Model Hunger

I first saw this when it premiered at Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival. It was quite the surprise! Since then, I have watched it several times, and each time I see more and more of the through its layers. This film has heart and works on so many levels. Debbie Rochon truly puts her experience as a horror icon and her love for the genre into every frame, making a true homage, both visually and thematically, to films from the grindhouse to Scorcese. It is a dark comedy worth getting immersed in. There is a reason that Lynn Lowry is so fond of it and views Ginny Reilly as one of her best roles. Ms. Lowry is a powerhouse here! And Tiffany Shepis is amazing as she weaves through an intense and emotional role towards the final confrontation. See this film!

A former model who has spent decades musing on what might have been loses the plot and becomes a serial killer in her old age. Although she rails at men, she directs her anger at women too, murdering both with impunity. True, this is a fairly original idea, but so is gravy mixed with ice cream; you wouldn't want to consume that either. "Model Hunger" is overacted, certainly by the lead, and somewhat underacted by other characters.

These low budget horror films were once a novelty, but that novelty has long since worn off. It's difficult to believe this was even nominated for a prize except perhaps in jest, much less that it won any.

Moving into a new home, a married couple thinks their neighbors' odd behaviors are just weird quirks for an older woman, but once a series of strange disappearances strike the local girls his wife believes her instincts to suspect the neighbor was killing everyone all along and tries to stop her from continuing.

This one was a pretty enjoyable effort overall. One of the strongest elements to this one is the endearingly goofy charm centered around the main killer at the center of the events. That the entirety of everyone who goes to visit her ends up unable to believe she's capable of being the psychotic, sadistic killer that enjoys eating her victims means so much to how she can get away with everything. The inner monologues she has about the different people in her life, from letting the cheerleader yammer on about their fundraiser, the hitchhiker talking about her upbringing or the extremely sexual nature of her targets creates a deep, dark trip into her psychological state to deal with the victims. The constant infomercials on TV showing the plus-size presenter discussing all manner of deviant, sexual perversions in a trashy, enjoyable manner add to this one quite nicely. That factor goes hand-in-hand with the over-the-top scenes of her carving up and tormenting her victims. From the wholesale carving up of the cheerleaders' best friend to the dismembering of the hitchhiker due to the comments made in the car-ride earlier and the special show she performs for a tied-up victim before completely cutting them to pieces play nicely off the mindset we've been given about her earlier. The sexually-charged scenes, centered around targeting her victims for perceived or implied sexual transgressions in her snapped mind, is a fine motivator for what the fun and deranged torture scenes all about where the nice gore and brutal kills come together in a fine exploitation-style mash-up. Combined with the frantic finale that has some solid action involved, these aspects are what manages to hold the film up overall. There are some flaws present. The most glaring issue here is the nearly nonexistent storyline where things just tend to happen simply to move the story along. The initial stages where she comes to believe the suspicions of the neighbor come off with no real motivation or impetus to believe she's doing anything wrong after just moving in the night before, and how the missing person's cases come about to bring the officers into the picture don't serve any logical sense here. As well, the finale comes off incredibly confusing where the jerking camera makes it difficult to determine anything, the ambiguity is quite prominent is not being entirely positive about the true nature of everyone's outcomes and a few characters tend to pop back-and-forth between being obvious about what's going on and not obvious about what's going on and not which all come together into not making any sense. These are what knock this one down the most.

Rated R: Extreme Graphic and Sexual Language, Nudity and Graphic Violence.

Debbie Rochon's directorial debut is a smart, funny and multi layered horror film. Genre legend Lyn Lowry (I Drink Your Blood, Shivers) has been keeping busy in the past few years appearing in dozens of low budget horror gems and germs. In Model Hunger Lowry stars as Ginny, an aging model up against the heartless and sexist model industry. Ginny career is over and she is forced into retirement due to her age, leading her to exact bloody revenge on young and beautiful women. The film offers thought-provoking social commentary on how society treats women as they age while simultaneously being extremely funny and witty. Debbie Rochon feels right at home behind the camera and this film is testament to her talent and craft.

Former pin-up model and actress Ginny (Lynn Lowry) had been cast aside by the heartless and exploitative modeling industry when she was a young woman due to her body type. Ginny didn't take rejection well and over the years developed into a revenge seeking, blood thirsty, broken woman.

Scott Hallam praises star Lynn Lowry, noting that she "literally has to serve up equal parts frail old woman, sexy temptress, good Samaritan, and bat-(expletive) crazy killer all while offering some really thought-provoking dialogue about what true beauty is and what type of beauty is valued by society. Lowry absolutely crushes it in every aspect of her character." Hallam is right, and those who are saying that Lowry has given one of the best performances of her career are correct.

Dave Dubrow, usually a champion of independent film, describes this one as "Muddy in theme, terrible in script, and inconsistent in performance, the movie failed to rise above the shoestring production quality." He also (correctly) points out the excessive profanity, shaky camera and often out-of-focus scenes. (By no means am I anti-profanity, but there were far more f-bombs than anyone could ever naturally use in one sentence.) I have to say that the camera was really what killed this film. The casting is great, the acting ranges between adequate and excellent (some actors were more invested than others), and the concept is clever. But everything just looks horrible – too bright, too dark, too jittery. When you have one of the goddesses of the silver screen, Tiffany Shepis, and you find a way to make her look unflattering, you know your camera is garbage.

Despite its shortcomings, the disc may be worth picking up if you're a fan of any of those involved. The special features alone are a good draw. The DVD from Wild Eye Releasing includes a feature-length commentary with director Debbie Rochon, deleted scenes, a Babette Bombshell short, Voltaire interview and much more.