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Chainsaw Sally Written and Directed by JimmyO Chainsaw Sally is a comedy for lovers of slasher films. It is not a parody of the conventions of the genre in the way that films like Scream are. Instead it is a loving homage to films like Friday the 13 th , Nightmare on Elm Street , and, most of all, Texas Chainsaw Massacre . In fact the film written and directed by Jimmy O (Burril) shows so much fondness for those old gore-fests that the killers here are wacky and loveable, and torture and murder have become a colorful lifestyle choice. In many respects, Chainsaw Sally is more like Serial Mom , made by Burril's fellow Marylander John Waters, than it is like Texas Chain Saw Massacre which it frequently references. The film shares Waters' attitude that killers are naughty, fun, and much more interesting than average folks who lead dull, predictable lives. And it also features a woman who kills in order to protect her home and family in a burlesque of “family values” gone ballistic. Sally (April Monique Burril) is an “unattractive,” bespectacled and mousy librarian by day, and a wildly creative serial killer by night. She and her transvestite younger brother Ruby (Alec Joseph) squat in an abandoned building on land formerly owned by her family but now owned by an absentee landlord (Mark Redfield). This covert life allows Sally and her brother to live freely and violently, acting out scenes from their favorite slasher films, often with live captives (or just body parts) as props. Sally and Ruby adopted this lifestyle after being traumatized as children by the murder of their parents in their home by escaped lunatics. The children witness everything as the murderers invade their home and attack their parents. But before he dies of his wounds, their father, played by Gunnar Hansen, kills the lunatics with a chainsaw. With his dying words he instructs Sally to take care of her brother and to get rid of the bodies. Then this actor, best known for his role as Leatherface in the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre , symbolically passes on his chainsaw to Sally. (Another cameo in the film is by Herschell Gordon Lewis, legendary gore director of films such as The Gore Gore Girls , who gives the most natural and relaxed performance in the film as a hardware store owner). So Sally's motivation for her life of killing is ostensibly to protect her brother. This is amplified when the mayor and a developer want to turn their family property into condos. But the film is never really serious about such motives (not even as much as Serial Mom is). Sally and Ruby kill for the most trivial reasons (petty insults, late library books, philandering) putting the lie to any claims of necessity. They also kill with artistic flare and abandon, coming up with ever wilder and more intricate forms of torture for their victims, so it's clearly fun for them. And finally, when Sally and Ruby refer to their victims as “groceries” because they have become cannibals, it's clear they are psychopaths. There is a Rob Zombie-era glee in over-the-top violence that overrides the need for justifications. Gore for gore's sake is the credo here. What counts in this, and other such films, is that the violence be creative, wacky, and visually gruesome – colorful and repulsive yet fascinating, making a film reference to some classic of the genre if at all possible. One might lament the film's many plot holes: how do all these people disappear in a small town without notice? What's with the Clark Kent-motif where if Sally takes off her librarian glasses, no one can recognize her? But plot is really not the point. Visuals are. And the film has a great look for such a low budget project. Sally's transformation from a gray skirt-suited librarian to a punk rock murderess in Pippy Longstocking braids, leopard-print cowboy hat, and striped tights is a delight. Ruby is even wilder in his outfits, like a cross-dressing Adam Ant (is that redundant?) or an over-pancaked Gloria Swanson ready for her close-up as she reenacts great cinematic murder scenes. The low budget has not been a hindrance here – both April Burril and Alec Joseph are credited with their own costuming. Their home is just as colorful: a carnival of Christmas lights, Halloween decorations, and body parts much like the family's cave-home in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 . The camera-work in their murder house is just as vivid as the set. Cinematographer Mike Flanagan makes great use of shifting lights, off-kilter angles, deep focus, and grainy film stock to give a topsy-turvy feeling to these scenes. He is similarly adept in the flashback sequences of the parents' murders, using a handheld camera to make the viewer feel like an unstable witness-eye staggering through the house. So the film may be hard to explain logically or defend morally. But to those who think back nostalgically on Jason as an old friend or keep a Freddy plushie-doll on their bed, it all makes perfect sense. As we drift off to sleep with Count Gore de Vol on the TV chuckling indulgently about the shenanigans of serial killers run amok in old movies, we can dream happily of a world where assholes who call us names have to gargle acid or where we can carve spelling lessons onto the bellies of illiterate bullies. That's just part of the paradox inherent in loving something called horror.by Nemo Swift |
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