[Rumori] Film Review: REFLECTIONS OF EVIL (Dir. Simon Packard)

Wed Oct 12 17:37:51 PDT 2005

    Okay, so Matt Divignon called me out on my review.  He asked some good 
questions and thought I'd post my answer for clarification:

At 05:00 PM 10/12/2005, Matt wrote:
>Heh - I just read your review. I'm missing something here - if the movie's 
>so awful and apparently worthless, why all the excitement about it?

     Okay okay, the review was smarmy and I should have put some more 
personal reactions to it.  Tell the truth, I'm still digesting it.

     If one has an appreciation for outsider arts (I definitely do), the 
movie really does have some merit.  It's definitely not in the narrative, 
or style, or concept -- it's probably more to do with the movie, the 
director, and the lore surrounding both of them... kind of a package 
deal... which is why it was a stinker to me until I saw the 
behind-the-scenes.  If I'd only seen the movie, I might have thought the 
director couldn't complete full sentences.  If I'd only met the director, I 
would have expected his movie to be mediocre, or not worth the time to watch.

     I think that behind-the-scenes bit had point likening the whole thing 
to a Zen koan -- the question doesn't make sense, the answer doesn't 
either, and the two together will only make you scratch your head 
more.  But somehow it all means something in the larger scheme of things.

>  Why does Netflix even have a copy of this, and not every other amateur dvd?

    THIS is indeed a mystery to me.  First, I've seen very few movies from 
Netflix that would be cult movies and definitely almost nothing in the 
low-budget/indie/DIY realm (which seems like a big missed opportunity for 
them).  It's likely because Netflix only deals with large scale, high 
volume movie distributors that only carry mainstream titles.  So yeah, I 
was surprised they carried it too.  My guess (and I have nothing to back 
this up) is that he was able to afford some sort of decent distribution 
deal, perhaps by agreeing to give the distributor most of the money or 
paying a lot up front.

     Anyone have a better explanation?

>Don't get me wrong, I sort of like the idea of a movie where every time 
>the protagonist falls over, his head explodes.

    Tried and true formula!  How could he miss?

>According to one of the reviews on Netflix, Tony Curtis is not in the movie.

     Maybe I wasn't paying attention but I didn't see where he supposedly 
was, but I read that review also.  The tenuous link that this movie has to 
the world of collage and found footage is that Packard does stitch a few 
found bits into the movie.  Some are anonymous, but one for example has a 
brief glimpse of actress Joey Heatherton, and a listing in the movie's 
credits... not that she knew or agreed to be in it.

- tm

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