By ALLEN STREET
For The Express
For people like me, who can’t wait for the next chapter of filmmaker Steven Vasquez’s unique brand of storytelling, our moment is here.
“Deadly Screams of a Naked Siren” has hit the download market (through the Babaloo Studios website) and should be available in video stores (do they still have video stores?) soon…just in time for Hallowe’en. One of the characters, early in the movie, describes it as a story of “drugs, torture, rape, and carnal gay sex,” and I think that’s pretty accurate. As to the title, “Deadly” and “Naked Siren” are absolutely accurate, but nobody screams, at least with the microphones on.
Mr. Vasquez is a non-linear storyteller, and it took me a couple of viewings to get a feeling for the plot. In essence, a man, traveling in a car on a lonely road at night, stops at a restaurant and is directed to “a shortcut.” While on the shortcut, he picks up a hitchhiker whose car has broken down…and thereafter, the supernatural kicks in. I won’t go into detail, so as not to spoil the many surprises lurking in the script. Suffice it to say that there are drugs, hallucinations, violence, acres of naked flesh…and a surprising amount of comedy. There are scenes that will make you laugh if you pay attention to the dialogue, as indeed you should.
Everything in “Deadly Screams” has been stepped up a notch, to good effect. Where in earlier films the soundtrack music was supplied by stock selections, this movie features original – and really good – songs. The cinematography and editing are slick and the acting is a whole lot better than we’ve seen previously; leading roles are played by mostly fresh faces, including Tristan Adler as Christian, Kory Anders as Epiphany (which, by the way, is an absolutely perfect name for the character), Jason Caceres as Benjamin, Orion Cross as Joshua, James Townsend as Kevin, Todd Williams as Danny, and Todd Tetrault as Cameron.
My download, and I hope yours, comes with nearly an hour’s worth of extended and deleted scenes. You should watch them; one in particular is downright hilarious. You might also learn a bit about the movie-making process; I did.
My take on “Deadly Screams of a Naked Siren:” it’s an exponential leap forward for Mr. Vasquez and Babaloo Studios. It’s high-quality story-telling, with all the naked pleasures we’ve come to expect and lots of extras that will be new to us. I think these films are good enough to be worth buying, because I don’t want to watch them only once.
And, as I said at the top of this review, I can’t wait for the next one!