Slapface

The video-on-demand service Shudder seems to have a flair for finding good independent horror films, both American and international. Before its world premiere at the UK's FrightFest, director and writer Jeremiah Kipp's new film Slapface was acquired by Shudder for release on February 3rd. 

The film features a rather special relationship between a troubled young boy and a human-like monster living in a forest. After Lucas (August Maturo, The Nun) and Tom (Mike Manning, The Call) lose their mother in an accident, they think they only have each other to lean on. But Lucas has become fascinated by local myths of a monster (Lukas Hassel, The Black Room) in the woods, reciting the nursery rhyme that children have repeated for generations every time he passes the abandoned hospital. When some girls from his school dare him to enter, the rhyme comes to life, and as Lucas' visits become more frequent, the disappearances begin. But would the witch Virago ever hurt him? 

Slapface won the Audience Award at last year's Cinequest San Jose Film Festival and has an excellent and well-deserved reputation. Director and writer Jeremiah Kipp, after several unnoticed films, has succeeded in creating an ambitious horror film about grief, coming of age and first love. The result is a horrific thriller that takes on some of the trappings of a modern tale while depicting life in a small American town. Far from resorting to unnecessary artifice, the director creates a real dramatic tension and reveals a violence without concession. The result is a film that skilfully plays between the psychological drama and the monster movie.

The title of the film comes from the strange game played by the two parentless brothers, which consists in slapping each other harder and harder to test their endurance. Left alone in a large house and at a loss for direction, his two brothers are left scarred by the accidental death of their mother. Far from being just a monster movie with a demonic witch, Slapface is above all a psychological drama about grief and how to cope with it and rebuild. The ambient pessimism of the film makes that this one avoids being only a simple and new monster movie but rather a real social drama of a violence. Certainly the budget of the film seems very restricted but the director delivers a very inspired film which benefits from the presence of a very good casting of young promising actors

Slapface
Written and directed by Jeremiah Kipp
Produced by Joe Benedetto, Artisha Mann Cooper, Mike Manning
Based on Slapface by Jeremiah Kipp
Starring Dan Hedaya, August Maturo, William Sadler, Mike C. Manning, Bianca D'Ambrosio, Chiara D'Ambrosio, Mirabelle Lee
Music by Barry J. Neely
Cinematography: Dominick Sivilli
Edited by Katie Dillon 
Production companies : Chibber Mann Productions, Mirror Image Films, Artman Cooper Production
Distributed by Shudder (United States), Epic Pictures Group
Release date : March 20, 2021 (Cinequest Film Festival), February 3, 2022 (United States)
Running time : 85 minutes

Seen on January 30, 2022 (screener press Shudder)

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