11 Apr 2012

Vore ★★★☆☆



Review of 'Vore' which can be found here on Vimeo.

Length: 11:19
Written & directed by Bryan M. Ferguson
Genre: Horror
Date: 2012
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Logline: A woman is drawn into the dark world of the sexual fetish vorarephilia.

HD certainly isn't cellulite's friend in this weird film. Naturally, I had to google vorarephilia to discover it's a fetish based around the idea of eating, or being eaten by, another person (thank you wikipedia). An interesting topic I thought, maybe not for vegetarians though. Unfortunately, the film doesn't live up to expectations.

I initially wanted to categorise this as a comedy as no doubt you'll all have a snigger at the women forced into wearing strips of bacon over their mouths plus the "mask" which is just a pair of old tights but considering the subject matter and the overall tone, I had to put this in as a horror.

This is stark. No soundtrack, limited dialogue, locations are bare and minimal, almost clinical. This helps aid the transgression of the surreal subject matter onto the screen. Everything seems very purposeful and deliberate. Viewing is more favourable the second time round. The first is laboured, especially if you have no idea what vore is. I saw several shots that could have been cut without being missed and felt that pace was too slow and revelations didn't come quick enough. It's always risky to leave your audience guessing as to what is going on for such a long time without risking them losing attention. Once we've grown used to the underwear clad ladies strutting about, it's fascination dies quickly. These are problems which could partly be rectified by a tighter and more ruthless edit or maybe even the addition of a soundtrack to help direct the audience into exactly what mood, emotion and genre they are supposed to be experiencing.

Plus points are for camera quality, shot composition, and the original premise. The plot comes full circle in a nice but subtle way which causes the audience to reconsider past events. Due to lack of dialogue, characters are almost as bare (some literally) as their surroundings. No backstory, motivations, explanations, only facial expressions. This actually works well and the internal, non verbal acting is done to good effect, particularly by Sarah Hendry. I feel that this is work in progress and worth reworking in a more engaging way, until then it remains a bit dull and not worthy of the subject matter.

Best Bit: Opening titles. Very stylish.

Worst Bit: Drawn out pace.

Final thought: Wonder how this was sold to the two women actresses?

Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.

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