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Image courtesy Northeast Film Group.
Berdella
(Paul South and Bill Taft, 2009)
Between the handful of local films I've covered since becoming Kansas City's Indie Movie Examiner back in June, there's been one predominant connecting thread: most have concerned themselves primarily with telling local histories, using digital video as the medium to capture fascinating moments in time from the city we call home. For Joe Heyen's Cowtown Ballroom...Sweet Jesus!, that moment was the early-'70s heyday of Kansas City's hippie counterculture; for Terence O'Malley's Blackhand Strawman, it was the mid-20th century rise and (apparent) fall of K.C.'s Mafia. But now, the Northeast Film Group's Berdella has set its sights on a darker, bloodier, more subterranean history - one that's decidedly more difficult to romanticize or embrace with a feeling of local pride. For some of us, such a pursuit in and of itself can be considered a virtue; and if you're the type of film/history buff who delights in poking at the skeletons in your own proverbial closet, then you will no doubt find a lot to like about Berdella. But are the film's visceral charms enough to win over the rest of us, as well?
As you may have already surmised, Berdella tells the story of Bob Berdella: Kansas City's most notorious serial killer, who between the years of 1984 and 1988 kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered at least six young men from the local gay scene, all while keeping detailed written and photographic records of his "conquests." During most of this period, the 39-year-old remained a largely unsuspected, if clearly eccentric member of his community; a former chef, he wrote culinary reviews for the Kansas City Star and operated an occult curio shop, "Bob's Bazaar Bizarre," at the Westport Flea Market. It wasn't until April 2, 1988 - Easter Weekend, and the day of K.U.'s opening game against Duke in the NCAA Final Four - when authorities were alerted to his crimes, after a wounded man wearing nothing but a dog collar escaped from the second-floor window of Berdella's Hyde Park home and blurted out his incredible, harrowing story to a passing parking meter attendant. Based on these facts alone - never mind the numerous other compelling tidbits listed in the timeline on the film's website - Berdella had all the makings of a great serial killer film, complete with a local emphasis designed to thrill anyone who's ever imagined what it would be like to live down the street from a real, live murderer.
Northeast Film Group's trailer for Berdella (NSFW).
Unfortunately, however, Berdella can't be held up alongside the greats of its genre - Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986), Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991), Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), and John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), to name a few - and not just because of its clearly low-budget indie roots. In fact, directors Bill Taft (who also writes and co-produces) and Paul South prove quite adept at transcending their meager means of production. Sure, the muffled sound and community theatre-style performances that are par for the course in small local films are both present and accounted for. But Berdella's grainy, dimly-lit digital photography (courtesy of cinematographer Rocky Varela) is perfect for the film's dark and gritty subject matter, and the production team have taken obvious care in peppering their script and shots alike with plenty of period/local detail (look for references to the Gates-Bryant barbecue rivalry, the 1988 Royals, and Berdella's own Charlotte St. neighborhood, to name just a few). Even the film's visual effects are surprisingly effective; though they may occasionally strain credibility (Just how is Berdella producing gashes that huge and deep with the back of a hammer? Is it lined with razor blades?), it's hard to watch the film's plentiful scenes of bathtub dismemberment without flinching at least a little. And then there's the lead performance by local actor Seth Correa, who somehow manages to communicate authentic creepiness - not to mention stand head and shoulders above the aforementioned, amateurish supporting cast - while wearing the cheesiest costume moustache this side of Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show "Conando" sketches (like I said, not all of the visual effects are successful).
Image courtesy Northeast Film Group.
The problem with Berdella, however, is that it fails to translate its technical competencies into something more substantial than a tabloid-style mass-murderer biopic. The uniting quality, aside from mere genre, in the great serial killer films listed above is that each was able to delve beneath the grimy surface of its subject and reveal something disturbingly yet undeniably human underneath; to gaze into the abyss but also, to paraphrase Nietzche, to allow the abyss to gaze into us. Berdella not only falls short of this lofty goal, but doesn't even seem to try: it is content to present a highlights reel of its subject's most notorious acts, through a stream of increasingly mundane torture sequences that owe more to the "torture-porn" trend of recent mainstream horror than to, say, Manhunter. The fact that the film is based on a true story only exacerbates the issue - not in a moral sense (though a case can and has been made for that too), but because we know the way the film will end before the opening credits roll. Try as they might, South and Taft just can't keep us in the heightened state of suspense necessary for even the most shallow, cheap-thrills slasher exercise. It's a long, turgid march to the generic downfall of a generic killer.
