Wound
A Film by David Blyth
Actors: Kate O'Rourke, Te Kaea Beri, Campbell Cooley
Studio: ILA Film Productions
Format: HD and DVD
Language: English
Release Date: July 2010
Run Time: 77 minutes
ASIN: n/a
Wound
A Film by David Blyth
Review by Jeani Rector
The DVD cover for the film WOUND states that no one under 18 should view it. I can see the reasoning behind this, because David Blyth's WOUND is a controversial gore-fest filled with extreme deviant behavior and explicit sexual depravity, and it even has a little S&M thrown in.
The film begins when Susan (played by Kate O'Rourke) opens the door to admit her visiting father for a not-so-happy reunion. Still, the first impression is a good one, because Susan is all dressed up and seems excited to see him. But what she is really excited about is her plan to kill her father. She already has a grave dug in her yard, and when she places the body inside, she throws in a bunch of tin-foil wrapped things as well. Trust me here when I tell you that those things wrapped in tin-foil are not baked potatoes.
The movie revolves around Susan's descent into a spiraling mental illness, and we are never certain of what is real and what is not. She was once pregnant with a daughter, but did that pregnancy result in a still-birth or did someone take the child from her? The film goes back and forth between those two scenarios. Which leads us to the question of Susan's stalker: is it really her daughter or a figment of her imagination?
There are creepy doll masks and reoccurring train whistles in this film. It is truly disconcerting when both mother and daughter are born together from an extremely bloody womb, both wearing doll heads.
WOUND includes obvious characters for a movie about mental illness: Doctor Nelson, effectively and competently played by Ian Mune, and the paramedic mental crisis team, played very well by Omar Al Sobky and Andy Sophocleous.
But the real standout is Kate O'Rourke as Susan. O'Rourke is an excellent actor, and very convincing as a troubled woman who is paralyzed by doubt and crippled by the extremes of her emotions. Her mental illness persona is very believable.
Another good actor is the daughter, played by Te Kaea Beri. The daughter's evil intentions are eerie and intimidating, thanks to Beri's fine acting skills.
But nothing takes the center stage as does the gore. And the depravity. And the deviance of the sexual encounters.
This film is not for everyone. If I were to describe it, it would be as a splatter-punk, extremely sexual, trippy and disjointed version of Argento's SUSPIRA. But while the confusion of SUSPIRA is part of its charm, in WOUND, the questions never get answered. WOUND is a film without an ending, just scene after scene of debasement and dark immorality.
Still, the gore-fest genre has its fans, which are those with a strong stomach. WOUND has been awarded top honors in "A Night of Horror International Film Festival," in Sydney Australia in 2011. Those honors include: Best Female Performance: Kate O'Rourke; Best Director: David Blyth; and Best Film: WOUND.
See the movie here:
About the Filmmaker
David Blyth
David Blyth is a 30-year veteran of the Film Business in New Zealand and North America. As a Feature Film Director he has directed a range of award-winning Experimental, Genre and Art House films. David has also produced and directed a range of independent award-winning documentaries.
You can visit David HEREAbout the Reviewer
Jeani Rector
While most people go to Disneyland while in Southern California, Jeani Rector went to the Fangoria Weekend of Horror there instead. She grew up watching the Bob Wilkins Creature Feature on television and lived in a house that had the walls covered with framed Universal Monsters posters. It is all in good fun and actually, most people who know Jeani personally are of the opinion that she is a very normal person. She just writes abnormal stories. Doesn’t everybody?
Jeani Rector is the founder and editor of The Horror Zine and has had her stories featured in magazines such as Aphelion, Midnight Street, Strange Weird and Wonderful, Macabre Cadaver, Ax Wound, Horrormasters, Morbid Outlook, Horror in Words, Black Petals, 63Channels, Death Head Grin, Hackwriters, Bewildering Stories, Ultraverse, Story Mania, Lost Souls, All Destiny, and many others. Her novel Around a Dark Corner was released in the USA on Graveyard Press in 2009.