"Gothkill" DVD Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

Gothkill
Year: 2009
Director: J.J. Connelly
Studio: Wild Eye Releasing
Stars: Flambeaux, Erica Giovinazzo, Mistress Julia
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 75 Mins.
Official Website: http://www.gothkill.com/


There are many times that you just want to sit back and watch mindless fun and out of control gore. “Gothkill” fit that bill, very perfectly.

This horror/ comedy exploitation film focuses on Nicholas Dread, a Catholic priest and inquisitor, who finds out that innocents are being framed as witches. His superiors don’t agree with his theory and burns him alongside two women that he forced confessions from. During his burning, Nick makes a pact with the devil to reign over his own kingdom, at any cost.

Fast forward to the 21st century, Dread has returned from the dead to finish his deal. To achieve that, he must find one hundred corrupt souls to seal his deal. Dread finds that, when he stumbles onto a secret society of Goths, known as the Scorpion Society. Soon this group of Goths must battle him, in order to save their own soul, from eternal damnation.

Movie Review:

“Gothkill” is one of those films that you just sit back and enjoy the fun. This was a very fun film. Director J.J. Connelly does a great job filming all the aspects that needed for a film of this. This film has it all, bloody violence, hot women in latex and dark imagery that makes the darkness of your soul, happy. The action is filmed very well. Connelly keeps the action at an intense pace, so that all the campy violence comes out. He also does a good job making all the dark images and the gothic subculture feel demonic and dark, as it made the imagery devilish like. But what makes this direction very good was the way that Connelly gets the performances from his leads to be entertaining. The performances in this film were very good, especially from the two leads, Flambeaux, who really makes his performance over the top, which fits his character and Erica Giovinazzo, who does a really good job making her character Annie, both innocent and demonic, which was need, if the performance was going to be right.

Connelly’s screenplay is very thought out. He does a great job not making this film, become one of those films that just use these goths as a punchline. He instead does a very good job developing the story and the Nick Dread character. I liked how it goes into the character history and his Marquis de Sade like behavior. It makes the film very interesting, as you’ll never lose interest in the story. There also some good humor here, especially in Dread’s dialogue, as it made the performer do in a way that it’s so over the top, you can’t help, but laugh at it. That helps generate, your interest in this film

The only negative that I could find with this film, it was the fact the film only ran for about seventy- five minutes. I really was having fun with this film, it’s characters and it’s over the top violence. But, you can’t have everything, as this is still a fun film to watch.

DVD Review:

The DVD extras start off with a video commentary that features director JJ Connelly, and actors Falmbeaux and Eve Blackwater. This was a very entertaining commentary. The three do a good job going into the making of the film. But what made this track entertaining, the fact that the three inject some humor into it, which helps make the film and track, even more fun to watch. Next, we a have two and half minute featurette called “Gothkill Live Performance Chronicle”. This featurette covers highlights of the performances that took place during the film’s screenings in New York. The next extra on the disc is “Q&A with director from NYC screening”. This feature provides some very detailed stories about what happened during production and what films and directors influenced Connelly. The Dvd also has a couple of image galleries, along with trailers for this film and Wild Eye’s other two releases.

The disc overall was good, but I would have liked to have seen a behind the scenes featurette or interviews with some of the actors, to get their perspectives on the film.

I urge you to seek this film out. “Gothkill’ is just very good campy fun with an entertaining performances and a well conceived story.

Film Review Rating: 5 Stars
DVD Review Rating: 3 Stars