New Zealandish film showcases effects from pre-LOTR Weta Workshop
On a dark and stormy night, noted psychologist Dr. Karen Schumacher (Rebecca Hobbs) arrives at a dreary asylum to check in on a specific patient, a serial murderer named Simon (Paolo Rotondo).
Through a series of interviews with Simon – outwardly a gentle and even handsome young man, Dr. Schumacher seeks to hear Simon’s story and understand his actions and motives – while realizing there may be more going on than is first apparent: he may be lining her up as his next victim, and there may be supernatural elements at play.
I’ll just be direct, I didn’t care much for this film at all. It’s a dreary, unpleasant movie. Between the abusive environs (where Simon is constantly tortured by his orderlies) and disturbing flashbacks, it’s all just – well, ugly. Moreover the serial killer elements feel very stale and stereotypical of the genre: a childhood plagued by mommy issues, bullying, awkwardness with girls, etc.
Perhaps the film’s biggest claim to fame is that it features the work of effects studio Weta Workshop, who would take off massively with the success of The Lord of the Rings just a few years later, though this in and of itself is not a compelling reason to watch it. Throughout the film, victims are drenched in stylized black blood – an element that would also be more subtly applied to The Lord of the Rings with the Uruk-Hai.
A bonus feature on the disc compares The Ugly to the tradition of movies like Psycho and Red Dragon, but in doing so misses an important distinction – those are incredibly entertaining and interesting movies, using the serial killer concept as a mechanism within telling a larger story, while The Ugly feels like a mirthless slog.
The Package
While I personally didn’t care at all for the movie, I give credit to Unearthed Films for giving it a very respectable release. This edition features a slipcover, reversible art, and a booklet written by Jason Jenkins.
Special Features and Extras
- Getting to Know You: Dialogues With The Devil in ‘The Ugly’ and Serial Killer Cinema (19:22) – An interesting visual essay about serial killer cinema, analyzing the Ugly as part of a tradition of better movies about serial killers like Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter.
- Isolated Score
- Commentary with Actors Paolo Rotondo and Benecca Hobbs, Moderated by Nathaniel Thompson
- 1997 Radio New Zealand Interview with Scott Reynolds (18:03)
- Short Films – a pair of earlier short films from writer-director Scott Reymolds, both starring Martin Csokas, who would go on to play the Elf Celeborn in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
- The M1nute (1992, 8:40) – An artsy and violent psychological thriller
- A Game with No Rules (1994, 16:54) – A noirish plot of betrayal, sex, and murder. Stylish and Hitchcockian, it’s the only film on this disc that I didn’t outright dislike.
- Still Gallery (3:37)
- Trailer (1:37)
Get it at Amazon: The Ugly Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
