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CONFINEMENT

Produced, Directed, and Edited by David Lee Stewart
Written by Eric Thornett and David Lee Stewart
Director of Phography - Eric Thornett

Peter - David Lee Stewart
China Norwood - Bette Cassatt
Derek - Demetrius Parker
The Visitor - Erik Thornett
Palnus Wystand - Dudley Suave

David Stewart's CONFINEMENT loves to play on fears. When viewers are first introduced by Stewart's character Peter, he's listening to someone on the car radio talk about obesity. Afraid of getting fat, Peter immediately dusts off his old workout equipment that was buried in his basement behind some old drywall. When he stretches out in the safety of his own bed later that evening, he wakes up in the middle of a forest wearing only blue doctor's scrubs. Fear of home invasion. Fear of kidnapping. Fear of being alone. Fear of the elements. Fear of the unknown.

Like any hero, Peter faces these fears head-on. After some initial disorientation, he quickly accepts his situation. Peter's first order of business is survival - food and water. He soon meets a woman dressed in the same blue scrubs. Like Peter, she went to sleep safe in the confines of her own bed and awoke in the forest. Peter convinces her to go with him back the way she came - they know there's water in that direction. As she reluctantly agrees the woman is shot in the head by a sniper.

Peter's predicament is a riff on "The Most Dangerous Game", the classic short story written by Richard Connell. If you were one of the few who never had to read the story in high school English, a quick qoogle search will reveal the now public domain material. In Connell's story, a big game hunter, Zarrkof, grows tired of killing lions, tigers, and elephants. The only prey he finds worthy of his talents are other men. He's looking for a battle of wits that he can win with a 50 caliber. Apparently, Zarrkof never saw the irony...

Through contact with other Blue Scrubs, Peter learns that for years people have been abducted and brought to the forest. Held within the confines of a 50' high forcefield, the Scrubs have been target practice for hunters wanting to experience the ultimate thrill - killing another man. Some hunters are complete pussies in that they bait the Scrubs with piles of food and toiletries placed out in the open. When the Scrubs come out in the open to get their food they're put down with a nice clean headshot. Here in Virginia its' popular to bait deer with apple skins. I've never seen the sport in baiting, or traditional hunting for that matter, but my views on "when deer shoot back" is better left for another time.

Then there are hunters like The Visitor who want to kill a man up close and personal. The Visitor would rather use blades and bad martial arts to test his skills as a dealer of death. He sees the potential for good combat in Peter and singles him out. As interesting and menacing as this character could have been, as played by SHOCKHEAD director Eric Thornett, The Visitor is little more than a two-dimensional anime caricature. Ironically enough, Thornett played what amounts to the same character in SHOCKHEAD as well. Overblow and cartoony in all his mannerisms and movements, Thornett does exactly what he did in his own movie - he undermines any plausibility and becomes an annoying distraction.

Before Peter can deal with The Visitor, he must master his environment. He partners with China, a woman abducted from the same Charlottesville, Va, area as him. About a third the size of Peter, China is every bit Peter's equal in spunk and fortitude. It's clear that if the two met at another place during some other time then they would have become lovers, but sex is the last thing on either one's mind.

Peter has to contend with other Scrubs who don't exactly see eye to eye with him. Derek has been confined to the forest for so long he's resorted to eating his fellow scrubs. Then there's the village of Scrubs who want to fight back and overtake their captors. Peter has a plan to do just this, but so does the village. Peter wants to get to the bottom of the preserve, the village just wants to go home.

Dave Stewart's CONFINEMENT is a violent action film with science fiction overtones that while borrowing heavily from other sources maintains a fresh perspective on the material. It could be argued that Stewart's casting of himself as the lead could be taken as vanity, but he makes for an effective everyman. The role requires a certain type of rugged physicality. Over dinner a few years ago, Thornett mentioned that Stewart and his band of filmmakers do all their own stunts for real. He mentioned that Stewart's brother even broke his back one fateful afternoon. The approach to the stuntwork is similar to Hong Kong films in that it looks like anyone can get hurt at any moment, and obviously can.

In addition to the stuntwork, CONFINEMENT also requires a heavy dose of computer special effects. The second disc of this self-distributed package is like a SFX film school in that Stewart provides what are essentially in-depth tutorials on how he was able to achieve the films numerous, and extremely convincing cgi effects. There's one particular effect that involves layering 20 images of the same child from various distances and perspectives into one scene taking place in the forest. Stewart challenges viewers to pick out the child from the source image from amongst all 20 images. I couldn't do it. These tutorials alone are worth the price of the movie.

Despite the kinetic and hands-on nature of Stewart's visual style, he's able to nurture subtle and convincing performances from his cast - Thornett excluded. Especially notable are Mitch Toney and Dudley Suave as the men who run the hunting grounds. I remember Suave from Stewart's previous film, CONCEALMENT, and the same description of his acting still applies - he makes it look easy. He's the perfect villain.

It's hard to dislike CONFINEMENT; it has so many wonderful elements working in its favor. While watching, it's easy to resent those do-it-yourself moviemakers that put so little effort into their work. Stewart is one of the few microcinema moviemakers not working in horror, and as with CONCEALMENT, he illustrates that it is possible to make an interesting and exciting digital film for very little. All you need is the passion to follow through with your vision and the brawn to make it happen. With those two things, fear is really a non-issue.

Dave Stewart Productions