Judy (DVD)
Gareth Jones
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Starring Jade Matthew, Carol Bolt, Ashleigh Whitfield, Orietta Babusci
Directed by Emanuele De Santi
Distributed by Necrostorm
Stepping away from the high-octane, gore-soaked output of independent studio Necrostorm’s usual projects such as Adam Chaplin, Taeter City and Hotel Inferno, director Emanuele De Santi takes us down a much darker, more foreboding rabbit hole for his sophomore effort behind the camera – the seriously grim Judy.
At its core a very simple story, Judy shows us what happens when an everyday young woman, Mary, runs afoul of the creepy Ursula, leader of a troupe of clown-themed street performers that call themselves “The Crows”.
Intimidated by Ursula’s roadside demeanour, Mary pulls an illegal gun in an effort to scare her off… and so begins a one-way trip into Hell for the unsuspecting Mary and her beloved dog, Judy.
You see, Ursula not only looks and sounds like evil incarnate, but she spends her time lugging around a large, spike-covered box using a heavy chain – a box which forms the centrepiece of her street magic show. Using a small short-wave radio, Ursula calls out “Mr. Scissor”. Upon doing so, the box opens, revealing spikes inside as well… and a little puppet emerges for a few moments, seemingly alive. From the off, she isn’t someone that it seems a good idea to get on the wrong side of.
Once home, things don’t seem quite right for Mary. Her mobile phone signal keeps dropping, and Judy disappears. It soon becomes apparent that she isn’t alone – the Crows have come to deliver her their most spectacular show yet.
As mentioned, Judy is seriously grim stuff. It’s essentially a home invasion flick – a lone woman, distraught at the disappearance of her beloved dog, is tormented by assailants intent on visiting all sorts of brutality upon her. It’s obviously made on an extremely low budget, but director De Santi makes good use of his limited resources, utilising a sense of grimy minimalism to create a constant feeling of unease, and the kind of dark, disturbing presentation one might expect of Rob Zombie if he found himself restricted to making a movie with only the current contents of his wallet.
Save for a particularly splashy sequence in the beginning, and a finale that packs in a ton of horrifically convincing gore, the film avoids the all-out bloodlust that Necrostorm, as a studio, have become known for so far in favour of a tense slow build. De Santi’s intentions are obvious, admirable, and truly pulled off across a number of toe-curling sequences – but it doesn’t entirely work as a whole.
At a mere 75 minutes in length, the film feels overlong and under-developed as a feature. Too long is spent on repeated telephone conversations between Mary, her family and friends that do little to expand on Mary’s character, nor make those to whom she is talking any more relevant to how the story plays out. The outcome feels as though it would have been exactly the same without them – and that’s a sure sign that you need to start cutting characters and scenes, or give them more to do. In a truncated form, with the pacing just slightly adjusted, Judy would make for a slam-bang entry into an anthology film – one that would be guaranteed to grab you by the throat and refuse to let go until the brutal finish.
Besides that small failing, the only other negatives in Judy are mostly technical. While the lead voice actors are hands down the best of any of Necrostorm’s releases so far, the dubbing often feels incongruous to the visuals, and some further audio correction would have been appreciated to prevent some of the ear-piercing looped screams becoming so grating (or suddenly scaring the hell out of the neighbours!) Other potential nit-picks are likely to put less understanding viewers off, such as Italian plates on cars that are supposed to be set in the US (Mary dials 911 on her phone and is connected to an American call handler), while Mary and everyone else that she speaks to have English accents. That’s not to mention Mary telling her mother that she encountered Ursula while sitting at a traffic light, when in reality it looks as though it occurred on what looked like some industrial waste ground, far away from any potential traffic lights.
Still, there’s an awful lot to like here. From the well-handled tension, skin-crawling atmosphere and creepy-ass clowns with LEDs for eyes to the utter ferociousness of the final act (just wait until Ursula busts out her home-made double-barrelled shrapnel cannon, and the reveal of “Mr. Scissor”!), Emanuele De Santi does his best in taking a different approach to delivering the goods. Judy is perhaps the first outright “horror” film, in the classical sense, that the studio has made… and it’s a commendable effort. It moves from odd, to creepy, to an outright shocker in the finale and the gore, as usual for this team, is top notch.
The film simply would have been served much better by either shortening down, or expansion via further genuine character development in order to ramp up audience connection with Mary and Judy once the horror begins. Due to this, it’ll definitely try your patience in the middle – but stick with it, and you’re in for a surprisingly weird and cruel treat that will stun you in the finish like a bolt to the head.
Necrostorm’s DVD release of Judy comes visually well-presented given the nature of the film, but while it sports both English and Italian subtitles, it offers only the dubbed English audio track. It would have been very nice to have the original Italian track in there, too. In terms of extras, you get the complete soundtrack (a fittingly low-key and ominous work by BNW Noise) playable from a menu on the DVD, the theatrical trailer, and what is labelled as an audio commentary but is really little more than a brief 1-minute audio recording by director De Santi, talking about the film’s themes. It’s rather difficult to understand due to his Italian accent and very quick speech, leaving it a disappointingly throwaway extra.
Inside the case, alongside the DVD itself, you also get a mini poster themed on the final scenes of the film, a replica invitation to Ursula’s Creepy Crate Show (as seen in the opening shot of the film), and a nifty little magnetic card sporting The Crows’ insignia to stick on your fridge, or other metallic surface of your choosing. The physical extras definitely outweigh the on-disc ones, in this case.
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Film
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Special Features
Categorized:Reviews
