I had just wanted to say that FMS is not a good film. It’s
well made, but the script and tone don’t work. I wanted to simply say that
despite the potentially offensive and inflammatory material the film never
really engages and ends up just as sort of dull grotesque wallpaper that doesn’t
provoke a reaction and leave it at that…
However, I couldn’t let it go at being that dismissive and
instead I kept writing trying to engage with the film that desperately wanted
engagement with its audience but never found the proper ground to do so. The
result of my attempt to engage follows:
The film is the story of a mother and daughter kidnapped by an old woman who wants the mother to have sex with her mutant son. The mother doesn't agree so the old woman tortures the little girl.
What worked on the page, and which was very much for a select audience, is now 94 minutes of a failed attempt to make cruelty funny, then again, the torture of children really isn't funny under any circumstances. I'm not offended, hell, I was amused by the original comic, I just don't think the film works. It's never funny, even in a low brow Troma cartoon sort way.
FMS is going to be the poster child for why some comics should never be turned into live action films. What was once told in cartoony square panels with simple pencil drawings that moved the tale along with staccto speed, is here told in long drawn out scenes. What before was glimpses of terrible things that our minds filled in, is here brought to life in long painful shots. Everything that punched you in the face and made you laugh at the same time on the page is now just gross and vile just because... And it is just because since nthe film only exists to poke you in the eye.
This film walks the fine line between being "a comedy" and being torture porn. If the film didn't have the old woman played by a guy in drag, and if the film didn't play scenes at a ridiculous level, this would have been unwatchably nasty. We know it's goofy because there are attempts at jokes and because of things like the son, who is clearly a man in a goofy suit with ten-foot string of a private part. Jokes are made in uncomfortable places, why? so we know its a comedy.
I sat there staring at the screen reconsidering my feelings for the comic because the film removes any black or gallows humor from the story. Partly because some things are no longer humorous when seen live action, but mostly because every attempt at humor failed either in the writing or execution. 34 minutes into the film I was shaking my head because I couldn't believe there was going to be another hour to the film.
What bothers me is that while the film wants to be like a John Waters film and be offensive, it never quite gets there.Why? because it's clear that while the filmmakers know how to push buttons and poke you in the eye to provoke a reaction, they have no conviction in their soul nor an ability to tell a joke. Where Waters put himself out there and told us things he felt, the filmmakers here simply took a comic book by someone else and used it to make a film that will make them money and get them noticed. After all what are they pushing in the ads and promotional material, the "X" rating (forgetting that no films are rated X any more) and the offensive nature of what happens. Yes Waters films were promoted as offensive, but they had something more to say. FMS has nothing beyond the child torture and gross implied sex with rubber props.
The biggest sin that FMS commits is that outside of the opening Cinema Rules bit, the film isn't funny. There are no laughs anywhere in the film. Every joke hits the floor like a dead weight. Part of it is that the jokes aren't funny, and part of it is seeing things like a little girl roasting to death while talking to imaginary meat creatures just doesn't result in laughs.
I know that just made some people want to see the film, but trust me you don't want to do it, this isn't a good film under any definition. What this is is simply a money grab, by filmmakers who want to get noticed and a releasing company that know thast telling people they shouldn't see something will put butts in seats. Exploitation hucksterism isn't dead, but when the film isn't good it's not going to have a long life.
