ROT

Director – Marcus Koch

Dr. Robert Olsin - Joel D. Wynkoop
Sarah – Tiffany Stinky
Muzzy – Billy Scam

I’ve seen documentaries on bands like the Sex Pistols and Black Flag, but none reach and maintain the puck rock sensibilities found in Marcus Koch’s ROT.

This movie is sick, twisted, violent, perverse, disgusting, and just plain icky. At one point I even had to turn it off. Now I’ve been able to sit through the entire Necromantik series when my fiends couldn’t get half way through the first, but with this movie I think I finally found my tolerance point.

Sarah has always had a fantasy of making love to a corpse. When she finally get the chance, she catches the ROT. Picture Ebola, only not as fast acting. It’s a much more torturous way to go. You still bleed from every pore, only it takes a week for your guts turn to mush and your limbs to fall off.

But this movie isn’t about people dying or dealing with mega-leprosy. It’s about love, punk rock love. You see Sarah gave the disease to her boyfriend Muzzy. Knowing they are coming apart at the seams, the two try to remain true to themselves and live life to the fullest. This includes breaking and entering, arson, torture, prank calls to the White House, and cracking the land lords skull with a couple of Louisville sluggers.

These aren’t good kids. Not by a long shot, but they are in love. For a while it’s enough to overlook each other’s shortcomings. But when Muzzy catches Sarah going down on a local mall rat, he’s forced to ask the age-old question, “what’s wrong with me?” How does a puck deal with romantic introspection? In Muzzy’s case he heads out to kick a little ass…if his doesn’t fall off first.

To pad things out we have a sub-plot involving the scientist who created the disease, Dr. Olsen, and federal agents who want to use it for U.S. benefit. While I love to watch Joel Wynkoop ham it up, his scenes really bring the movie down. They just don’t fit. They give plot in a film where plot isn’t needed. If you have interesting characters, let them be themselves and interact. You’re films will always be more believable and satisfying if the characters write the story instead of following a formula.

Fortunately, Olsen and the feds aren’t on screen any more than they need to be. Muzzy and Sarah make a fun couple. They are fun to watch. In fact it doesn’t look like Scam or Stinky are acting at all. Just a couple of kids having fun because in they’re in a movie. And ROT is a fun movie. Sick fun. Very sick fun.


Available from Alternative Cinema.
Official Site