CineVegas Review: ‘The Revenant’

Friendship and strange relationships seems to have been one of the major themes represented at CineVegas 2009.   We had not one, but two love stories told out of sinc (‘500 Days of Summer’ and ‘Mercy).   We had two, straight friends who decide to make a porno for artistic value in ‘Humpday.’   We even had an intergalactic relationship between a rugged outlaw and a little girl with ‘Stingray Sam.’   However, nothing seen all week at CineVegas would prepare us for the strangeness found in the horror comedy film, ‘The Revenant.’

Joey (Chris Wylde) is a slacker, a real low-life who would rather sell drugs than go out and find a real job.   He has just buried his best friend and roommate, Bart (David Anders), a soldier who has died in Iraq.   Joey is about to go on with his life when Bart, resurrected from the grave, comes knocking on his door.

Bart has become, for no reason given, a revenant, a member of the undead who must satisfy his cravings for human blood by night.   He dies again each dawn, only to be brought right back once the sun goes down.   So, what do you do with a friend who is completely immortal and is only able to go out at night?   You party your heads off, right?

The narrative for ‘The Revenant’ doesn’t just stop at the level of two friends dealing with newfound immortality in one of them.   It delves into violence, gets more complex, and, by the end of the film, completely goes way out on the limb.   Joey and Bart become a duo of vigilantes, taking out murderers and drug dealers allowing Bart to suck them dry of their blood.   If ‘The Revenant’ would have stuck with this storyline and allowed the majority of the film to follow this path, it would have worked successfuly in several different ways.   However, writer/director Kerry Prior only gives the two a small amount of screen time to work any violent magic on the criminal underworld.   Much of the film’s earlier scenes is played out for absolute comic relief with the hanging out, getting drunk, and, basically, being the adolescent partiers Joey has always wanted them to be.

These early moments could have easily been cut out.   If nothing else, they could have been shortened immensely.   It seems like most of the scenes found in ‘The Revenant’ are about twice as long as they need to be.   It is well into the film before the real plotline begins to reveal itself.   Don’t get me wrong.   There is a lot of fun to be had in the first half of ‘The Revenant.’   Anders and Wylde are clearly having a blast playing these two characters, and it seems much of their early scenes together were improvised while the two were just hanging out.   Anders just happens to have crazy, zombie makeup covering his face and Kerry Prior just happens to be there with a camera to film it all.

The first half of ‘The Revenant’ offers up some bloody good fun, as well.   Prior’s interest in directing the film more towards horror is evident.   He never holds back from showing us the red stuff.   Unfortunately, the story behind all the fun horror just isn’t as interesting as it should have or even could have been.

One thing, however, that is interesting about the film’s plot is the notion that Prior never gives us a reason for Bart’s resurrection.   Late scenes give an indication that this is a small part of something bigger, but there still is no explanation given.   It’s not needed, and it would have just slowed down the film more than it already was.

Needless to say, at some point, Joey becomes a member of the undead, as well, and this is where the film begins to take more of a dramatic turn.   It is a very interesting study to have two friends become members of the undead, conscious as they are, and show that they have two, opposing views on what they should do with the power.   Bart feels the two are doing good in the world, taking out bad guys and feeding his own thirst for human blood at the same time.   Joey just wants to run off to Vegas where day and night are pretty much flipped anyway.   I say this is a very interesting study, but Prior doesn’t allow this much screen time, either.   And this is saying something considering the film’s running time of just under two hours.

One element that is given just enough amount of screen time is the relationship between Bart and his girlfriend, Janet, played by Louise Griffiths.   Prior hits on it a few times here and there, but, for the most part, it just lingers in the background.   One scene between Bart and Janet actually delves into the realm of high emotion.   It doesn’t hurt that Prior has some nicely placed Muse playing in the background.

‘The Revenant’ feels like a statue that is half chiseled.   You know there is a masterpiece under there somewhere, but the artist involved still has a lot of work to do on it.   The film feels like it was rushed through production extremely fast.   This is a definite possibility.   They could have rushed through production just to get a workable print to show at CineVegas.   Special effects are not polished at all.   The editor involved needs to go back and work through the flow of the film again.   There are several scenes late in the film that make absolutely no sense, and they don’t offer anything to the overall story, either.   At a certain point late in the film, Bart begins attempting suicide.   It might have been effective earlier in the film, but, after seeing him getting shotgun-blasted by drug dealers more than a few times, it doesn’t really mean anything to see him trying and failing to hang himself.

There are about half a dozen points where ‘The Revenant’ could have ended.   It probably should have picked one of these moments.   As more and more false endings come our way, our interest in what happens to Bart and Joey grows less and less.   By the end of the film, the storyline gets so convoluted that the whale-sized plot holes found in the film’s ending aren’t even of note.   You just don’t care by then.

‘The Revenant’ is a film that could have been a lot of fun.   Everyone involved seems to have been having a grand time shooting it, and this level of comraderie really does comes through for most of the film.   Unfortunately, what could have been a fast-paced and highly entertaining horror comedy gets lost in the middle of a film that still needs a whole lot of post-production work.   If the film gets picked up for distribution, I’m sure these problems will get fixed.   Plain and simple, ‘The Revenant’ seen at CineVegas was an unfinished version of a much better film.   There is just one more piece of evidence that the film wasn’t complete.   The final credit in the opening credits reads: PRODUCED, WRITTEN, AND DIRECTOR BY KERRY PRIOR.   That just about says it all.