Why not, it was entertaining. What the hell did I just watch? Face of Evil, which is described as a psychological thriller/horror by director/writer/auteur Vito Dinatolo, well, it unsettled me. I like to be scared while being entertained. I love classic horrors such as The Exorcist. I also like psychological horrors from Rosemary's Baby to Blair Witch to last year's surprise chiller, Don't Breathe. Then again, I always wanted the stereotyped horror characters to be a little self aware of their stupidity: could the Jock display his feminine side; could the tarty Blonde not chew gum and say she's saving herself for God; could the Black guy have voted for Trump and not get killed off early; could the Redneck with the Confederate flag on his truck, have voted for Hillary...just asking. And the more I think about it, Face of Evil, with its incredibly spooky poster and mish-mash of genres, may indeed have that WTF-factor. It sort of masquerades as a genre zombie scare fest, then its second half twists like a dagger in the ribs, and deals with the horrors of PTSD and general societal paranoia about Big Brother, terrorism and even Trump's own Pandora's box of WTF-just-happened?
Anyway, I especially like horror with a WTF-factor, with a bloody splash of clever irony like the Swedish movie Let the Right One In. Its premise is simple: Private Williams returns home from the Middle East to find out hell is home, as an epidemic turns his surprise party into tragedy. But his night has just begun...and then the paranoia and more fun kicks in. Okay, it's not The Exorcist, but with Face of Evil, I'm still wondering what I saw - black comedy, cheesy spoof, another zombie movie, then something shifts, even the camera-work, when "Sarge" turns up and the over arching paranoia spins out of control. It's like two movies in one. I also enjoyed the guerilla style filmmaking, all creatively done on a tight budget.
The director also makes an "eye-catching" cameo appearance a la Hitchcock.
