Red Velvet Spins a Web of Storytelling and Manipulation
Red Velvet tells a story of storytelling prompted by a seemingly chance meeting between two neighbors at a Laundromat. The lesson is: Don’t air your dirty laundry in public.
Written by The Horror Czar
April 21, 2008
Release: 2008 (estimated)
Directed by: Bruce Dickson
Written by: Anthony Burns and Joe Moe
Starring:
Henry Thomas as Aaron
Kelli Garner as Linda
Eric Jungmann as Roy
Lateef Crowder as Maniac
Watch The Trailer
Aaron (Henry Thomas) is going crazy. Day after day he listens to yelling and fighting through the paper-thin walls of his apartment courtesy of his neighbors. As he sits, day in and day out, he scribbles maniacally in a little notebook and mumbles to himself until suddenly… Aaron decides that this has got to stop. What does this have to do with anything? Hard to say at this point.
Cut to Aaron racing to the Laundromat to get some washing done. A random blond strikes up idle conversation, much to his annoyance. Still, no matter how mean he is to Laundromat-girl Linda (Kelli Garner) she keeps coming back for more. The sarcastic banter turns into a lunch date while the clothes are drying.
During lunch the couple find that they have something in common after all; Telling stories about strange and gruesome happenings. After a few shared details and a few false starts, Aaron begins a tale of the violent and bloody demise of Linda’s abusive boyfriend, her best friends spending the weekend at a secluded lake house and her perky sister Patricia.
Red Velvet is an engaging thriller that uses a mixture of present-moment interaction and fantastical stories to weave an intricate web. The interaction between Thomas and Garner works well and the stories have the perfect amount of humor and gore. It’s particularly interesting when a shared detail changes the face of a story segment that has already transpired resulting in a retelling from a different point of view.
Red Velvet is not particularly scary, and there is no use of any of the traditional horror tactics to get a “jump” out of the audience. Many folks would say this thankfully… I myself have just enough juvenile tendencies intact to miss the second when the cat jumps out of the closet during a particularly tense moment. To each his own…
The gore in this one is first rate. Okay, sometimes over the top, like when the guy is cut in half lengthwise with a logging saw, but still. I love to see severed heads flying through the air, blood spurting an amazing distance from a knife wound and heads being crushed by repeated blows with a pink hammer, so I was in luck.
The acting is generally pretty good in this one with the particular stand out of Henry Thomas. Thomas was appropriately intense and nerdy and had me hanging on his every word. Something was bugging me throughout Red Velvet though. I knew that I recognized Henry Thomas from somewhere, but I couldn’t figure it out. After a bit of research I found it – Henry Thomas was Elliot in E.T! Talk about a blast from the past…
Red Velvet epitomizes what Independent Horror is all about, originality and taking the risk of putting an off-beat story on the silver screen. This one will likely release directly to DVD but don’t let that distract you. Horror like this is what keeps Indie Horror alive. Questions or comments about Red Velvet? Contact us!
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