Alright, so I was convinced by a friend who had an extra free ticket to check my fourth film of the day on Day 3 of the Fantasia International Film Festival . This was totally unplanned, my butt is going to be numb after all this sitting but what the hell, Fantasia is Christmas in July!
It was a midnight screening of the Canadian Premiere of the indy horror comedy Porno. The film had its World Premiere at SXSW back in March before playing at the Munich International Film Festival in June. It has an upcoming screening at the FrightFest in London, UK in August.
Porno was written by Matt Black and Laurence Vannicelli and was directed by Racela Keola, his first feature film. The film stars Jillian Mueller, Robbie Tann, Evan Daves, Larry Saperstein, Glenn Stott, Katelyn Pearce and Bill Phillips.
The Fantasia host welcomed director Keola to the stage. He talked about how this was a movie made with friends he went to film school with. He didn’t want to say too much but hoped we’d like it. He said there would be a Q&A after the film with a few people from the cast and crew.
If you want to know what Porno is about, read the following synopsis (copied from the Fantasia website):
“It’s the job that film nerds would die for: working in an old-fashioned, single-screen theatre. Our story takes place in one such venue, circa 1992. Besides being buffs, our teen heroes — assistant manager Chastity, Heavy Metal Jeff, Peeping Tom buddies Abe and Todd, and jock Ricky — are also devout Christians, serving under the watchful eye of manager Mr. Pike. Late one night after closing, the kids stumble upon a dusty film can and unspool the ancient celluloid. It’s a scratchy arthouse skin flick that switches reels to reveal a satanic ritual. The popcorn hits the floor when this secret screening unleashes upon the real world a sexy succubus with lust and murder in mind. The trapped, sex-starved teens are easy prey for the demon, but these Bible-thumpers won’t give up without a fight… even when their balls are (literally) up against the wall.”
I definitely can’t say I didn’t have fun with Porno. It’s completely over the top and doesn’t take itself seriously but the story was entertaining to me. There are some good thrills and sexiness in there. And while it may not be a laugh-a-minute affair, there were some great comedy bits throughout the film. The film had great technical qualities too, from cinematography to sound, visual effects and practical makeup effects (one of the gore gags is especially hurtfully hilarious for male viewers). Since the film is set in a single-screen small town theater, this midnight screening in the smallest theater the festival uses was perfect.
The cast was completely unknown to me but I thought they all did a great job.
As of writing this, there is no word if the film has found a distributor but I sure hope it will.
I am giving Porno a 3.75 out of 5 Hairpieces!
Here’s a clip from the film that I’d recommend not watching to keep the surprises:
#Fantasia2019 #FantasiaFest #Porno
Cinephellas 