MicroCinema Scene

This remarkable feature debut about the coming of age story of a female serial killer will tempt many to call it “A triumph of style over substance.” Now the question is: Can style itself become substance? I think so. This film certainly delivers enough blood and guts for the gore-hungry crowd. KatieBird succeeds more in crawling under your skin than inside your brain. Torture scenes of pornographic violence are abounding, but after while the shock effect wears out. Ingmar Bergman once said that violence is more powerful when it’s not shown. But of course, this is an exploitation movie, and it delivers all the goods in an uncompromising manner.

The story is well conceived, yet I feel the screenplay runs out of gas after the first half, running 20 minutes too long. The movie has already an inherent nihilistic anger ever present throughout, but adding extra seasoning of social commentary to the misanthropic views of Katie and her Dad,would have helped to bake a more intellectually challenging piece, and transcend the boundaries of the usual genre trappings. Still the movie is quite entertaining as it is: Not really food for thought, but for your senses.

KatieBird is at times torn between becoming a psychological drama, or pure gore fest, and manages to work at both levels with success, although mostly through abuse of the latter. I always complain about most horror films, because I’m really tired of the mindless hacking, sawing, plucking, squashing, stomping and grinding. This one takes a great step in the right direction; as it explains with detail the character’s motivations and back-stories.

The performances, camera work and make-up are compelling, but most of all, this movie is a remarkable achievement in film editing (and not just at a microcinema level). I’m in awe at what Justin Paul Ritter has accomplished. Sometimes style can be just enough, and Katiebird’s is both inspiring and inspired.

Comic book-like panels are incredibly effective in depicting the fragmented physic of the lead character. Some might complain that the effect is overwhelming, but never before I had seen such creative use of split screens, perfectly timed to the action. Brian De Palma used (and abused) the technique in the 70s and early 80s. His concept was designed to dazzle us more than as a strictly narrative device. Here it is no different, but Ritter’s mastery of the technique reaches new psychedelic heights, evoking a consistently psychotic mood, which becomes the most important character: More powerful than anything happening in the story, if not necessarily horrific. The result feels occasionally like some of Dario Argento’s films, where style actually smoothens the gritty nature of the violence, are the horror becomes more bearable than in films like Irreversible where both the

visceral and emotional impact are calculated with sheer precision.

KatieBird will appeal both to gore-starved audience as well as the art house crowd, though the later might be turned off by the abundance of blood. In any case, if you truly appreciate good filmmaking, you must give KatieBird it a try.  It’s an inspiring, promising debut from its writer/director/editor to everyone else involved in the production.

Four stars.

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