Benjamin Woodard's latest cinematic outing differs from his previous projects, no, it's not a reduction in profanity or violence, both of those, especially the swearing, can be found in abundance throughout the film, this film is unique among his others in its length. At a comparatively whopping 51 minutes, the benefit of including a more developed storyline comes at the risk of the audience losing engagement. This gamble, however, has been proved to be fruitful for Woodard, as the film maintains engagement the whole way through, though not without issue.
At times, the viewer is faced with difficult to hear dialogue, though a couple of minor volume changes throughout viewing will remedy this, it would be a welcome improvement if the audio was better balanced. Having said this, when music and dialogue occur at the same time, generally the balance is effective and both can be heard as necessary. There were also no surprisingly loud sound effects causing discomfort, a problem with many high budget films. This was very well done on the part of the director. An external microphone would have definitely benefited the film, especially allowing for better continuity in volume on conversations and in particular, the final scene, within which the GoPro's microphone leaves a lot to be desired.
The visuals were on the whole, well done. The shots, though repetitive in angle, aside from the recurring dialogue scenes between Buckshot and Merrick where there is some creative variation (such as the excellent view through the Jenga tower) do not last long enough to make scenes seem tedious, and the running conversation between Buckshot and Merrick, though a large portion of the film did not develop a stale quality as each appearance seemed to last just the right amount of time. Ben's classic use of blood and other gore was on show in spectacular form, with more realistic spitting than found in the likes of Two Wheels of Terror, which is definitely a plus.
The storyline was on the whole, simple and a little incoherent goal wise, however, the characters all have rich back-stories, aside from the entire group of Gravediggers, they seem to be underdeveloped in comparison. This, however is largely made up for by the fact that their time on screen does not last long. If the film were longer, it would possibly allow for each character to demonstrate some of their back-stories in practice further, such as more on the implications of Buckshot's missing member, however at the length it was, I didn't really expect this anyway. The basic gang war and Merrick's descent from bored kid into rampaging murderer is justified in his path, perhaps more than the director believes to be the case, and all in all, it doesn't seem unnatural that he would be inclined to be wary of those around him to the point of revenge. He's a consistent character in base traits right from the beginning.
The running motif of the missing reels was used very cleverly in its first two uses, but I think the third use should have been a straight transition, as that is what follows it, and there seems to be no piece of film that should clearly have been there, as seen in the other uses. On the whole though, the technique was ingenious and a great way to compensate for budgetary limits and allow our imaginations as viewers to run wild.
Effects wise, the cheapness could have been improved with some muzzle flashes, however obviously fake, but the particular choice in gun sound seemed to fit perfectly across the board, apart from Billy's death, where the shot rebounds. The use of the sound effects at Quitter's death were exemplary.
The performances of the actors individually were fair to fairly decent, Dekker's performance bordering on astounding. Though I believe it was Harry Smith that really stole the show for me. So dulled to the outside world by his overconsumption of narcotics, a performance that really shone thorough in his natural monotony that really shone through in the film. I can honestly say that Harry Smith is quite a terrible actor, but the kid means well, I think, I'd still like to see more of him.
The music was alright, but the composer seemed to only know how to make a basic 12 and 8 bar blues in G. Bludger of a composer if you ask me, more variety would have been nice. House of the Rising sun fit fantastically though. Perfect timing there.
Overall I quite enjoyed Merrick. If I had stumbled across it on YouTube and it didn't contain people I know, I'd watch it and have a laugh. It was an objectively average film, the sound I took a little bit of an issue with, but as an exploitation film B Movie with obvious nods to other films, both within and outside of its genre, it most definitely works. The director ought to be commended for his vision taking shape as well as it did, as the film was most definitely an arduous task to complete, and has resulted in a pleasing end product.
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