 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
THE GOAT SUCKER
Produced by Kevin Lessek
Directed, Written, and Edited by Matthew Reel
Director of Photography - Kevin LessekDead Bitch #1 - Emily Tillman
Goat Sucker - Matthew Reel
Purvis - Kevin Lessek
Dead Bitch #3 - jessica Pidd
Candy - Elske McCainAmber light shines down on a beautiful young woman as she walks down the street alone. With the melodramatic music in the background, the audience knows something bad is going to happen. From the shadows lunges a grossly overweight man wearing a Mexican wrestling mask. His glistening knife, the phallus. Her gaping mouth the orifice signaling the metaphorical rape/violation taking place on screen.
Thus begins the misogynist experimental horror film THE GOAT SUCKER from director Matthew Reel. No, it's not a film about El Chupacabra, as is pointed out on the commentary track. It's about the trials and tribulations of a mask-wearing snuff film participant whose hatred for women seems to know no bounds.
The objectification of women as victims is never more apparent than in the naming of the characters. Skipping any sort of humanizing identifier, Reel refers to his victims as "Dead Bitch #1 and #3." Not only are these women identified as dead meat, they are singled by that one word that sends the sanest of rational women into crazed frenzies. Even Candy the stripper is only referenced by her stage name - one that equates her to a treat to be eaten rather than a person to be missed.
Would someone who makes snuff films even want to humanize his victims?
Even The Goat Sucker himself is never clearly identified as a character. We get glimpses of his life. He's a socially conscious vegan and only eats vegetable broth alphabet soup but he's also the sort of beast who holds up a title card stating "Dead Bitch #3" in front of the camera before he suffocates a bound victim with a teddy bear. He's the type of monster who will bury a woman alive in the desert while sitting above her listening to her screams squawk through a baby monitor. We never learn why he is the way he is.
Reel tries hard to emulate the gritty reality of the films from the 1970's. His filmming style has a stark, ugly quality. Gaudy lighting is combined with faux film grain to give THE GOAT SUCKER a psychedelic quality reminiscent of the grindhouse features from Andy Milligan. Unlike Milligan's over-the-top storytelling approach, Reel keeps everything understated. The movies looks and feels gritty and raw, just like how I imagine a snuff film would be.
Filmed in a disjointed non-linear style, there's no plot or point to the story. THE GOAT SUCKER comes across like a deconstruction of character studies. We see this maniac's life, and all the beats are there, but they're beats that tell us nothing about how the Goat Sucker came to this existence. It's all mood and no depth.
Also included on the DVD is a second short film titled BATHWATER which is just as vile as THE GOAT SUCKER in a completely different way.