Review: ‘The Path of Torment’

The one thing I love about independent filmmaking, more than anything else, is that the gloves come off and the sky is the limit. Anything goes and nothing is taboo. The filmmaker is free to explore any facet of their mind’s endless bounty of ideas, into the absurd, the truly dramatic or even the darkest, most twisted corners of the imagination. Truth be told, the lower the filmmaker’s budget is the more freedom they have. Once you get to the point of being on the lowest end of the budget scale, the only thing holding you back truly is yourself. So, what the Hell am I rambling on about this for when I ought to be reviewing ‘The Path of Torment’… cut me some slack, it’s a segue into my review. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m suggesting that ‘The Path of Torment’ falls nicely into this elaborately inappropriate introduction.

Actor/Director Gary C. Warren has managed to perfectly illustrate how an indie filmmaker with a virtually non-existent budget can make a genuinely unique and interesting film. ‘The Path of Torment’ is an extreme comedy made in the Midwest (St. Louis, to be exact) that plays both on the violence and stylistic influence of movies such as ‘Pulp Fiction’ and if that wasn’t peculiar enough, strangely inbreeds dialogue influenced both by Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, resulting in an awkwardly rewarding dark comedy that narrowly escapes the confines of the absurd and firmly plants itself within the safety of solid narrative storytelling.

Gary C. Warren stars in his own movie, along side Joel Noelker, as two bicycle-riding Mormon missionaries going door-to-door in the suburbs to spread the word of Jesus Christ. Boy, were we wrong in assuming ‘The Path of Torment’ was going to be a good old fashioned wholesome Family Channel movie of the week! The story follows a newlywed couple preparing to throw a housewarming party when the wife (Dona Ellis) Â  is visited by two missionaries. Her husband (Craig Beffa) returns from running errands and the fun begins.We quickly learn the truth about this pair of unnamed missionaries who set upon themselves the task of seeking revenge on the man who wronged one of them, while the other seems to be involved simply for the fun of it all.

‘The Path of Torment’ offers a quality of production that fits well within the expectations of low-budget filmmaking, but also uses it’s freedom of experimentation to push the boundaries of what can be accomplished with the financial and technical limitations of low-budget filmmaking. Warren has a clearly spoken and confident understanding of the language of the cinema and applies it with an astounding degree of effectiveness. He also manages to use music of various styles to further accentuate the tone of the movie, which is as mentally unstable as it’s main character. In particular, the song ‘Jesus is My Friend’ is one of the funniest uses of music to convey sarcasm in a movie that I’ve seen in a long time.

Music, both hard and soft, ultra-violence, vulgarity and profanity, suspense, non-linear storytelling and visually engaging cinematography all come together to lay the stepping stones for ‘The Path of Torment’. The overall cast of characters are diverse and interesting, but the antagonists in the film maintain a presence similar to that of Peter and Paul in ‘Funny Games’. There are a few scenes that rank relatively high on the disturbing scale, one of which is particularly disturbing to the point of being just plain wrong. If you’re open to experiencing the joys of low-budget indie filmmaking and you can appreciate the finer points of offensive humor and ultra-violence when applied to a decent story, then this is a movie you should seek out.

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]