Gut: Film Review

Managing to make the lore of snuff films not just repulsive but mind-numbingly dull, the horror film Gut offers two characters -- and, one imagines, a filmmaker -- who should have put splatter films behind them many years ago. Likely to sink quickly at the box office, its VOD prospects aren't much better.

Written and directed by someone calling himself simply "Elias," the pic stars Jason Vail as Tom, a middle-class drone who works a cubicle away from high school best friend Dan (Nicholas Wilder). When the latter obtains a DVD that appears to show a man actually killing a woman on camera, Tom finds the images infecting his psyche. Suddenly, his wife can't satisfy him sexually, his dreams turn to dissection and he sees his young daughter's belly button in a sick new light. The two men develop a love/hate relationship with the film, seeking more just like it.

Uniformly lifeless performances and stiff direction combine to keep us from feeling a thing about the mysteries the scenario eventually raises: Is Dan secretly making the videos? Will Tom snap and kill someone? Is it possible that these gore-porn scenarios have been turned into something duller than the desk jobs these two man-children are stuck in?

Production Company: Gut Productions
Cast: Jason Vail, Nicholas Wilder, Sarah Schoofs, Angie Bullaro, Kirstianna Mueller, Kaitlyn Mueller
Director-Screenwriter-Editor: Elias
Producers: Anna Ganster, Elias
Director of photography: Trent Ermes
Production designer: Monique Hazeur
Music: Chvad SB
Costume designer: Gabrielle Vincent
No rating, 90 minutes