Review by Tristan Bishop
I’ll admit it straight off the bat – I found it really hard to review Gut. It took me a few attempts to sit through the entire film – although one of these was due to a mysterious technical failure – and when I finally finished viewing it all the way through without succumbing to sleep, I struggled to find anything to say about the film. This may imply that I thought Gut was a bad, or uninteresting, film, but I certainly don’t think it is. It’s certainly massively flawed, but it displays enough originality of approach to win the respect of this viewer, at least.
The film deals with two long-time friends and workmates, Tom (played by Jason Vail), and Dan (Nicholas Wilder). Tom balances his work with a wife and young daughter, whilst Dan appears to be still stuck in his youth, and jealous that Tom’s home life impacts on their friendship. Dan invites Tom round to his house for an evening of horror films – trying to entice him with Return Of The Living Dead Part 3 (“Mindy Claaaaarke”) – but Dan has something more disturbing on the menu – a DVD he claims to have purchased from an online source specialising in grey-market films. (I’m sure most of us who have been cult film fans for long enough will have been familiar with those at some point). The DVD contains what could possibly be a snuff movie – one that focusses on trauma being inflicted on a woman’s midriff (hence the ‘Gut’ of the title). Both men are fascinated by the film, and it seems to hold power over them both long after the viewing – and subsequent discs and viewings only serve to exacerbate the problems.
I mentioned at the start of the review that I had difficulty ordering my thoughts about Gut, and the manner in which I found myself finally writing the review was a rather extreme one: at the time of writing I am in the cabin of a ferry boat during a force eight gale on a nine hour plus journey to France, with, due to a silly oversight, no access to phone or laptop. (In fact this review was originally written on a pad of A4 paper, prior to my typing it up!) I am also suffering from the effects of nicotine withdrawal after just under a week of quitting smoking. Somehow this unpleasant set of circumstances is precisely the right combination of elements required for me to finally express my ‘Gut’ feelings. (Sorry.)
I can only assume it has something to do with the creeping sense of unease that pervades the film. The performances are just a small step above amateur hour, and shatter any believability that the film may have aspired to, but somehow this doesn’t seem to matter too much, and perhaps adds to the overall queasiness of the venture. Likewise the plot is simplistic, and you will see the end coming from, ooh, about fifteen minutes in, but again, this does not seem to detract from the atmosphere of the film at all.
Instead Gut achieves what it does via two factors: it feels intensely personal and individual. The two main characters have hugely unlikeable personality traits – we are being asked to identify with guys who seem to be ordering and enjoying what are probably snuff films – but they resonate with an honesty that you just wouldn’t get in a big budget production. The film also is, at times, seriously dull, and seems to be played out mostly at meal tables. For most of the first hour you might be tempted to give your TV a good kick to see if you can’t jostle it along a bit, maybe advance some plot, but Gut plays by its own rules, and the tension does indeed build, and possibly more effectively for making you assume that it won’t.
The closest I can come comparing Gut to anything would be the work of David Cronenberg – the somewhat detached but individual characters, moral questionability of their actions and the occasional rather eye-opening sexual perversions all conspire to remind of Cronenberg’s horror period, or maybe even the debut feature of his son Brandon, Antiviral (incidentally one of my favourite films of 2012). Whilst comparing Gut directly to the Cronenbergian genius would leave the former looking more than a little lacking, I would rather see first time film-makers taking this path rather than jumping on the next serial killer, found footage or torture porn bandwagon.
To close, then, Gut will alternately bore you, intrigue you, turn your stomach and make you question your own and the film-makers’ intentions. It’s not really a pleasant or fun ride, but it does eventually get to where it’s going. Much like a nine hour trip on a choppy ferry suffering from nicotine withdrawal.
Gut is available now on VOD in the US and Canada.