The work of Alex Phillips is the kind of grimy, ingenious fare that makes hunting for indie movies worth all the rest of the dross. His debut feature All Jacked Up and Full of Worms followed its psychedelic title with a style and wildness it's rare to find in film. The movie follows a group of drug addicts descending into insanity as they inject specialized worms and embark on the most terrible trip of their lives. What follows is colorful, thoughtful, frightening, shlocky yet profound; while I have yet to see his follow-up Anything That Moves, with a pitch line like "rust belt giallo thriller" I won't be taking my time remedying the situation.
Today all of that energy builds with the shooting of Rough on Rats. Inspired by the real life Black Widow of Chicago, the film is interesting enough based on this writer/director and this source material. I can see his flair for textured urban spaces playing well with a Chicago serial killer story. But adding Ginger Lynn Allen of The Devils Rejects, Betsey Brown from The Scary of 61st, and Louise Weard of Castration Movie: Anthology promises some real indie royalty...in the very specific vein of low budget horror inspired by the degradation of the American empire. Sure it's a specific niche, but one that feels right at home with this material.
The film is being shot in B&W on Kodak TRI-X 16mm in and around Chicago with Hunter Zimney (Pet Shop Boys) as Cinematographer. Lucia Agajanian and Spencer Parsons are producing with Cue Shop providing the score and soundtrack. Missing Link and Vinegar Syndrome are executive producers.
Vinegor Syndrome is quickly rocketing from out of the way indie distributor into a major force in film production, and preservation for that matter. If giving Alex Phillips money is in their business plan, there my finally be hope for the stable return of the mid-budget genre film.
