ALMOST INVISIBLE

(A.k.a. ALMOST INVISIBLE: THE PARTY’S OVER WHEN YOU’RE DEAD)

A sexy blonde sits expectantly on the settee of her apartment. She’s naked, awaiting her beau to arrive and sate her lusts. When he arrives, the boy is carved up and bleeding heavily. Cue her screams.

Fortunately, the above is simply a bad horror film being watched by a class of obnoxious teens in University. Once the film finishes, their interest wanes instantly and they leave class with just one activity on their minds: partying. But there’s one thing that the youth of today always has trouble with, and that’s finding somewhere to party.

So, as this particular motley crew discuss the lack of a suitable venue in a nearby coffee bar, the group are accosted by Goth outsider April (Sara Cole). She tells of how her parents are away for the weekend, and the group is welcome to party at their house.

Although the bulk of the group are reluctant to mix with creepy April, leader Devin (Jeremy Russell) accepts the invite on their behalf. Later that evening, against their better judgement, the rest of the group travel through the darkened local woods to April’s folks’ remote house to fulfil the promise of a shindig.

Upon arrival at their destination, the group disperse about the house to either check it out or make out with one another. Although the place is made up to be spooky and dark, these teens (actually, most of them look as though they’re in their mid-twenties ...) are undeterred: they just want to raid the fridge, fuck and pull apart the parents’ CD collection of classic rock albums.

As members of the group pair off and get it on some more, their experiences become more and more surreal as hallucinations and bloody murder blur into one. Before long, the surviving revellers have little understanding of what is reality and what is dream.

Could it really be that the house is evil and black-lipped April has trapped them inside, where they will eventually meet a dreadful fate – set to equally bad rock music?

From the opening credits, scribbled on Post-It notes in fast-motion while metal music plays backwards on the soundtrack, it’s evident that ALMOST INVISIBLE is striving to offer something a little less ordinary.

Sharply edited by the appropriately named Alan Glass, the film is also written and directed with unrelenting pace by David Allingham. Adding another string to his bow, Allingham also contributes the art-rock songs that pepper the film alongside Hillary Barnett’s more conventional contemporary horror score.

But between Glass and Allingham, they have created an unnecessarily complicated visual style that fuses too many close-up quick-edit shots with music video aesthetics and hallucinatory images. The result is a confused narrative that ultimately renders a potentially engaging storyline as boring.

It’s a shame because almost every scene exhibits impressive visuals, while the hot babes in bikinis and frequent scenes of minor gore may have been enough to turn those with more base requirements on. But the abundance of overly flashy flourishes continually drag the viewer out of the action and constantly remind them that they’re watching student filmmaking of the most indulgent kind.

Chemical Burn’s region-free DVD is the second release the film has received in the US in under a year. SkyBridge, the company formed to finance the film, originally self-released it in August 2010. Now, presumably on the promise of wider distribution, the film is being re-released by the increasingly prolific Chemical Burn canon.

The disc presents the film in 16x9 widescreen and the transfer employed is not too bad. For a very low budget film which was shot on digital video, images are mostly stable with good colours and strong blacks. Definition may be a tad soft, but overall this presentation isn’t bad. I haven’t seen the SkyBridge release to compare it to.

English 2.0 audio is fair throughout, offering a constant but unremarkable playback.

The screener disc provided had no extra features. I’m uncertain as to whether the retail disc does.

All we had here were an animated main menu page, and a static scene-selection menu which allowed access to the main feature via 21 chapters. Which, for a 95-minute film, isn’t too shabby.

ALMOST INVISIBLE could have been fun, and is certainly a good-looking film with some fine sounds to complement its many strikingly kinky scenes. But, while most people enjoy a good wank, there is a time and a place: wanking all over your own film is no fun for anyone but the most indulgent director. Consequently, all but David Allingham are going to struggle to sit this one through.

Review by Stuart Willis