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CAPSULE: THE WEIRD KIDZ (2022)

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The Weird Kidz is available for purchase or rental on-demand.

DIRECTED BY: Zach Passero

FEATURING: Voices of Tess Passero, Ellar Coltrane, Sydney Wharton, Glenn Bolton, Brian Ceely, ,

PLOT: Two seniors and three 6th graders go on a weekend campout and encounter the legendary Night Child.

Still from The Weird Kidz (2022)

COMMENTS: Wyatt, with the arms torn off of his jean jacket and a mustache that’s barely coming in, is taking his overweight little brother and his two school chums (and a bulldog) on a campout while their parents are out of town. To the 12-year-old trio’s surprise and delight, he also brings along buxom Mary. Black comics nerd Mel and incipient slacker Fatt are more fascinated by Mary’s cleavage than Dug, who’s main interests still revolve around video games and fireworks. Wyatt verbally abuses the boys, which impresses the girl even less than the homemade cassette power ballad demo tape he created for her with a subtle hidden message in it (“Girl, show me what you can do/Under the starry light/With those jeans so tight/Girl come play with me tonight…”) Wyatt’s insults all revolve around pubic hair (and the boys’ presumed lack thereof) and testicles, while the young trio’s rejoinders mostly involve butts, poop, and the smells associated with them. Mary teasingly takes the 6th graders’ side against Wyatt, bridging the age gap, but also chooses to spend her intimate moments with the burgeoning rock star.

I begin with a discussion of the adolescent characters rather than the monsters they fight because this is, wisely, where The Weird Kidz focuses its attention. The kidz spend more time hanging out, trading crude insults and drinking shoplifted beer, than fighting the Night Child. The gang covers the full spectrum of adolescence from beginning to end; the preteens and teens are at odds, but united in alliance against adults, and naturally they’ll come to appreciate each other more once they’re fighting for their lives together against the giant ant-creatures and an associated cult. A prominently featured, but casually handled, severed limb suggests both the level of seriousness of the threat and the movie’s overall attitude: it’s at least as much Meatballs as it is Evil Dead.

Passero’s drawings are stiff but serviceable, recalling TV animations like Mike Judge’s “King of the Hill” (and not quite to the level of “Rick and Morty,” with whom Kidz shares executive producer James Fino). A lot of viewers will give Passero extra credit for animating the entire thing by hand, taking a reported eight years to complete it. Personally, I’m more interested in the quality of the end product than the backstory, although admittedly the personal nature of the project lends it a degree of charm. Quite watchable and nostalgic, properly balancing grossout gags with the sweetness of youth; but given the blah art style, this might have worked better as a low-budget live action feature.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“This bloody and brilliantly weird animated throwback is strange, violent, hilarious, and completely committed to its own wonderfully bizarre vision.”–Louisa Moore, Screen Zealots (contemporaneous)

I think this movie is weirder than average
I think this movie is better than average

Capsules

CAPSULE: JUG FACE (2013)

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Recommended

DIRECTED BY: Chad Crawford Kinkle

FEATURING: , Sean Bridgers, ,

PLOT: In an insular rural community, a malevolent pit periodically demands the sacrifice of whoever’s face appears on a jug.

Still from Jug Face (2013)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: The notion of a supernatural hole in the ground that demands human sacrifice is just strange enough to put Jug Face on our radar, but once you buy into the outlandish premise, the remainder of the film is a standard horror outing, not a weird film per se. This under-the-radar release is still recommended for fans of offbeat, atmospheric horror.

COMMENTS: Beginning with animated folk art titles illustrating a bloody primeval ritual, Jug Face sets out its mood, mythology and themes with extreme efficiency. In the opening scene, teenage Ada very nearly engages in illicit intercourse in the sight of the mysterious Pit from the title sequence, beginning a fearful association between that hole in the ground and female sexuality that will only get queasier as the movie progresses. (Later, Jug Face will subject us to the most disturbing of gynecological exams). The movie is set in a mythical Southern Gothic enclave where moonshine is both the sole export and a sacrament, where outsiders are shunned, and where the occasional human sacrifice is tolerated as a harsh necessity of the land. The metaphysics of the Pit are never explained (we learn nothing more about it than that it “wants what it wants”), but the devotions it demands are revealed in detail. Falling into a trance, a simple-minded potter shapes the clay into the face of the Pit’s next victim, who is dispatched according to traditions handed down from generation to generation. If the process is subverted and the Pit doesn’t get what it wants, things get hairy for the locals. The idea of a Pit-worshiping cult hiding out somewhere in a remote mountain holler may sound hard to buy, but Jug Face‘s quiet conviction puts the far-fetched material over. The detailed script has an answer for almost every question you might have—even questions you hadn’t thought to ask. The direction is confident and straightforward. Most of all, the cast is dedicated to bringing this odd community to life. A hick nerd with duct tape holding his glasses together, Dawai (Sean Bridgers) is effective as the cult’s mouth-breathing chosen potter. Indie-horror stalwart Sustin (Larry Fessenden) leads the redneck sect, but his wife Loriss holds the power in their household. Played by Sean Young (where’s she been lately?), Loriss is a small role with a big impact; this chain-smoking harridan may just be enforcing tribal norms, but she takes a sadistic pleasure in lording her petty power over her helpless children. Although Young has vicious fun with her role, Lauren Ashley Carter, as the young daughter Ada, haunted by sexual guilt, carries the film. Looking like a young Christina Ricci, permanently clad in her one dowdy grey frock, Ada’s normal teenage urges towards experimentation and rebellion put her at odds with her community. She conveys a sympathetic torment as she struggles between self-preservation and loyalty to the only moral code she’s ever known. She’s a sinner, but one we can identify with. Playing out with grim fatalism, like a cross between Winter’s Bone and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Jug Face creates a unique folk mythology and is filled with an creepy sense of backwoods doom. It’s a promising debut for writer/director Chad Crawford Kinkle.

As of this writing, Jug Face is available for viewing via video-on-demand outlets. It receives a limited theatrical run in August and is scheduled to show up on DVD and Blu-ray in October.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…an insanely bizarre and creepy slow-burn with a lot of good ideas, and precise execution.”–Brad Miska, Bloody Disgusting (contemporaneous)

Jug Face

Jug Face
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