 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
MAYHEM MOTEL
Written and Directed by Karl Kempter
Directors of Photography - Chris Norris and William MillerTreachy Guy/Businessman/Painter/Mime/Pimp/Spanky - Matt Biancaniello
Abby - Lorene Scafaria
Maralyn/Mime/Geisha - Sara Berkowitz
Pukey - Duane LangleyThe influence of John Waters on modern cult cinema is undeniable. He's as much a filmic icon as John Ford or Orson Wells, but for a whole different set of reasons. Waters has made a career out of spotlighting white trash and allowing them to vamp it up for the entire world to see. It's even become cliche for today's reviewers to refer to any movie that deals with degenerate eccentrics as being Waters-like in appeal regardless of the movie's charm, whit, or vulgarity.
What most people who invoke Waters' name forget is that his films were never judgmental towards the subjects, and went so far as to lovingly embrace them. Even while appalled at the images on the screen, the audience was able to laugh and cry right alone with cast. That level of sincerity is rarely found in so called "cult filmmakers" of today; even recent works by Water's himself seem to forget this.
With that being said, Karl Kempter's MAYHEM MOTEL is the first movie I've seen, since Divine woofed down that infamous doggie biscuit, to fully understand what John Waters was trying to do and carry on the tradition. Yes, those early Waters' movies were often shock for shock value's sake, and MAYHEM MOTEL has those moments too, but it's the heart of the movie that's the central element. Even when the cast of misfits and freaks are at their most loathsome, the movie remains sympathetic.
Many of the characters and situations are derived from Matt Biancaniello's one man performance piece "Purge,"and are recreated here in a free-flowing form. In fact, that's how all of MAYHEM MOTEL is structured. It encompasses a night in the life of the residents at a run down roadside motel who have little, if no, interaction with one another.
The film's cast of miscreants range from a violent vomiter, whose actual spewing opens the movie, to a businessman that wants nothing more than the local hooker to sing "Happy Birthday" just like Marylin Monroe, to a pimp who speaks into his cell phone through a blowhorn for no apparent reason. The most sympathetic of the bunch is Abby, a hooker whom everyone wants to spank. Granted, actress Lorene Scafaria has a fantastic fanny, but imagine what the constant beating would do to someone's psyche if they never felt they warranted the degradation. Prostitution does not equal humiliation.
By the time the night is over, everyone will be changed in some way, not always for the better. MAYHEM MOTEL is not a horror film in the traditional sense, it's more a perverse drama about the dark side of human nature. It doesn't want to produce scares quickly forgetting during the ride, this movie wants to get under your skin to shock the hell out of you, and it does just that. Viewers will remember some of the movies images for days on end, and that's the frightening part. You just can't shake these weirdos.