★ 1 / 10
With such a silly title and the Monster
R T
With such a silly title and the Monster Pictures label to its credibility, Discopathe sounded like a fun experience. I didn't know much about Discopathe going…
With such a silly title and the Monster Pictures label to its credibility, Discopathe sounded like a fun experience.
I didn't know much about Discopathe going in to see the film, but going out I can certify that it is one of the worst horror films I have seen in such a long time. It's as if everyone who made this film has no concept on what supports an actual horror film because I cannot recommend this film on any grounds.
First off, Discopathe has no grasp on the concept of making a slasher narrative. With no idea of proper characterization whatsoever, Discopathe ends up revolving around a character named Duane Lewis who goes insane and kills women anytime he hears disco music. The film gives no back story to the character which makes understanding his motives completely impossible, but it also makes him the main character of the film. The central figure of Discopathe is a figure with no actual characterization whatsoever as there is no writing to support the film at all. Centred in the most generic premise possible, the film is simply a story about the main character committing a tame series of murders. We don't know why, but neither does the writer. As a result there is nothing to care about with the character, so the fact that he is actually the main character drags everything down. For the serial killer to be the least interesting figure in a slasher film is truly an achievement in lacklustre filmmaking. The killer is the thing that can usually make or break any kind of distinctive slasher film, but Discopathe's only distinction is being one of the absolute worst examples of the genre I have ever seen.
As far as being a genuine horror film, Discopathe delivers no goods to members of the literary crowd or those in search of a guilty pleasure. There is nothing innovative about the story and nobody pretends like there is so this is clearly not a high profile horror film, but the fact that it is also so bereft of actual atmospheric tension or even any actual script is a remarkably low standard of filmmaking. Yet even a bad horror film can succeed as a good bad one if it knows how to use its exploitational elements properly. Director Renaud Gauthier clearly has no idea on how to do that. While the cinematography is really nice as it knows how to make an effective use of zooms and extreme close-ups, there is no consistent display of style in any other area with Discopathe. As a Monster Pictures film I hoped that there would be some creative use of blood and gore, but in actuality there is so little of this. Beneath the seemingly endless running time of the slow narrative sits a sporadic collection of murder scenes which show no promising display of experimentation with violence. Once in a while there is a little use of blood effects which shows that the crew knows how to make glory come to life, but this just makes it all the more disappointing when it proves to be so minimal throughout the story.
Cheap fun in a horror film elicits few demands. That is gore, nudity and plenty of it. Discopathe not only has so little creativity in depicting the murders of the main character, but there isn't even any nudity in the process. Set within the tail end of the free love era within the disco decade, Discopathe proves to have no grasp on what audiences are hoping for. The general lack of content within the production makes me just think the director was trying to get away with seeing if he could actually stretch something to feature length. If that's true then he managed to succeed in doing so, but he also clarified that he has no sense of narrative as a filmmaker which suggests that he is not anyone worth following in the future. It's a true shame because there could have been a lot done with Discopathe given that the manic energy synonymous with disco would create an interesting combination with the exploitation aspects of the slasher narrative. The fact that the film ends up resorting to such a slow pace and making minimal use of horror iconography is truly a most disappointing sentiment. There is nothing thrilling, fun or original about Discopathe in any way whatsoever, and its failure is almost remarkable.
It's obvious that Discopathe has a low budget, and it manages to find enough ways of working around this to make its story somewhat convincing along the way. But it cannot hide its shortcomings as a result, such as the limitations on how many locations can be used and just how much blood and gore comes into play. Since there is no way to get lost in the story it becomes all the more easy to actually pick up on all of these problems, and from there it just unravels that there are so many more flaws in Discopathe to pinpoint.
The leading performance from Jeremie Earp also proves no assistance to the film. The unknown actor is heavily likely to remain unknown in the generations following Discopathe because there is no distinctive charm about him. Spending the entire film fairly silent as he stares around the set of the film in utter confusion, Jeremie is bereft of any sense of his character. He lives down to the level of the screenplay in this regard, and ends up as blank as the scenery around him. Jeremie Earp conveys nothing about the intended mental state of his character, failing to make it convincing that he a serial killer or just someone experiencing a kind of psychosis. Jeremy Earp is as lifeless and uninteresting as the director's idea of entertainment, except that we have to stare at him lifelessly push himself through the material for some of the longest 75 minutes I've ever experienced.
Discopathe is misguided in every aspect of filmmaking: its generic story centres around a killer with no interesting qualities or good acting, while the minimal use of blood, gore and nudity ensures that even the lowest standard of genre filmmaking is betrayed.
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★ 6 / 10
Trashy, fun, silly and badly acted all you
R T
Trashy, fun, silly and badly acted all you need in a film about a serial killer who murders and maims when he hears a disco beat - CULTDOM beckons
Trashy, fun, silly and badly acted all you need in a film about a serial killer who murders and maims when he hears a disco beat - CULTDOM beckons
★ 7 / 10
I feel as if i've stepped into a
gregory p
i feel as if i've stepped into a time warp. Renaud Gauthier has a great eye for this period in film. he's carefully noted all of the things that make us…
i feel as if i've stepped into a time warp.
Renaud Gauthier has a great eye for this period in film. he's carefully noted all of the things that make us rewatch late 70s/early 80s slasher films and managed to capture it all impeccably. from the score to the editing to the old school porno style acting...it's hard to tell if these are seriously terrible actors or if they've just been directed to act that way. (we'll see with his next film)
paying homage to films like the Driller Killer, Silent Night Deadly Night and even the original Halloween, Gauthier gets everything right with Discopathe that Ti West got wrong with the House of the Devil....
the "disco killed my daddy" premise is just hilarious, even though the film takes itself quite seriously, you almost expect someone to show up in a Santa Claus suit screaming "naughty" about halfway in.
overall, Discopathe is a worthwhile watch for genre fans. i don't usually give over 3 stars for this kind of film, but it deserves them for it's creativity and artistic qualities. soon to be a very underrated cult flik for sure!
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