Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin

As a fan of Jim Van Bebber I was surprised to see this movie in the UK Uncut after the BBFC rumpus over Deadbeat at Dawn.The short(about 15 mins im not sure) details the activities of a maniac called John Martin who lives in a Filthy home and eats roadkill,yelling at the TV,and eventually going out to capture some hitchikers.Its fairly grim viewing,but the acting is poor,and the attempt to capture a Texas Chainsaw atmosphere doesnt work.Made to finance a feature film.Its on video in the UK with the great My Sweet Satan,a much better film by Van Bebber.

This "portrait" of a serial killer is extremely short, but nevertheless long & detailed enough to make your stomach turn inside out! Jim Van Bebber ("The Manson Family") and Mark Gillespie introduce a fictional cannibalistic psychopath who spends his days grinding and devouring raw animals he picked up from the streets and yelling at the most stupid programs on TV. His living room is a total mess, with blood stains on every wall and flesh-leftovers in every filthy cover. Martin then goes on the road and picks up a young couple whose car broke down. Shortly after, the girl is locked up in a cage while the boy lies on a nasty operating table, waiting for his head to get cut off. The movie ends with images clearly indicating John Martin prepared his victims for evening TV-dinner. "Roadkill" is truly repulsive, with Van Bebber's camera zooming in on all the graphic details. It would normally be a pretty forgettable short feature, but somehow Van Bebber & Gillespie manage to create a solid morbid atmosphere that makes "Roadkill" much more effective and petrifying that most serial-killer flicks. The tone and filming style are indescribably nihilistic and raw, while Mark Gillespie scares the hell out of you as the titular madman. The music exciting and the filthy set-pieces are awesome. I didn't really care for "The Manson Family" or "Deadbeat at Dawn", but Van Bebber's insane short films are total winners.

Van Bebber here borrows liberally from the Ed Gein legend and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE to create a short film about a TV addict cannibal man. The film starts with him butchering an animal and feasting on the raw meat as rats and mice infest his kitchen. He barfs, watches TV and goes out for human victims. What happens when he brings them back to his home shall go unmentioned here but you'll need a strong stomach. Short and gruesome, this was a fun little splatter film.

"If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all," right? Okay, so here's something nice: I think the blood and gore effects are well done, including the appearance of the body parts lying around John Martin's humble abode.

However.

With occasional exceptions, the most important aspect of horror, as a genre, is its ability to elicit a visceral reaction from viewers by one means or another. Whether that response is acute fright, disgust, dread, terror, rising disquiet, or a more general sense of thrills - if the average horror feature can't make its audience feel something, then it has failed.

'Roadkill: The last days of John Martin' pointedly misses the mark on that one essential requirement. By shoving blood and gore in our faces from the very beginning, it has severely limited itself. There's nowhere else to go, much like how one can't have an earnest conversation through yelling, as it limits the all important variation in vocal inflection. With that element that should provoke a reaction being immediate, and pervasive, its narrative purpose is negated.

Remove the squandered blood and gore from the short film, and all one has left is 1) gratuitous nudity, 2) a brief scene of a man attacking a stranded couple after he gives them a ride, and 3) a man screaming, annoyingly, at his television.

Now, to be fair, those three story beats are ideas one could work with - in a very different type of tale. Not in a horror feature where wasted blood and gore is the focus of its would-be shock value.

Adding final insult to injury, 'Roadkill' is still more well done than the other short film, 'My sweet Satan,' that it is paired with.

Yawn.

Jim Van Bebber must be the unluckiest filmmaker on earth. The original video distributor of "Deadbeat At Dawn" ripped him off, "The Manson Family" was in movie limbo for a decade and this short was made with the intention of attracting investors for a full length feature film. In true Van Bebber style, no cash was forthcoming.

It is incomprehensible to me that a visionary like Jim Van Bebber has to beg, borrow and steal to make a film, while every second loser in Hollywood gets a $30 million budget thrown at them to rape a 1970s horror classic, "re-making" it into a steaming pile of commercial crap. Unfortunately, the joke is on us. Horror fans have missed out on what had the potential to be a phenomenal film.

Roadkill focuses on serial killing cannibal called John Martin, who picks up stranded motorists on a deserted highway and then takes them home to be butchered. The result lies somewhere between "Wolf Creek", "Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer" and "Schramm". In other words, it is awesome. As with all of Van Bebber's work, the violence is gritty and realistic. The butchering of John's male victim is intense and his female victim's cries for mercy and ultimate fate are utterly grim. The film's only real weakness is Mark Gillespie's performance as John, which lacks restraint and initially comes across as unintentionally funny. I'm also not sure why John spent so much time screaming at his television set. However, these faults do little to detract from the intensity and brutality of Van Bebber's short film.

Roadkill is another example of Jim Van Bebber's unique style and considered approach to on-screen violence. What a shame that we only have 15 paltry minutes to savour.