Deviant (2021)

Deviant (2021) - United States
Directed by: Brandon Terry

ABOUT THE FILM:
Special thanks to Brandon Terry for providing me with a screener copy for review!

Brandon Terry is an up-and-coming filmmaker who started off making very short and very grotesque films in early 2021. Who could forget classics such as From the Womb Into the Trash, and Sacrificial Gore Shed, wherein fetuses are torn apart, dicks are mutilated and heads roll? These were two conventional gore short films that, despite being riddled with technical errors, were driven by their truly nasty concepts, and made for rather gut-wrenching watches. With his new film Deviant, the director not only tries his hand at the pseudo snuff genre, but he ups the ante on the sick factor quite a bit. Deviant plays out like a twisted home movie, shot from the point of view of one guy's camera as him and his friend go about their everyday lives. But when they aren't busy skating, smoking weed or talking about their jobs, they're busy committing atrocities. They rape and disembowel a woman they have tied up in their basement, they take home fetuses from the Planned Parenthood and mutilate them; no one is safe from these two. Not even themselves...

REVIEW:

Over the years I have found that films in the pseudo snuff sub-genre are usually hit or miss. The concept of watching someone's home movie of them butchering people, or even discovering snuff tapes intended to be distributed to benefactors, is interesting. However, the many pseudo snuff movies we have can widely vary in quality. On one hand we have movies such as Devil's Experiment and Cannibal Holocaust, two classics which are revered for their innovations in this harrowing sub-genre. And then we have things like August Underground's Mordum, a movie that is definitely effective in selling itself as real snuff, but is also riddled with so many flaws. My biggest complaint with Mordum is that it was too long and the characters were insufferably annoying, as they just screamed and swore every five seconds. It also felt like at points, it was trying too hard to be shocking and grotesque. I know, we're talking about Deviant here, but I find it important to draw a comparison between these two works.

In Deviant I see a lot of things similar to what I saw in Mordum. Even though Deviant is still slightly flawed, in my opinion, it is ten times more watchable and is just as effective in its 20-minute runtime. While Deviant definitely has some shocking and grotesque scenes, it also leaves a few things to the viewer's imagination. When the camera man sticks razor blades into a slide at a playground, we never get to see the aftermath or even hear of anything regarding the incident again. Just the sheer implication of what may have happened after left me even more uneasy. One problem though is that the film opens up as the camera man walks in on the other perp raping their victim. It felt like they were showing their hand a little too early. But to be fair, they don't linger on that sight too long. Instead the camera man leaves the guy with his "play buddy", and decides to get some water as we hear the victim screaming and whimpering. It's disturbing for sure, I just wish they built up to it a little bit more.

The acting here is decent. Really the only person who had to do any kind of acting was the female victim. She is tied to a chair with duct tape over her mouth, and she screams and whimpers non-stop as she is brutally desecrated by these two sickos, and she does a good job. I felt legitimately uncomfortable watching her scenes. Whenever I see rape scenes in movies I can't help but think about how the actors had to get themselves in such a mindset, and it makes me sympathize with their characters more. On the other hand, our two sickos are very nonchalant and relaxed the whole time, showing zero remorse or compassion, just like actual serial killers. We get a strong sense that these two kill and maim people as if it's just another one of their regular daily activities. It's as second-nature to them as gaming and skating, and they enjoy it greatly.

To criticize technical aspects like the camera work and the editing would be kind of pointless, as those are intentionally lacking. The camera work is very shaky and a lot of the scenes are intercut with static, giving off the illusion of a home video, and it works fairly well. There's not much in the way of editing, as most of the shots run uninterrupted. There's not even a title card or any credits, which even further aids the idea that this is not your average film; it's just a home video that was never meant to be seen. I do like the lighting in most scenes though, especially during the torture scene, where the scene is lit by a faulty lightbulb in a corner of the basement. All of the light in our victim's world slowly shorts out until nothing is left, and she is just a lifeless rag doll.

Deviant may not be a perfect short, much less an original one, and I'll admit that I went into it expecting it to be rather bland and forgettable. But instead I got a surprisingly decent short with some good ideas that were well-executed, rather than just senseless brutality with little to no artistic merit. I respect Brandon Terry's approach to the pseudo snuff sub-genre. It's probably not a film I would go back to regularly, but I'm glad that I got the opportunity to watch it, and I would be more than willing to check out any future films from this director.

RELEASES:
-Deviant was released on DVD by Dead Vision Productions in 2021 in a limited run of 50 numbered copies, all signed by director Brandon Terry. Extras include the short films From the Womb Into the Trash and Sacrificial Gore Shed.

-Deviant was also released on VHS and DVD in Canada by Goriest Production, with the two aforementioned shorts as extras. The VHS was limited to 10 copies and the DVD was limited to 25.