Starring: Anthony Brownrigg, Arianne Martin, Edward Landers

Written & Directed By: Anthony Brownrigg

Released: 2008

Grade: B+

There has always been resistance by many to the horror genre. It has gotten a bad reputation for being a derogatory genre, and the lowest level of entertainment.  Red Victoria makes an example of this through one man’s resistance towards it, merging him in to the horror. Although, it starts with him attempting to make this in to fiction. It appears before him becoming more real than he could have ever imagined. The power of horror is exerted as no matter how hard he tries, he can’t get rid of this horror, at least not until he truly accepts it.

Jim (Brownrigg) is a screenwriter who has a passion for writing romantic screenplays. However, his scripts simply aren’t selling. So his agent insists that he writes a horror screenplay. Jim nearly refuses to do so though, since he utterly despises the genre. It would be the ultimate level of selling out and furthermore, he doesn’t even feel like he could have anything to write it about. However, Jim is forced to do this anyway since if he does his agent says he can get it sold and the movie will get made. This gives Jim some hope for making the type of movies that he really enjoys. Although he agrees to make the film, Jim struggles with it a lot. He can’t even get started because he has automatically got writers’ block. Suddenly though, a dead woman appears before him, Victoria (Martin). Jim simply can’t even comprehend what he is seeing. He convinces himself that he is just having a nightmare. Regardless, this is one nightmare that’s not going away anytime soon.

Jim soon finds out that the reason that Victoria is here is to give him a little inspiration as she begins killing people around Jim. She is his muse and is giving him a taste of real horror, so he can have something to write his film about. Jim wants no part of this though and tries to fight Victoria. He realizes that Victoria is much too strong for him to beat her on his own. Luckily one of Jim’s best friends, Carl (Landers), is a bit of a horror fanatic. He has watched plenty of horror films and knows all of the circumstances, effects, and how to destroy the villains. Even though Carl has a strong fondness for Victoria, he agrees to conspire against her with Jim. The only question is, does Jim have it in him to kill Victoria or will she take him by surprise in the end?

Anthony Brownrigg played the nervous and unsettled Jim very well. This is no surprise since he was the writer and director of the film. He had a great hold on who Jim was and just how to translate his fears to the audience. By trying to avoid Victoria and horror all together, he tries to just make everything go away. However, it is obvious that nothing is magic and he has to fight for it if he wants things to change. Arianne Martin really caught my eye as she is a complete gem in the film as Victoria. A lot depended on her role as she was a muse, someone meant to help the protagonist. However, she also served as an antagonist; working against the desires of Jim. She really had a way of bringing you in to her character and the movie as a whole. She exerted a very off beat, but funny sense of humor. She mirrored this with her extreme need to kill and to remain threatening; it became an undeniable part of her. Victoria is proud of this and exerts it with a subtle, but deadly attitude. I also enjoyed Edward Landers a lot. He was the horror fanatic, which I think most of us can relate to. The film didn’t bother clogging up the dialogue with endless pop culture horror references. Instead, they just gave him a strong knowledge of general horror. This gave him intelligence especially with the situation Jim and Carl were in. Also, I found his admiration for Victoria interesting. This gave him an link to the audience through fondness of the same movies and for the inevitable love for Victoria.

Red Victoria is a smart film with terrific dialogue and characters. Anthony Brownrigg had experience as a writer obviously and added a lot of this perspective in to Jim. However, while strongly mocking all of those who look down on horror. He stands up for the genre through the film. It takes the idea of writers writing what they know to the next level. How can anyone write about horror if they haven’t experienced it themselves? Well if you were to think of this literally than the answer would be from outside influences and creativity. Well Victoria is the outside influence here who is desperately trying to exert Jim’s creativity while having a good time doing it. However, Jim is resisting, because he won’t let himself get in to the proper mindset or explore meaning behind horror. The film also takes an interesting turn at the end. It questions whether Jim really hates Victoria or if he just fears his infatuation with her. If so, what would this mean? Could this be a twisted little love story or just a bloody battle of not only violence but wits? I recommend Red Victoria to any horror fan or anyone who has any appreciation for the genre. The film is comedy based with heavy horror, balancing both out very well.

In case you need more convincing or just want an extra insight on the movie, listen to HMF’s own Mike and Alex interview the cast at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/HMFRadio/2008/03/17/HorrorMovieFanscom-Radio-40-Red-Victoria-Radio.