The Minstrel Killer

"The Minstrel Killer" Finally, a Michael Fredianelli film I can show my grandparents, my children, and a few lonely friends at the shelter. This epic work of horror (or more precisely, shocks-ploitation) from Wild Dogs Productions lives up to its box art testimonial: "Full of atrocities!" but surprisingly boasts a complex script with 3-dimensional characters (excluding hillbillies and cannibals) who surpass the deviants commonly found in most grindhouse flicks. Fredianelli, as racist cop Tex Holland, may not look like Stuart Whitman, but his internal conflicts with an unfaithful wife and a black partner manage to unfold compellingly amidst the plot contrivances of your average slasher-on-the-warpath scenario. Narrative can be put aside to concentrate on the acting and the editing; the movie's best assets. These impress, as well as Aaron Stielstra's lush, demented score which alternates between William Lustig/John Carpenter stabs and stingers to full blown compositions--be they acoustic ballads or one blues piece that serenades bloated pigs making love. Also commendable is the fantastic chicken performances that take place during the movie's most memorable bimbo homicide. David Brashear's camera-work is such an improvement over past Wild Dogs projects, the film, quite simply, resembles something akin to a 70s Jack Starrett movie, lending to the film's encouragement to take a shower after watching. Only the movie's outstanding shootout in a hillbilly camp would suffer being viewed on a sagging, vandalized drive-in screen. Top acting honors must be paid to Fredianelli, playing a complicated character with a fraction of decency suffocated by prejudice, an excellent Anthony Spears, as the lone, doomed detective of color with more intelligence and guts than the entire supporting cast, and Aaron Stielstra and Brendan Murphy, who capture the sad, scatological character of southwestern white trash so well as to be documentary subjects. Vanessa Celso's troubled and sympathetic wife character elicited as many tears from the grindhouse audience I saw the film with as she did drunken catcalls to take her clothes off. A notable accomplishment. Definitely the best Fredianelli movie since "Psycho Freak-Out". Isaac Wade's methamphetamine-addicted Father Hillbilly (his character defect evidenced by a constant nasal condition) also delivers the movie's best and most poetic line: "He ain't interested in that dirty old hand." Superb locations abound, yet, unfortunately, they can't redeem the film's early hillbilly performances that suffer from dreadful (and eternal) over-acting reminiscent of a bad "Hee-Haw" sketch. As the profound Down Under movie critic Jenesis stated about another recent genre flick, "See Naples...Then Die"--of which this movie shares much the same cast: "imminently re-watchable". Rated R.

Okay, let's do one of these:

THE GOOD: Probably the best acting from one of Fredienalli's films. Some great action scenes. A unique idea for the serial killer featuring and extreme lack of political correctness. An excellent original 70's-sounding synth score. Overall believably set in the 1970's, remains period-consistent in spite of the low budget, and pays loving omage to the decade of grindhouse film-making.

THE BAD: Some pacing issues and red herrings. Lack of production design (it's about a cop but we never see his police station). A few bad performances. Some out-of-place modern visual effects. Underlit (or unlit) interior scenes similar to those which have plagued past Fredianelli pictures.

Fredianelli once again takes center stage and stars in a film of more-or-less his own creation. The difference here is that he plays a bigoted Texan sheriff up against multiple adversaries. On one hand there is a blackface-wearing murderer on the loose; on the other is a redneck clan of cannibals more than willing to invite him as their guest of honor at the dinner table! The cannibal scenes are easily the strongest scenes in the film, but unfortunately it becomes an only slightly connected subplot. The killer himself more or less becomes a specter, symbolizing Fredianelli's own haunted past. At times, this film manages to be refreshingly energetic and stylish even within the confines of its done-to-death genre.

Overall I'd recommend checking this one out. Let's hope that Fredianelli's next film manages to improve or at least build upon some of the sheer madcap lunacy starting to shine through.

Michael Fredianelli's latest film The Minstrel Killer proves to be more than worth the wait. As a director who constantly pays homage to cinema's magnificent glory days of the 1970s it's only natural that Fredianelli make a film actually set in the 70s (somewhat of a dream come true for this Wild Dogs fan).

The Minstrel Killer takes place in a tiny Texas town and chronicles a series of gruesome murders. However, there's a twist. The suspected killer is a dark, creepy figure who has been known to sing old minstrel tunes after he brutally murders his attractive, young, blonde victims. Called in from the big city to help solve the case is Tex Holland (Fredianelli): a tough bigoted cop out for blood. Not all goes as planned however after Holland experiences a brutal encounter with a mysterious family of inbred cannibals, all the while having to endure tumultuous relationships with his wife (Vanessa Celso) and new partner, African-American Tyrell Jones (Anthony Spears).

Overall, Fredianelli does an excellent job of giving the film a retro look and feel. From the opening sequence and credits to the grainy celluloid like cinematography to the grimy rural locations, it's easy to see how someone could possibly mistake the film for an actual 1978 movie. The film's art direction is impressive in spots and looks incredibly authentic. Despite the high probability of quite a few anachronisms, the film's attempts at capturing the era are all the more impressive given its low-budget indie background.

