It’s true that Jug Face is one of the finest indie horror
movies to come along in years. It’s also
true that Jug Face is one of the best horror movies of 2013 regardless of
budget (it shares poll position with The Battery in my Top 10 of 2013). It’s becoming increasingly apparent that if
the devout, discerning genre fan wants
to find a movie that is both effective as a horror film and contains even the
smallest shred of originality they must be prepared to look beyond the deluge
of lacklustre bilge that Hollywood has been force feeding audiences for far too
long now. The most successful mainstream
horror film of 2013 was The Conjuring. I
liked it quite a bit but even I have to admit that it was woefully lacking in
the inspiration department. Jug Face is
one of a handful of low budget horror movies that went some way toward
redressing the balance and making 2013 something less than an almost complete
washout for the horror genre.
There is an overabundance of horror movies today that coast by
on their ability to make an audience jump out of their seats and/or try to
trigger their gag reflex by throwing an abattoir of blood soaked viscera at the
screen. I’m not denying that this
approach can be fun. The Conjuring is a
great example of the jump-scare thing being done well but it’s doing nothing
that hundreds of movies haven’t already done before. I’m also fond of well-staged carnage but too
often it’s used to prop up a dismal script with nary a new or interesting idea
to be found. So it’s truly a relief to
discover a horror movie that isn’t heavily weighted in favour of jump scares
alone and has more ideas than gore. Too
many movies forget entirely that a creeping sense of gathering dread is a far
more effective way to unnerve and/or scare an audience. This is an area where Jug Face (and many
other indie horror movies) succeeds.
Perhaps it’s something that comes with a lack of money. If you can’t scare an audience or make them
throw up by launching moderately expensive set pieces at them then you have to
rely on their imagination. And a
person’s imagination, guided skilfully in the right direction is a far more
powerful way of scaring the shit out of a viewer.
Which brings me back to Jug Face; the brilliant directorial
debut of Chad Crawfod Kinkle who, armed with very little money, a clever script
(which he wrote) and a supremely talented cast has put together a tale of
backwoods terror that not only works as a horror movie but also provides much
in the way of riveting drama. The story
focuses on a tight knit community who worship a pit in the woods that surround
their village. Once in a while they have
to make a sacrifice to this hole in the ground with the victim being selected
when one of the villagers fashions a jug out of clay that bears the face of the
chosen one. When Ada (Lauren Ashley
Carter) discovers not only that she is pregnant but also that she is next in
line for sacrifice she hides the jug bearing her likeness in the woods and
starts making plans to escape. Things do
not go according to plan.
The performances in Jug Face range from good to quite
exceptional. I first encountered Lauren
Ashley Carter in Lucky McKee’s The Woman where she gave the sort of performance
that made me sit up and take notice. In
Jug Face she builds on the promise already shown to provide a perfectly
pitched, subtle and at times heart-breaking performance. She’s one of those special actors who can do
more with her eyes than some actors can do with everything they have at their
disposal. She’s incredible here and
although much of what makes Jug Face so special rests upon her capable
shoulders she has impressive back-up from genre regular Larry Fessenden as her
father and, surprisingly, Sean Young, who is terrifying as Ada’s granite
hearted bitch of a mother. Also of note
is Sean Bridgers in the role of Dawai. I
was surprised to discover that he had a regular role in the HBO western
Deadwood; a show I drank in like the heady, addictive brew it was. He’s unrecognizable and thoroughly remarkable here.
There’s very little to criticize about Jug Face. Given the budget it’s no surprise that the
special effects, few though they are, aren’t terribly special. But that’s not important because this isn’t a
horror movie that relies on showy effects to succeed. The community that the story centres upon is
brought to life with a keen eye for detail and as a result feels totally
authentic. It’s the authenticity of this
backdrop and the plight of Ada that drew me into the story and had me gripped right
from beginning right up until the gut wrenching conclusion. Those who have been raised on nothing but the
wham, bam, thank-you ma’am (or no thank-you if you please) MTV pacing of the
majority of mainstream horror movies would perhaps complain that Jug Face is
slow. Utter bullshit. Jug Face is methodically but perfectly paced and
understands that the best movies, regardless of genre, work when the audience is
invested in the fate of the characters.
This isn’t achieved by racing from scene to scene like a cheetah on
amphetamines. This is accomplished by
taking the time to tell the audience enough about the characters to allow a
bond to develop.
It’s truly sad that it takes a first time director working
on a shoestring budget to show us what a horror movie can be when it’s produced
by a group of people with the ambition to create something that isn’t a
facsimile of everything that’s gone before.
Jug Face is a unique movie, that, in a year that cannot be described as
anything other than disappointing where genre offerings are concerned should, along with a handful of its peers (all low budget, indie movies), be
held up as proof that US horror is not as uninspired as mainstream Hollywood would
have you believe. Highly recommended.
STEVE'S SCORE:
Interview with Chad Crawford Kinkle
AOTD: Your script for Jug Face won the Slamdance
Screenwriting Competition back in 2011.
Did your original vision make the transition from page to screen intact
or did you have to scale things back a little to accommodate the budget?
Chad Crawford Kinkle: I tell people that maybe 40% of what I
wanted is in the movie. If I had the experience that I gained from making Jug
Face, my first feature, I could have added about 30%. The rest was due to budget
and other reasons that were out of my control.
AOTD: On Jug Face you were blessed with a talented group of
actors to work with. What was the casting process like? Were there specific
actors you had in mind for certain roles or was the movie cast entirely through
auditions?
CCK: Andrew van Den Houten, the producer, really lead the
way as far as casting was concerned. He would come up with names and pass them
by me. The only one of the major roles that I came up with was Ada, Lauren
Ashley Carter. But of course, I was familiar with her only after watched a blu
ray of The Woman that Andrew gave me. We did have auditions for the secondary
roles.
AOTD: Are there any past masters of horror cinema whose work
you particularly respect and who have had an influence on your approach to
film-making?
CCK: I respect them all. Even the ones who didn’t make great
movies. They all set out to make horror films the best that they could. But my
favorites would be Argento, Hitchcock, Hooper, Polanski, Friedkin, Browning,
Bava and so on.
AOTD: Did the central conceit of the clay jug faces and the
pit spring entirely from your imagination or did something inspire you? It has
the feel of something from folklore.
CCK: Face jugs are a real part of souther folk art for the
past 160 years. I saw one for the first time at a museum in the north Georgia
Mountains and came up the concept for the movie on the spot. The jugs were used
to hold moonshine and poisons for farming.
AOTD: The sense of place, customs and history of the
community in Jug Face is vital to the movie's success. How did you go about ensuring that this felt
authentic?
CCK: For one, I shot the movie in the area where the story’s
culture comes from. Basically, the region of Tennessee where I grew up. But a
Director’s job is to control the “vision” of the film so that it feels whole
and concrete.
AOTD: US indie horror is creatively far more interesting
than anything mainstream Hollywood is producing at the moment. Why do you think this is the case and what
movies and/or directors from that scene have made a real impression on you?
CCK: You can be more adventurous with the subject matter if
the budget is low. Big budget movies have to get people into the theaters so
those ideas need to be more mainstream to make back all the money. Film making
is a business at any level. Ben Wheatley is someone that comes to mind who I
admire.
AOTD: What should we expect from your sophomore effort and
do you have anything on the go yet?
CCK: I’m trying to finish up my next screenplay, another
southern gothic horror film. If that doesn’t go anywhere, I have a number of
other horror ideas that I want to explore.
AOTD: What horror movies are you looking forward to in 2014?
AOTD: Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.
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