Plank Face

"Plank Face" is a strange horror movie that largely eschews scares and gore in favour of sex and nudity. It takes a run at doing something that I think is fairly unique, or would be, if it had been pulled off a little better.

For a "unique" film, it opens with stunningly familiar material, in which we see the bad guys kill some people. Slashers so often begin with this - think "Scream" and "Halloween". If that's not familiar enough, it even ticks off the most famous of the horror movie "rules": having sex gets you killed.

The movie then lurches into more unfamiliar territory, with a credit sequence that, unlike its opening scene, does not seem to belong to a typical slasher. We are introduced to the protagonist, a hipster-slash-outdoorsman, and his girlfriend, who are hiking through the woods. There, they run into another hipster-type, who chokes out the protagonist (in a fairly unrealistic scene). The protagonist comes to, and finds the other hipster raping his girlfriend. He promptly murders her.

None of this is as shocking as you'd expect; it just doesn't connect. It's handled unbelievably, and I think a large part is the pacing: this all happens before you know what's what.

Next, the young man is imprisoned by some yahoos who live out in the woods. First, they torture him by hammering a nail into his foot - which also seems pretty unrealistic as there's not enough blood or pain from the actor - and then they force him to eat offal.

Soon - much too soon, I might add - our hipster/outdoorsman is a happy member of the tribe, if that's what it is.

Throughout the ordeal he never loses his cover-boy sheen, as though the hut these people live in is actually on the beaches of Malibu. You would expect some kind of physical transformation to go with his caveman-like regression. You don't get it, unless you count the titular Plankface, and constant nakedness.

Why does the protagonist fall in line with these cannibal freaks so quickly? Was the part at the beginning with the rapist-hipster supposed to show that he had something caveman-like in his nature?

The plot of the film is different; the handling, unfortunately, is not different enough.

No pun intended - and I may be exaggerating with the genius part ... maybe. But it is a movie where I think you won't have no feelings about. You'll either be fully on board or you will hate this. Yes I think that it will make you feel strong about it! No doubt about that.

Because the movie - well it is more than just a horror movie. More than a slasher - if you even would call it that. Because while it may look that way in the beginning - well you will find out quite quickly, there is more to it. And there is some foreshadowing to the main character. And boy he is brave ... he goes places ... I am not sure many would have the ... well you know what to do what he does. If I said tennis balls, would it make sense and not be offensive? We'll find out I assume. One thing is for sure, the movie has a lot of nudity, but also a lot of sick stuff ... this is definitely not for the sensitive people out there ... legacy? Maybe ... but definitely psychologically complex ...

Thought it was a slasher/violence+horror movie. But guess not. Only the first few minutes of the movie had some killing/torture, then some when the movie is about to conclude. Everything was so kinky. Full frontal nudity from both male and females, graphic and disturbing sex scenes. Not so much to see. Just nude cannibals and graphic sex. Maybe that was what the movie wanted us to see. Pornography would be the best word to be used to describe this movie. Imagine you are a man and you have three females around you and one day they remove their clothes in front of you (not in this one). Don't know why the rating is so low, doesn't deserve all the hate. Not so many movies can be so graphic and sexually explicit like this one these days.

If you follow any of Scott Schirmer's work, you will be familiar with a couple more effective titles, such as Found and Harvest Lake. These are examples where low-to-no budget can be great entertainment, if not just a bizarre experience to hold your attention. The questionable title aside, this one was great, all things considered. It's done on a very limited budget, but the heart is in it, the actors are giving 100% of their ability, and it just ends up working. The actors are comfortable in their skin and their ability to be fearless with the script really adds a lot to this premise. Even though it's hit and miss on what the Ellie Church posse comes up with, they put in the effort as independent film makers. Plank Face is not perfect. There's a lot of missing lore that would otherwise fill in many plot holes or plausibility acceptance (and would risk the runtime becoming too long), but I did enjoy this one without getting hung up on the details. The acting, direction, ending, and overall production made this one of the better ones in I/Low Budget category.

Good start but went down right from where it begins to be interesting. No story and too many flaws makes this film trash. I was disappointed hoping something will be interesting to come up but it goes worst as the film proceeds. It was a waste of time invested. 4/10.