCrae doesn't seem very concerned about being assimilated by Hollywood, as it should be. In that sense, Sixteen Tongues takes full advantage of being a microcinema movie. It is not afraid to shock or disturb you with it's graphic sexuality, violence, and bold ideas.

The story goes as following: in an SM hotel, where walls are full of porn ads and the TV screens porn the whole time, stay 3 different people, who all must deal with their problems. The first is Adrian, a cop who was severely injured in a blast. His skin was replaced with the material from the tongues of 16 people (hence the name of the movie). Because of this he can literally taste his own clothes and everything he touches. The second is a female hacker, Alik, who's constantly accessing the Web in search for information. Third - Alik's lover, the assassin Ginny. She must deal with the urge to kill and with the artificial clitorises that are situated under both eyelids making her orgasm every time she blinks.

In short: I liked it. If one can see beneath the adult rated surface and won't be repulsed by the huge amount of sexual images then what we've got is a very solid cyberpunk movie. It resembles to Gibson's stories - several different tales which become one in the end, the technology, as crazy as it is, is just a by-product, it doesn't strive the story. Not much happens, we just get to know the characters, get to see why they do the things they do.

"Sixteen Tongues" is not a film that is easily digestible, in fact, it makes it obvious during the movie's first established shot. The plot is simple and yet the message forces the viewer to "read between the lines" of thismicro-budget, cyber-sexual thriller. What the director (Scooter McCrae,"Shatter Dead") does is create startling and quite thought provokingdialog to engage the viewer in what the film's budget lacks visually.

It is a dark and disturbing look at a future many of us want to avoid. The truth resides literally between the lines. For one to really understand and experience "Sixteen Tongues" as a great cinematic experience, one must look beyond the images and at what the screenwriter (McCrae) is trying to say. What many of today's audiences tend to forget is that movies are not always supposed to be handed over to you by "a lazy Hollywood" with happy endings and saccharine story lines. A good film like "Tongues', forces you to think and at times it does provoke uncomfortable reactions.

"Sixteen Tongues" is about, a universe propelled by a sexuality so demanding humanity is forced to literally pay for it. "Tongues" bold expression is a UPC symbol planted underneath our skin. Do not watch it as another "fly-by-night-run-of-the-mill" S.O.V. flick; experience it and think about its memorandum. I enjoyed the film enormously and would highly recommend McCrae's (as well as his first, "Shatter Dead) second effort, it is unique, and frankly, it is a film that pushes the boundaries of modern realism while keeping a sharp distance from mainstream flair.

In better hands Sixteen Tongues could have been a real gem. Ferrara maybe, or Cronenberg, or better yet some slime crusted, fork dicked hybrid of the two, Ferrara's pointed grime and Cronenberg's art and smarts. Sadly writer/director Scooter McRae isn't fit to shine the balls of either of the aforementioned, let alone a super-being made of their best qualities, but he comes up with a pretty watchable slice of underground trash nonetheless. Things even start rather well, opening credits laid over blue tinted extreme close ups of body parts mixed with strobe lighting, it sets up the films central theme of body overpowering, magnified, perverted, we see belly as plain, breasts as heaping dunes, flesh as landscape. And where the body is not just vessel for the mind in the world but world itself, what place is there for the mind? Then pretty much the first scene of the film is a freaky disfigured guy taunting a hooded prisoner before raping him in the mouth and shooting him in the head. Regrettably after this auspicious opening the film settles into a somewhat slow, repetitious groove and I'll wager many will find it deeply tedious. The plot switches to a female assassin and her hacker girlfriend shacked up in an incredibly seedy hotel (here you have to pay to turn the porn off), they argue, screw and pursue a nebulous vengeance, matters coming to a head with the arrival of the earlier disfigured gent. It all ends in suitably violent fashion which will either come as a relief or a fitting finale depending on your patience. Me, I liked it well enough. Starlets Jane Chase and Alice Liu are mostly naked during the film, and while both are shot and made up to look kinda dorky and unappealing they got at least the ghost of a rise out of me. Also both of them (as well as Crawford Chase as the sinister disfigured dude) perform with commitment, the ennui they bring feels organic rather than an unintentional side effect of the film-making, their dulled tones, flares of tired anger, blurts of frenzy, it works in a gritty sort of manner. The general design is effective too, cheapest hotel imaginable but with pornographic trapping everywhere, even the odd full on mannequin. Everything works together to put across notions of body, mind and control, ideas that are not especially developed, rather interesting tones, together a lulling, darkly ambient experience. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to anyone that isn't a devotee of underground cyberpunk themed trash, but to those on the same wonky wavelength (myself for example), its a nice little watch. 6/10.

On the weekends, all I wanna do is kick back, a brew in hand, maybe some smoking material, and pop in a sick, twisted, mindless movie into my DVD player. Makes the time pass pretty quick and puts a huge smile on my face.

But I have to tell you, in recent years, there's been a dry spell when it comes to cult films. I don't know why, but every little dingbat wannabe with a video camera tries to (re-)shoot their favorite, big budget movie. This gets tired very quickly, let me tell you.

But I gotta say that I recently came across this movie a couple of months ago. It's from the same guy that made "Shatterdead" which I loved back in the day. Only this time he's doing sci-fi and, boy, is it nasty! It was a perfect weekend movie. It's got hot, naked Asian girls, gory makeup, and guns. Oh, did I forget to say it's got hot Asian chicks! It's totally perverted.

I haven't seen something like it in a long time. At least someone's still out there making cult movies.