All in all, The Minstrel Killer stands as Fredianelli's most impressive, professional, and best (?) film to date. Fredianelli and Celso are both great and perform some very convincing southern accents. Isaac Wade is devilishly sinister as the lead cannibal and Kevin Giffin breaks away from his usual typecasting. Also of note is a powerful cameo appearance from Aaron Stielstra (who also provides the film's wonderful original musical score). As it stands, The Minstrel Killer is highly entertaining and more than likely to garner several re-watches.

An ultra-low budget film, The Minstrel Killer is a homage to 70s grindhouse pictures and the brainchild of Michael Fredianelli, who starred, edited, directed, co-wrote, and co-produced it under his Wild Dogs Production banner. While more of an exercise in exploitation than the horror film it appears to be, it should be noted that while not being horrifying it is suspenseful, amusing, and true to the spirit of the exploitation films that inspired it. It's Texas, 1978 and a young girl has been murdered by a black-faced killer (Michael Nosé). Texas "Tex" Holland (Fredianelli) is called in to lead the investigation, with the help of local sheriff Pike McGraw (Eric Andersen) with only a couple of "backwoods retards" as witnesses. Meanwhile, as more young girls turn up dead, Tex must deal with his own troubles at home where he's racked by insecurity over the knowledge that his wife Carol (Vanessa Celso) cheated on him with a black man, adding a socially conscious element to the story. But, this is an exercise in exploitation after-all so not everything is as linear. Committed to solving the case, Tex falls into the company of Klutch Hitherton (Isaac Wade), the patriarchal figure of a clan of cannibals. Adding the racism element of the story, Tex meets a black cop named Tyrell Jones (Anthony Spears) who becomes his new partner. It's not perfect, but you can hardly expect it to be. What really impressed me about is how well it works with what little it has. It's been digitally aged to recall 70s exploitation cinema, more-or-less the same technique used by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino to make Grindhouse. Fredianelli's makes it gritty and effective enough to make exploitation-hounds proud. Besides these digital additions, it does effectively capture the feel of an exploitation film through the cinematography by David Brashear (also the co-writer) who does a fine job of capturing the feel but actually delivers good cinematography too despite the limited tools available. Exterior shots are quite picturesque and much better than most people with a few thousand dollars and a camera could capture. The murder scenes are never unnecessarily gory and effectively shot with an ominous score (by Aaron Stielstra) that heightens the suspense. Some scenes are actually genuinely suspenseful and well-executed. Tex's run-in with a cannibal clan wasn't working for me, but the action that spawned from it was actually a tense, exciting scene and I commend Fredianelli for handling it so well. Finally, the editing is very coherent, with several nods to grindhouse cinema. Fredianelli is a director with obvious talent, who could be very effective with a bigger budget. The script isn't perfect and some of the acting leaves something to be desired, but it's clear that Fredianelli did his best with what he was given. The main issue I took with the script was weak, but colorful dialogue. The script makes heavy use of stereotypical backwoods Texan's, but some obvious lines of dialogue referring to Alfred Einstein and one character not being a "rocket surgeon" were just so obvious they took away from the scenes. However, minutes after a female character says "I ain't a rocket surgeon," her husband tells her she looks like "a dog's c**k," which redeems the scene significantly. The script has themes of racism and police corruption that it doesn't completely see through, but I don't completely attribute this to poor writing. With more experienced actors to convey these themes through their characters, I think Fredianelli could've used these themes to elevate his material. With all that said, the script has a terrific, unexpected ending that would no doubt be very controversial if this film had wide exposure. The ending is exploitive, but it's very effective and I thought it complemented the film nicely. To emphasize how fond I am of this ending, I want to say that the ending actually increased my appreciation and rating of the overall film. Now when it comes to the acting, some actors are better than others but even the worst actors don't give a performance as atrocious as someone in "Troll 2" or "The Room." Also, I've realized that many of the actors are regulars in films produced by Wild Dog Productions and it's possible that they are solid actors and I'm just not well-acquainted with their acting style. Performance-wise, the most effective actors are Fredianelli, Spears, Celso, and Nosé. Many of the smaller roles are equally solid, but I was frustrated by Eric Andersen and Isaac Wade. I didn't find Andersen very convincing, although he was likable. Meanwhile Wade, as the patriarch of the cannibal clan, I found very ineffective. I just didn't find his portrayal frightening, thrilling, or even remotely good. To call something "an effortless performance" is usually a compliment, but it just appears Wade put no effort into this role. I don't want to bash the guy though, as suspension of disbelief is already difficult to maintain when a character is introducing his sons and they all look the same age or older. With that said, this is the first film I've seen under the Wild Dogs banner and as a homage to 70s exploitation I could be missing something. Wade may have been directed to act like he did by Fredianelli, in which case I simply missed the point. With a bigger budget and more experienced actors, I have no doubt that Fredianelli could have made one hell of a movie. As it is now, even while working with volunteers and with a budget less than the average cost of a house, he's made a (very) independent exploitation/horror film that is actually better than most mainstream films that attempt to capture the same tone and atmosphere. Even more remarkable is that Fredianelli has done it with no nudity and little gore. I'd be interested to see more of his work and watch his skill as a filmmaker progress, because "The Minstrel Killer" was actually quite the pleasant surprise.

GRADE: B-