The feature debut of Swedish writer-director Kristian A. Söderström is an anti-romantic thriller.
Ennio (Stefan Sauk) is a middle-aged alcoholic with an equally unhealthy obsession with his VHS collection of cult horror films. Lena (Simone Karlsson) is a middle-aged alcoholic with a demeaning office job and a strained relationship with her 20-something daughter. Both spend a lot of time throwing up. When Lena sells Ennio a box of old videos, and they both realise nobody else really wants to be around them, the pair bond over their shared disaffection and drinking.
Meanwhile, when a shady collector that haunts the dark corners of the internet by the name of Faceless offers Ennio €10,000 for a VHS copy of Zombie, he can’t believe his luck. But after the tape goes missing and he’s stalked by paranoid visions, Ennio descends into a video nasty nightmare.
Videoman is part 80s throwback thriller, part kitchen sink drama, and if you think those two subgenres have no business being stitched together in the same film, you might be right. Like its lead characters, the film’s disparate plotlines and stylistic devices never fully connect and reconcile. Perhaps a more experienced filmmaker may have found a way to weave these threads together in an innovative fashion, but here both competing narratives are left somewhat dangling.
Nevertheless, Söderström knows his giallo horror tropes, and seems keen to flex his nous; Ennio argues with his film nerd friends about Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento over a bottle of J&B, sequences are lit in sickly pinks and greens and soaked in moody synths, and the film’s faceless antagonist lurks in shadowy hallways with black leather gloves and a cutthroat razor.
While there’s fun for horror fans in these sequences, tired tropes they remain, and Söderström should be commended for trying to bring something new to the 80s nostalgia table. Unfortunately for Videoman, the dreary dramatic elements just don’t quite gel.
Videoman will be released on DVD & Digital on 18th February through FrightFest Presents (featuring some pretty wicked cover art).
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