Natural Selection

When I first finished Natural Selection, or Monster Hunter, I didn't know what to think. The movie comes at you like a breeze, quick and without much of an impression.

The movie itself was not that interesting. A plot about serial killers and a couple of jokes.

What really bothered me was its side-plot, the one that involves David Carridine. I can't tell you much about it, but it's "interesting" The movie obviously had some vision, which I liked. It tried something new. But it just fell short. Way too many problems with me, which I can't tell you much about.

This movie is obviously one of those "you love it or hate it" kind of movies. So I hope you get the chance to see it to make up your mind.

Natural Selection is a zany romp though a small east Texas town. Its frightened and sometimes frightening characters are drawn right out Jerry Springer's guest list. This film pokes fun at almost every aspect of life in the small towns all over east Texas.

The movie starts as a documentary about a serial killer, "Citizen Willie". In the opening scenes we get to meet three of Willie's cousins. The cousins are a clear (and hilariously frenetic) sign that all is not well in Willie's gene pool.

The movie cuts between the narrative of the story, and the documentary in a way that leaves you either on the edge of your seat or doubled over with laughter.

The best character in this film has got to be Willie's psychotic mother. We can get a real insight into what it takes to completely destroy a child's developing mind by watching this nutty bi***. If she's not pantomiming masturbation she's using a toothpick to remove the casualties of her continuing war on the fly population from a battered filthy flyswatter. To say this film is over the top is to put it mildly. Wimpy little mama's boys/girls need not apply. The laughs that come from this marvelously acted and written film will have you grabbing for your asthma inhaler (whether or not you are so afflicted).

David Carradine (yes, the Kung Fu Carradine) plays a major role in this film, and, while he brings considerable talent to the cast -- perhaps the only talent -- much of the time he looks like an actor desperately seeking direction. I feel a little sorry for him. Carradine plays a maverick FBI agent who has gone a little haywire from brushing up against the madness of his serial killer quarry. He stays in a motel room lined with pages torn from a Bible -- a reference to The Omen in which a priest, driven mad by his quest for to confront and battle the Ultimate Evil, lives in a Bible page-lined cell. Carradine's delusional special agent sees his quarry going into a horrifically fast seizures, much like the terrifying spasms of the figures haunting the protagonist in Jacob's Ladder. There are, perhaps, hints of Pulp Fiction here and there as well. Yet these allusions are not enough to save the film -- if anything, they seem to be adolescent expressions of adulation rather than homage to the filmmaker's influences.

I had the joy of catching this flick at a film festival and it is truly a find. Very off-the-wall independent stuff. And very funny. At times you may think it goes over the top, and then it goes further. With the right circumstances, this could have been a great cult hit, as it is much more entertaining, thought provoking and well-acted than something like Donnie Darko.

And Carradine is absurdly hilarious. Is he being serious? Is making fun of himself? I don't know, watch the movie and make your own choice.

The script is the true find of the production as it reads like the perverse parody that 'Natural Born Killers' never amounted to. It jumps back and forth between a sort of film noir and pseudo-documentary - and I wish there had been even more that interplay. It's almost as if the director stumbled onto a movie and didn't realize it was as funny as it ended up being.

A friend and I were invited to a special screening of 'Natural Selection' in Santa Monica this past June. As finicky spectators, we were both skeptical. We had an inkling of the film's storyline; but for the most part, we were uninitiated as to what might come to light or smolder to ash in a genre that is all too trite--a black comedy entwined with a serial killing ruse. Yet despite our snobbish prelude, by the end of the opening title sequence we were smiling. And by the end of the closing title sequence we were wildly entertained. The characters take some getting use to, all of which are satirically drawn, but once you get past introductions you realize you could be at a southern county fair and all is laughable. The film's strength is its lunacy and the direction of each preposterous circumstance. The writing is no stroke of genius, but in collaboration with the creative direction, performances, and a smart edit it is noteworthy. If 'Natural Selection' gets its audience it will be rocketed to cult film status and hence be a fusion of three genres--black comedy, serial killing ruse, and cult film. Check up and coming film festival listings or special screenings of 'Natural Selection'-- like me, you will be caught off guard and caught having a good time.