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STUMPED
Written and Directed by Mike Legge
Produced and Photographed by Ron BonkLisa - Marci Payne
Lt. Dannon - Mike Legge
Clarice - Debbie Rochon
Andrea - Roxanne MichaelsThe best dark comedies are the ones played straight. When the laughs are obvious gimmicks, you move from satire into parody. It's that one slight shift in tone or character that's the difference between WAR OF THE ROSES and MEET THE PARENTS. Director Mike Legge understands this notion perfectly well, even in some of his more absurdist productions like NIGHT BASEMENT everything is played straight.
On the flipside, when doing a horror film, Legge never seems to loose his trademark sense of humor. STUMPED was a work for hire gig Mike did for Sub Rosa Studios a while back. The original intention was to release STUMPED as part of an anthology, one which never materialized. Last Year, realizing the short was too good to sit on the shelf, Sub Rosa released it on its own. Good for us they did, STUMPED is another Legge treat, more of which I'm craving.
Young Lisa is a hand model with a good career and little to do in life other than coat her hands in moisturizing lotion. Easy street comes to a dead end when she loses her hand in a car accident swerving to miss a dog. No job. No boyfriend. No life. It should come as no surprise that those who mock Lisa's pain will meet gruesome ends dealt by her hand...er...stump.
Lisa isn't the classical beauty we've come to know as models, a point made explicit throughout the film. Consequently, she isn't burdened by vanity or other stereotypical model cliche's. At least not until she loses her hand. It isn't until she realizes that she's no better than those around her that she has her true comeuppance.
One thing I've noticed throughout Legge's work is that he's preoccupied with popular culture. He doesn't just immersing his stories in references to the times, he uses pop-culture to examine human frailties and hangups and turn them on an axis best viewed from Rod Serling's world. This time around Legge examines the modern convention of beauty and what it means to be beautiful. What he ends up with is a reverse Ugly Duckling tale where everyone is rotten to the core.
In supporting roles, you'll find a few of today's prominent B-Movie names in players like Debbie Rochon and Roxanne Michaels. While their screen time is small, they do make impressions. This is especially true of Michaels, as the vapid Andrea she looks to be reveling in all her shallow glory. The gal's a few watts shy of being dimly lit, but that doesn't keep her from knowing where the money is and how to get it. She exemplifies all seven deadly sins, and doesn't care.
Legge might not have set out to create anything more than an average horror flick, but he ended up with what my friend Kevin likes to refer to as "something special." He uses the term when referring to films that excel well beyond their means and leave lasting impressions, the sort that he'll end using to judge other films in the future. And that is exactly what I'll do with STUMPED, whether it's other works from Legge or b-movies in general, STUMPED is a good gauge how fun and intelligent b-movies can be.
Yeah...STUMPED is something special.
Sideshow Cinema
Sub Rosa Studios