Survival of the...Jerks

The Fittest (2003)

Director- Jeff Crook

Starring- Jason Madera, Angela Grant, Josh Crook

Stuck in a loveless, childless marriage and a dead-end sales job, pushover Freddy (Madera) finds a mistress in coworker Jill (Christina Caparoula). Al (Crook), Freddy's boss and a self-proclaimed ladies' man, is not happy that Freddy took the woman he was apparently involved with. After a particular confrontation, Freddy gets the axe from his job, Al turns his attention to Mike (well-played by Christopher Ferry), an even bigger pushover with staggering niavete.

At a friendly barbecue, Al finds out Mike's attractive wife is a professional housecleaner and invites her to clean his house. While there, he pays her extra to give him oral sex, which she does, and he takes a polaroid shot, which he shows Mike later just to be a jerk.

Meanwhile, Freddy gets news that mistress Jill has become pregnant. She wants an abortion, he doesn't so he tries to hold her in her basement until he can convince her to keep the baby. His wife Grace (Grant) finds out and seeks out Al for a revenge tryst.

The characters all come tegether in various violent little conflicts through out the movie after this, and in the end Freddy and his wife reconcile with one or two little plot twists that I will not reveal. It's this little twist that makes it worth getting to the end of the movie.

Acting is not bad for a cheap Indie flick. The cast obvious put a lot of effort into their roles, and it shows.

Rating: 4/5 Bonedaddies.

That Lighthouse Needs Fixing...

Tormented (1960)
Director- Bert I. Gordon
Starring- Richard Carlson, Susan Gordon, Juli Reding

Tom (Carlson) is all set to get married. Trouble is, he has to ditch his mistress, Vi (Reding). Vi isn't too thrilled with being cut loose, and attempts to blackmail him. She underestimates his desperation to maintain secrecy, however, and gets herself dropped from a lighthouse.

Tom, thinking he's free, goes on with his new life, but is soon disturbed by visions of body parts showing up in various places. He soon sees Vi's head in his living room and pleads with her to leave him alone. In the meantime, an old associate of Vi's stops in town looking for her. He finds out about her relationship with Tom and tries his own hand at blackmail, which gets him killed as well.

The effects aren't bad for a 1960 movie, the acting is alright, and there are a few suspenseful moments, even if the build-up to the ending was a bit predictable. It was a good ghost story, though, and kept up pace well so as not to bore too easily.

Rating: 3.5/5 Bonedaddies.