Like digging a fun doodad out of a box of stale Cracker Jack, watching DYING GOD (2008) benefits from the element of surprise--you don't expect very much at all, so the fact that it doesn't totally suck makes it seem even better than it is.
James Horan (FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, GODS AND GENERALS) stars as super-scummy cop Sean Fallon, who uses parolees to sell stolen guns on the street for him and executes them if they try to double-cross him. Horan does such an effective job of playing this creep that we can hardly stand to look at the guy. When he rescues some working girls from an abusive john and they reward him with a threesome complete with standard porn music, it's downright nauseating.
The thing is, though, he's so off the rails that after a while his BAD LIEUTENANT-style antics become amusing. The movie takes its time getting to the monster, focusing instead on Fallon's active lifestyle. Then, when hookers start turning up dead after being violently raped by some kind of horrible beast, Fallon joins forces with the city's leading pimps to get to the bottom of the matter. This eventually leads to a gory, bullet-riddled showdown in an abandoned factory.
One of the pimps is Fallon's old friend, Chance (Lance Henriksen), a wheelchair-bound smoothie with a beautiful, ass-kicking bodyguard named Angel (Agathe de La Boulaye). Always the trouper, Henriksen brings his "A" game to this modest effort and is fun to watch as usual. This is one of those cheap flicks where good actors rub shoulders with bad ones, but all of the performances are fun to watch in one way or another.
The film bristles with hardboiled dialogue that's hilariously over-the-top ("I'm a cop...you're a pimp...go f*** yourself!"), especially during a sitdown meeting in which the pimps and the corrupt cop form an uneasy alliance. Argentinean actress Victoria Maurette, who was awesome as gorgeous gunfighter babe Clementine Templeton in Albert Pyun's 2007 Western LEFT FOR DEAD, nails her spotlight moment as she tells off a vile pimp named Ray (Iván Espeche). She comes through again in a later scene in which she's picked up by a knife-wielding scumbag who ends up getting a faceful of Ray's shotgun (complete with graphic exploding-head effect).
Also on hand is Erin Brown, aka Misty Mundae, as a prostitute who's inexplicably in love with our boy Fallon. The old softy reveals his tender side when he apologizes and makes nice after slapping her around and forcing her to go out and round him up a bottle of booze for breakfast. Fallon's frequent run-ins with Duncan (Samuel Arena), a fellow cop who hates his guts, provide further amusement.
DYING GOD is hampered by bottom-of-the-barrel production values and that murky shot-on-video look that many viewers won't go near at all, yet it's quite well done compared to similar no-budget efforts that I've seen. Director Fabrice Lambot (INSANITY) clearly has style and works wonders with his limited resources.
Gore effects are plentiful and capably done, including copious amounts of blood, entrails, and the aforementioned head shot. The most shocking visual of all, however, comes when the monster's surviving victims start giving birth. "Kurupi", so dubbed by the nearly-extinct tribe who worships it, is realized by way of a full-body suit that resembles something out of a 50s horror flick. It's less than totally convincing but is okay once you get used to it. Nicolás Silbert performs well in the suit, turning several pimps into chitlins and battling with a circular-saw-wielding Fallon in the bloody climax.
The DVD from Green Apple Entertainment is presented in widescreen with an aspect ratio of 16 x 9 (1.2.1) and stereo. Bonus material includes trailer.
I just kept liking DYING GOD more and more as it continued to entertain me in unexpected ways. If you can't abide the look and feel of a truly low-rent indy, you'd do best to steer clear. Otherwise, you might want to give this lively little creature feature a spin.
Buy it at Amazon.com
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