ALL GOD’S CREATURES – The DVD Review

A low-budget exercise in depravity and broken lives, ALL GOD’S CREATURES tells the story of an ordinary serial killer with the ordinary name of Jon Smith (played by Josh Folan who cowrote the ordinary screenplay). A barista at a corner Starbucksish shop by day, Jon spends his evenings trolling for hookers and other loose women to lure back to his apartment to murder and collect their body parts as sicko souvenirs. The story eventually settles in on Jon’s relationship with a distressed Craig’s List hooker named Delia (Jessica Kaye) who’s just left an abusive boyfriend and has plenty of nasty baggage of her own.

ALL GOD’S CREATURES strikes an uneasy balance between sinister suspense and hipsterish irony. Co-directors Ryan Cummings and Frank Licata are gifted enough to combine elements of schlock and exploitation fare with an arthouse sensibility, but ALL GOD’S CREATURES suffers from a tired script that never breaks any new ground. ALL GOD’S CREATURES balances standard slasher flick thrills with a glimpse into the mind of a killer, but it misses a major opportunity to be truly revelatory about his psyche. Self-reflective voiceovers about his admiration for the accomplishments of Ted Bundy may have seemed clever a decade or so ago but now comes off as tiresome. The audience is mostly kept busy worrying whether or not the intended victims can escape and the film’s potential outcomes dwindle down to two possibilities – will she get away or won’t she? Plenty of films have gotten a lot of mileage from that dilemma, but since this one promises more depth than that, the simplification is disappointing. It’s all pretty cut-and-dry and splatter/exploitation fans will be unsatisfied as the killings are relatively mild and the nudity infrequent.

In all, I found ALL GOD’S CREATURES to be a competent and earnestly-made missed opportunity, lacking the very sort of passion or recklessness that made something like HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER the classic it is. Technically top-notch, the pacing is even, and the scenes flow and build on each other professionally. Clearly hidden beneath a spotty debut is a pair of filmmakers with depth of vision and a knack for realism. The setting of sleazy New York City surroundings makes for an edgy atmosphere, the camerawork is coherent and there are some halfway dynamic shots, but the lack of originality results in a shapeless collection of commercial elements disguised as an art film. Take out the killings, and you’re left with an anguished stab at urban ennui. Cast with New York City-based actors, some with soap opera pedigrees, ALL GOD’S CREATURES features at least one performance that transcends the mediocre material. Thanks to a winning, natural turn from Jessica Kaye, there is some actual chemistry between Jon and Delia. She is good actress with a natural beauty that can withstand the many close-ups and I hope to see her in more films. Josh Folan is less successful in his characterization, just creepy when he should be mesmerizing, spouting platitudes instead of nuance, Jon’s a dim Patrick Bateman who doesn’t seem clever enough to get away with all of these homicides. The rest of the cast is comprised of various victims set up for the kill.

ALL GOD’S CREATURES was made for very little, is never dull and it’s always good to see enthusiastic young filmmakers doing their jobs well. As directors, Cummings and Licata show an impressive amount of range as their film straddles multiple genres, taking in drama, revenge, and horror, without ever feeling overloaded or uneven. They’re never in a rush to get to the next scene, often happy to leave the camera rolling on apparently lesser moments that offer small but important insights into the characters. If next time they can just tackle a more compelling script, I’ll look forward to their future films.

DVDs of ALL GOD’S CREATURES are for sale on the website HERE and the film is streaming on IndieFlix.

(http://www.allgodscreaturesfilm.com/)