Well, maybe not quite so generic. Berdella's most defining characteristic, aside from its local origin, is that it depicts an openly gay serial killer, and it is to the filmmakers' credit that they do not shy away from Berdella's sexuality. But the most troubling thing about the film, at least for this reviewer, is the way in which its subject's sexuality is presented. Shots of Berdella flicking through a gay porno mag on a park bench are underscored with the same tense, ominous drumbeat as his murder sequences; in one scene, his masturbation to a Polaroid of one of his victims is shot at length with the express goal of sending chills down the viewer's spine (and it does, sort of, though the scene is more effective at provoking homophobic giggles). In other words, Berdella passes up a clear opportunity to give depth and context to its "protagonist." Wasn't the idea of a killer stalking the Kansas City gay community in the midst of the AIDS crisis at least a little bit suggestive to Taft and company? Isn't there something more to be said about this scenario than, "gee, that femmey bald dude sure is creepy?" I'm not suggesting by any means that the filmmakers should have tried to make Berdella into Harvey Milk, but the use of his "othered" sexuality as mere evidence of his monstrosity is disappointing to say the least.
But hey, maybe I should lay off the guys. After all, like I said, Berdella does a decent, if frustratingly incomplete, job of excavating some of our less-fondly remembered local history; and even if the filmmakers accomplish little beyond heaping up evidence that Bob was a monster (something we hopefully already knew), at least he's our monster. Some of the people reading this may not even live so far away from the now-abandoned lot at 4315 Charlotte St. where Berdella, in the film, is depicted digging up the skull of one of his victims to sell at his "bazaar." If that's you, and it occurs to you as you read this sentence that that skull wasn't so far from your own backyard, then this film has done at least part of its job right. But is it enough to just dig up 20-year-old skulls, however intriguingly close to home? Is it enough for us to just leer at them for an hour and a half before going back to our normal lives? That, I suppose, is for you to decide.
I regrettably missed the premiere of Berdella last month at the Screenland Crossroads, and completed this review after viewing a screener of the film. There do not appear to be any immediate plans for further screenings, but if the filmmakers have the entrepreneurial spirit their MySpace page suggests - and considering that this is Halloween month - I can't imagine that a DVD release will be far away. Watch the Berdella website for announcements and updates...and watch this page for an ongoing, all-horror Halloween month of articles.
Comments
Hello,
I was in this movie. The role I played shall remain nameless. I just wanted to say that all the violence WAS in the film. It was extremeley gory, but a lot of it was edited out because it was mostly shot so damn poorly. The end product that was on the screen was not really what was in the script at all. The directors simply never bothered to do much location scouting to fulfill the other scenes that would have provided a basic plot that was coherent. There was a solid time line in the film, but the majority of it was edited out in favor of getting to the kill scenes faster. The script also had an actual ending in which the police showed up to arrest bob. The script ended with bob about to get beaten to death in prison. again much of these scenes were never filmed because the directors never bothered to location scout, or at least inquire about filming in different locations. One major failure in the film is when the directors had characters from different scenes show up as ex
One major failure in the film is when the directors had characters from different scenes show up as extras in later scenes having no knowledge of ever meeting bob. An average day on the set involved shooting a scene and then breaking so the directors could take frequent pot smoking breaks before filming more scenes. The directors pot breaks often delayed the filming of some scenes. The majority of what was shot for the movie was invented right on the spot when filming because, while most of the scenes were story boarded, the directors not having locations or a clear vision of what they wanted needed to quick fix a scene. As to the films length it is only 70 minuets
The first few cuts of the film were much longer but were heavily edited down in favor of adding the very poor and distracting religious imagery with the gregorian chant . It was also very edited because all the scripted and improvised scenes when added together made for a very awful film. So the running time was cut down into the 70 minuet mess that was released at screen land. All in all the filming for this movie was grueling and at time my patience with the directors was running very thin due to to there very unprofessional attitudes and actions while filming. This film has gotten much positive feedback, but has gotten more negative feedback than anything else. Both directors believe that Ben Meade, who made the first movie about Berdella, is leading a campaign against them. claiming that he is the reason this film got little coverage in the media and did not get into any film festivals. The Bottom Line is that this movie just plain stinks and has no coherent plot, character rela
The Bottom Line is that this movie just plain stinks and has no coherent plot, character relationships, and most of all it does not even have an ending. If we had stuck to the original script a better movie would have been made. In the end this film tells very little of Berdella's story and it was not made to tell Berdellas story either. This Film was made so the directors could be the cool guys who made a film so they could get a bunch of college pussy from a bunch of girls who are to dumb to know any better. I am happy to see people have enjoyed this film, but after reading this review I had to tell people what it took to make this movie. In the end I am not happy with the final product, nor was I happy with the rough cuts of the film either. The directors sought to make a slasher movie that was on par with the friday the 13th films. Instead they produced a 70 minuet mess that had the potential to be a well told bio-pic.
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read comments from the bottom up in order to understand it
Wow, thanks for the insight. Sounds like I might have been giving the film more of the benefit of a doubt than it perhaps deserved!
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