Paramedics

If this was a high school film project it would only get a C. Yes, it's that bad.

This is the story of two brothers, one clearly a sociopath and one that is either on the autistic spectrum or has some kind of mental deficiency. If they said I missed it. The pair pose as paramedics and take the patients back to their home where they harvest their organs and sell them on the black market. One night they pick up a woman who clearly resembles someone from their past and instead of killing her, they keep her alive. I do not wish to say more as it will all be spoilers.

The good:

The body horror is quite good. This was clearly a low budget movie, but the gore was very decent.

The three main characters are actually pretty decent actors, especially the guy that plays Jeffery, the autistic brother.

The story is not like one I have encountered before and keeps your interest.

The nudity, while not copious, is very pleasant to look at.

The Bad:

All the axillary characters were played by people that were so bad I would assume they were found on the street and asked if they wanted to be in a movie.

The suspension of disbelief is kind of hard to do here. It would not be possible for these guys to do this sort of thing for very long without being caught. How many people can be picked up in an ambulance and then decide to vanish before someone caught on?

The merkin. Oh my God, it could not have been more obvious.

If you are a fan of horror and suspense, I would say that you should give this a watch, though do not expect anything grandiose.

Two twisted brothers, who had both had an incesteous relationship with their late sister, pose as paramedics. They listen in on and respond to 911 calls but instead of giving medical assistant they remove victims' organs to sell on the black market. I read no reviews of Paramedics before watching it and it got off to a promising start, with gore, nudity and amusingly bad acting. Then the brothers respond to a second call,a young female hiker (played by Jenice Marshall, who sheds her clothes numerous times throughout) with a twisted ankle. And this is where the film just plummets. They kidnap her and hold her captive in their crude operating theatre, subjecting her to physical and sexual abuse. This had potential but sadly it's her ridiculously unbelievable relationship with her captors and the sheer boredom that kills this movie. Most of the running time is in this one room and the film is mainly about the triangle between the brothers and their victim, just so incredibly boring. I think the makers attempt some black humour but there is too much bad taste here (girl, "Is it rapey time again?). The end thankfully does perk up but it's too little, too late. Just FFWD to the gore and nudity senes!

So, first off, upon reading the reviews from folks who say this is "terrible...the worst...horrible acting..." and other such negative descriptors, all I can say is that I completely disagree. Many of the items listed as "bad," were, to me, what made the film good.

First, the acting. Contrary to what a few of the poorly written back-seat directors wrote in their reviews, I thought the acting was very good. There are three main characters, and while the first few minutes of their interaction made me feel that acting was bad, it only took a little while before I realized that it wasn't bad acting, but intentional dialog and speech written in. The man playing the autistic character does a very good and convincing job in his role. His motor, speech, and physical actions are done extremely well- my mother taught autistic children for 40 years, so I've seen a lot of this. The other two actors are also very capable in their roles.

Similar to the acting is the directing & writing. For the writing, I really liked the premise. I had hoped for a little more gore - which is initially what drew me to the film - but found that there was just enough within the context of a deeper story, to keep it interesting on that level. In other words, THIS IS NOT THE GOREFEST I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE, but was a pleasant surprise. The other facet that should be noted is that nobody takes this film too seriously. Not the actors, not the writer(s), not the director. This is illustrated in multiple scenes, both by dialog and script. The "waltz" scene is perfect, in my opinion, and lends itself to some really dark, distorted, black comedy. So yes...the writing and directing was a pleasant surprise.

Production, I would say, is the weakest part of the film. The editing is shoddy, and the sound is blown-out in several parts. At least it was filmed with professional equipment and doesn't sound like standard b-flick ambient mics that so often set the bad movies in their own.

The special fx were good! Everything was done with practical fx, instead of cgi (thank goodness). The gory parts are well done and are convincing.

While the film, its creators, and the actors don't taken themselves too seriously, the film does indeed exude deeper messages and stories. While enjoyable, this is where the acting breaks down a little. All actors do a good job through most of the film, but there is a slight breakdown of skill in a couple of the more seriously coined scenes. That doesn't mean they're bad scenes, only that there are subtle differences viewers might notice.

All in all, this was a really good watch. I'm a bit of a gorehound, so while I had hoped for more, the film, nonetheless, held my attention and my curiosity continued peaking throughout; all the way to the end.

Notes on parental content:

• There is a fair amount of profanity throughout. It is not gratuitous, but there is indeed consistent use.
• Intense scenes: there are a couple intense sequences, but not necessarily for the reasons one would think. I would say that more than "intensity," what we get is thematically geared toward adults. This definitely isn't a kid friendly film.
• Nudity and rape are prevalent in the film, as well as incest. Again, not for kids.
• Violence/Gore: while not as consistently gory as I initially expected, there are a handful of truly gore filled scenes. The violence is minimal, but the gore occurs sporadically throughout the film. There is also a torture element, with a few scenes that left me cringing.

This is definitely worth a watch! It's listed as a horror flick, and while there are horror elements (a la 'Closetland' or 'Misery') it's more dramatic thriller than horror, IMO.

Well, this is terrific. A film that, should you go in blind as I did, doesn't give you any clue as to what course it is going to take. In fact, the underwhelming first scenes seem to indicate this is going to be a comedy. It isn't a comedy.

Two brothers, one retarded, pose as a paramedics. They kidnap young people and sell their organs to the black market. The latest victim refuses to be intimidated by them, showing manipulative skills and a beaming intelligence - in short, she runs rings around them. But there's more going on, which I won't reveals without straying into spoilers - and that would be a shame.

Writer/producer/director/'Delivery Driver' Rodney Wilson extols the virtues of a low-budget, providing a fascinating character-piece, whilst allowing us a few very effective moments of gore. The three main characters are very well played, and the minimalist production values really add to the sense of austerity and isolation.

There would never be a mainstream, Hollywood-style film like this; and that's fine, because if there was, we wouldn't get independent gems like this. Long scenes, allowing performances to scale the heights of madness and dive into the depths of despair - without a cut in sight - command the attention and toy with it.

The finale is, in retrospect, somewhat inevitable and satisfying, but such are the developments throughout the film, anything could happen. My score is 8 out of 10.