Weak Species

I saw this film at FilmOut San Diego. Even though it was a short, it stuck with me more than any other film I saw at the festival, including the features. It's a harrowing story about two self-destructive, self-deluded teens who make bad decisions that get them in deep trouble. Not for the faint of heart, this film takes you to a really dark place in its short running time. Without giving anything away, I was on the edge of my seat as the main character got himself into an incredibly terrifying situation.

The acting of Eric Smith, who I remember from Home at the End of the World a few years back, was incredible. He has really developed his acting chops over the years and he is just great to watch here. The other actors all range from very good to excellent. The story is directed with a steady hand, and the performances are all the more powerful for being restrained, creating a quivering intensity you can't look away from. The production values are high.

Perhaps what impressed me the most was the way the film bridged the better elements of a traditional drama with the better elements of suspense/horror. The film was frightening to me on a very deep level.

I saw Weaker Species as part of Toronto's Inside Out Film Festival. It was included a programme of shorts called "Gays and Confused". From that title, and the write up for the individual shorts, I was expecting something a lot lighter. I did not know that Weak Species was based on the writings of Dennis Cooper. I was definitely not prepared for the intensity of this film, nor were the two audience members who fainted during the screening.

George, played adequately by the attractive Brendan Bradley, is an arrogant artiste at the top of the High School food change. George seduces and discards the weaker members of his school while lusting after football star Cliff (Reed Windle).

At the bottom of the food chain is the troubled and perpetually high Steve (Erik Smith). Steve tries to escape his troubles through increasing rough sex. Instead of easing his sense of isolation, it only adds to his growing sense of despair.

The film alternates between the comic absurdity of George's self-importance and the intensity of Steve's downward spiral and the jarring violence that accompanies it.

Production values were high and Erik Smith was excellent, but I could have done without the sudden dark turn. The violence effectively left most of what was actually happening to the imagination of the audience. However, the violence in the climatic scenes did not further the story and could have remained completely off screen.

Movies do not need definitive endings but there should be consequences to the characters' actions that lay in the realm of possibility. This movie lacked any real consequences to events that would have had very serious repercussions. Steve and a teacher instrumental to a character's "trajectory," seem to simply return to school the next day.

Weak Species was technically quite good and will definitely have its fans. I just didn't like it very much. This movie is not for the faint at heart, and, if that statement gives you pause, I would skip this short.

So you shouldn't be surprised that the themes of violence, sex, alienation, & love converge in a narrative. I do not know if his darker truths are real or simply imagined because they are outside the understanding and experience of most people, but I enjoy taking a walk into his world whenever invited. That some moviegoers would faint at a screening, that is certainly apocraphal those would be the same victorian women who'd swoon at the sign of a chimney sweep's bare ankle.

I just "witnessed" this atrocity at the Los Angeles Outfest film festival. This movie was so gruesome several people actually fainted at the screening. Literally the worst movie I have ever seen. I left the theater when I realized what direction the story was heading. It was violent and degrading but nothing (literally no warning) prepared me for the horror that was depicted in this movie. When I returned to see if the movie was over, two people had fainted and were lying on the floor by the entrance to the theater. Paramedics were called. This is no joke– absolutely not an exaggeration. I have no idea why anyone would make such a movie and I cannot begin to communicate how horrific it was to watch. To call it disturbing is an incredible understatement. People were walking out left and right. Many audience members were irate and complained to the Outfest staff that this movie should have had an explicit warning regarding the violent sex it contains. In fairness to the volunteer staff of Outfest they were all very apologetic and extremely helpful to the people that had fainted. But I can't imagine who at Outfest screened this and decided to include this in the program. They obviously have questionable judgement and will be hearing from me directly.

I saw this at a gay and lesbian film festival in which "Weak Species" was a part of a group of off-beat short films that were light-hearted and awkward, and not produced very well. This short differed from them all. To cut to the chase, this definitely shocked the audience. I read that this was "utterly disturbing" and "dark," but I don't think glancing over some reviews for this will necessarily "prepare" you to expect what you think. Overall, it's produced and executed incredibly well; it looks very well financed in that the director was definitely uninhibited enough to cast excellent actors and create the short with stunning cinematography along with top-notch editing and a decent script. The dialogue creates a path for the audience to follow the two leading male characters: high-school students whose identities are not just at fault of their sexual orientation. That's the problem with the film is that I don't really think it should adhere specifically to "gay and lesbian film festivals." This short surpasses this genre because it explores horror and character-drama in an incredibly deep manner that makes it hard to categorize it at all.

As a 20ish gay male living in America, I'm familiar with films about gay teenagers desperately seeking identity and personal connections with other people. Here, we have things we've seen before: the incredibly cocky guy who is relatively promiscuous but feels secure, except this guy is really hard to analyze because you're not sure what he's after, and neither does he. The other character George is the character that is the most cohesive because he has so much depth and is fascinating to watch the actor perform this struggling individual. George dives into a world of degrading sex and inappropriate relations in order to satisfy a need for not only sex but personal connection. George's family is not resourceful, but we see he attends meetings with a school counselor who seems to want to help. George finds himself in an incredibly dangerous situation, while his co-star falls deeper in love with a sketchy but attractive football player. The degrading sex scenes are difficult to watch, and of course the climactic scene of violence is shocking and I would be surprised to see this distributed any more than it is now. The director's intentions are to go beyond censorship, but I left the theater and immediately had to go for a walk and think about it because I found myself wondering: "Was that just plain excessive and tasteless?" You'll probably be wondering the same thing as well. Overall, an excellent, brave, and challenging effort in the gay and lesbian film world.