By Karolina Gruschka
The Orange Man is a wacky, trashy slasher comedy written, directed and produced by independent filmmaker Stephen Folker. Far from what the film title and Blu-ray cover might suggest, the orange man is not a murderous Jack’o Lantern or Killer Tomato kind of creature; what we are dealing with instead is a human character named Peter Walkins (Ben Rollins). Peter does not have really bad cellulite nor a fake tan gone terribly wrong. Although the latter can be absolutely terrifying, our serial killer in question uses oranges as his preferred weapon of choice.
A fruit? That’s just ridiculous! – you might say, however, I warn you not to underestimate the dangerous nature of fruit. I speak from my own traumatic childhood experience; the terrors of when I was attacked by knife wielding and apple throwing teenage delinquents. The impact of fruit on neck and knee caves turned out to be seriously painful and debilitating. Consequently, I genuinely feel for the victims of the orange man.
Peter Walkins’ orange selling business suffers a massive decline in the late 1980s as former clients change suppliers, and efforts to widen the customer base fail miserably. Humiliated by his local community, Peter runs amock butchering ex-clientele with a hook (which he has instead of a hand, standard). Authorities never manage to catch him, and the case becomes a “great unsolved mystery”.
Fast forward 27 years; a local development company is looking to strike a deal on the Walkins family’s 40 acres of land, that would lead to the demolition of 400 orange trees. Project manager Gerald (Dave Juehring), freshly dumped by wife Deborah (Trena Penson) for virile IT ace Roger (Robert Kemp), decides to take the Walkins negotiations in his own hands, as it is an opportunity for a get away. With his loyal college friends Jimmy (Jim Plovanich), Wilbur (Thomas Ely Sage) and Reggie (Glenn Harston) in tow, Gerald combines the business trip with a lads fishing weekend in a lonely cabin in the woods. “What started as a bad week, has the beginnings of a great weekend!” Yet unknown to Gerald, it also has the endings of an orange nightmare, when what appears to be an urban legend turns brutal reality…
The feature is a perfect example of how democratized movie production has become in the digital age, as the project was funded by the online platform Kickstarter. Stephen Folker managed to raise $21,711 by 133 backers in July 2014 after pitching The Orange Man on the website, surpassing his bid for $20k. Fairly new to the filmmaking business (he started making movies in December 2010), Folker admitted to drawing from a book on script writing that addresses how to improve a story and its layout, when working on the idea for The Orange Man. This resulted in a well-structured story with embedded little twists. For one, it is a slasher which, unlike in its classic form, does not kill off a bunch of replaceable young, beautiful and arrogant adolescents, but a group of likeable middle-aged losers with beer bellies and an unfortunate sense of fashion (i.e. sock-sandal combo, shirts that look like out-dated curtains).
Though Jimmy, Reggie, Wilbour and Gerald might be comedic caricature versions of themselves, the viewer does learn a lot about their individual backgrounds and quirks before the murders eventually begin. What is more, contrasting to the anonymous dehumanized killer of the slasher, Peter Walkins has a face. This makes him appear less threatening, and so the orange man almost drifts to the background to make way for a wacky war of roses between team Gerald and team Roger/Deborah. This could again be seen as an act of subversion on the slasher genre that tends to draw the focus on the spectacle of the killings as opposed to the narrative.
Be prepared for life altering truths such as “I’m a Roger, Rogers don’t back down!” and plenty of pissing based jokes, which include one of the best shots in the movie – the penis cam. Some might find it silly, yet I thought it endearing and could relate to the urination bits as I got a pretty weak bladder myself. Nonetheless, it is the fact that Stephen Folker sticks so closely to ‘correct filmmaking procedures’ – even in the execution of genre subversion – that makes The Orange Man feel rather like a project or assignment than a fresh new approach to horror. There is no pushing the boundaries of a creative comfort zone nor an attempt to think outside the box, which results in a movie that is … okay.
Good on him though for following his dreams and being an inspiration to other ‘late’ starters. Like with most things in life, it is a matter of working through established systems first, before one is ready to develop her or his own ‘usp’. If you want to support a fellow filmmaker, go catch The Orange Man when it commences its circulation of film festivals this Spring, and/or on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Orange Man is now available from Legless Corpse Films in a limited edition BluRay (numbered to 100) and standard edition DVD.