By Quin
I first saw Septic Man sometime last year. It was available for a short time on one of the many movie streaming platforms, I don’t remember which one, but I got to watch it just for fun. I remember enjoying it, but I didn’t think much about it afterward. Then when it came up for review, I said to myself, “Hey, I saw that!” Now having watched it a second time, this time more critically, I can say while it’s certainly not forgettable, it does many of the same things that other films have already done better, while gaining a huge cult following in the process. Septic Man, however, will most likely not see much long term success or notoriety, and will probably not be the focus of any cults.
Jack is a septic man working in the town of Collingwood. He has a wife at home who is about to have a baby, so he works hard doing a job no one else wants to do. One day, while up to his knees in dirty poop water, a villainous looking man played by the recognizable Julian Richings approaches him with a proposition to fix the town’s severe water problems. While the entire town is evacuated, Jack will stay behind and go through the sewers to figure out what’s wrong. For his efforts, he’ll make $20,000.00 and when he’s finished, he’ll get an easy desk job and the admiration of the town’s citizens. His wife doesn’t like this plan, but he agrees anyway and she evacuates with everyone else, while Jack descends into the sewer.
The rest of the film is more or less the same plot as The Descent. It’s dark. Jack hears weird noises. He falls into a spot where he gets trapped. He suffers hallucinations and he quickly discovers he is not alone under ground. It also doesn’t take him long to figure out the source of the problem is due to a corpse plugging up one of the major pipelines. Now Jack has to find a way out before he turns into a toxic-waste monster or ends up another corpse.
Septic Man is kind of fun in increments. Unfortunately it has some long scenes of Jack just walking through the sewers, getting dirty; it would have been much more successful as a short film, and should have been edited way down to make it less repetitive. The film does make good use of lighting though; the sewer is dimly lit with greens and yellows to suggest radioactivity, also giving it that EC Comics feel.
Speaking of EC Comics, Septic Man is definitely made possible partly by Swamp Thing. The Eco-message in Septic Man is much less in your face than in Swamp Thing and the overall tone of the film is closer to The Toxic Avenger. But, having said that, Septic Man is technically better, and the acting is for the most part really good. The great Canadian actor Stephen McHattie has a small role as the mayor of Collingwood and it goes without saying that he is always a pleasure to watch.
So, I guess I could just as easily recommend this as I could pan it. You could certainly do worse and there are less enjoyable ways to spend your time. Hey, I did watch this movie twice. So, if Troma’s Toxie leading the group of ladies spelunking in The Descent sounds like something you might have enjoyed, then Septic Man might be the movie for you. If not, then move along. There’s really nothing to see here.
Septic Man is available now on UK DVD from Sharp Teeth Films.