Bitch Ass (2022)

October 25, 2022 2:53 PM

A gang initiation goes wrong when a group of four recruits break into a house of horror, as they're all forced to play deadly games for their lives.

Starring Teon Kelley Tunde Laleye Sheaun McKinney Me'lisa Sellers Kelsey Caesar A-F-R-O Tony Todd Belle Guillory Jarvis Denman Jr. Sherri L. Walker Tim J. Smith Eric Wright.

Directed by Bill Posley. Written by Bill Posley and Jonathan Colomb.

65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently available for digital rental on multiple services. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (2 comments total)

Given the plot description, a person could be forgiven for mistakenly supposing this is a Saw-type thing. It's not. It's more like a fun retro slasher.

Bill Posley is Black and his film riffs on decades of Black horror films. I've seen negative reviews coming after him for not seeming to take any kind of clear allegorical stance, a la Jordan Peele. But honestly, that seems ridiculous. Why can't he just vibe on the aesthetics in the movies he likes, why does he have to say something big? We don't do that to white horror filmmakers.

He's got some interesting chops as a filmmaker, including some choices that land fabulously (the recurring use of comic book panel style multi images), some that thud horribly (weirdly, he cuts more in innocuous scenes than during kills), and some that are a mixed bag (shooting most of the film in something like 3.25-to-1 ratio, through a fisheye lens. But the whole thing flows briskly, the board games-gone-homicidal bit is fun and clever, and the film always knows what it is and executes, from a plot perspective. Posley's style can be a little "look at me!" but you can't deny his has one. And a lot of it is really cool.

This production design has a lot of style for a low budgeter, even if, in a few spots, it's laughably cheap. (Is that "Game House" shed fucking cardboard?)

Comparing this to say, The Third Saturday in October (another retro slasher which got some nice reviews playing a ton of festivals this year), and there's no comparison at all. T3SiO focuses all of its energy on period detail and restaging cliched scenes for diehards, even as its has very little to offer beyond that; BA takes what it finds fun from the last several generations of Black horror for vibes and builds a solid story actually worth seeing on top of them. And he actually uses solid actors and makes good use of them, very rare for a low budget horror.

Not a great movie by any means, but like, say, the Adams Family's The Deeper You Dig, it tells a complete story well and makes a lot out of very little, establishing a style in the process.

It's a 3/5 kinda thing for me, but with the important note that I expect even better from Posley next time around.

Oh, and the Tony Todd wraparound is great fun.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:08 PM on October 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I just checked: this was a $30,000 budget. For a feature horror film, with multiple elaborate kills, a custom house set, and Tony fricking Todd.

Write Bill Posley a check for a quarter mil and let's fucking goooooooo.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:16 PM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]