ACNE

A “Camp” fire tale for the post-graduate crowd

Some filmmakers like to parody their favorite directors. Others travel the road of homage. There’s a fine line between satire and tribute. It takes skill and thought to pull off the fusion of respect without losing originality—few can do it right. One that has is Rusty Nails. His film: Acne.

While taking place in modern time, Nails chooses to set the tone of his film after the 1950s and 60s b&w horror films, most notable George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. With its stark look and feel, and choice of music, the films intro harkened me back to a dark theater that early summer decades ago, watching Romero’s seminal classic. Acne opens with a lab-coated scientist, at the shoreline in front of Shale Oil, retrieving a water sample. His hand is instantly scalded, an over the top bubbling grossness which lends a “poke fun” silliness prevalent in Roger Cormans early work.

Nails surrounds the framework of this horror campiness with a deeper foundation, as this film reveals itself as an exploration of the jaded imagery exposing a world that simply doesn’t care.

The stereotypes begin early, as Nails pushes the limits of absurdity by creating so many over the top characters, with intentions so obvious that he has no interest in hiding them. Shale Oil is responsible for the leak into the water supply of the small town of Barrington, New Jersey. The prevailing opinion of the company heads is that the exposure does not qualify for concern, seeing as its limits meet government standards of being within “acceptable margins”. As the teenagers of the small town start drinking the water, however, the truth becomes the beginning of a nightmare. The teens turn into “Zitheads”, as large pus ‘volcanoes’ erupt atop their heads. The teens initial panic gives way to catatonia, leading them to shamble about mindlessly looking to rub anything greasy or chocolaty onto their heads. That’s right, a mindless gang of junk food zombies, with erupting pus spreading their disease to other teens unlucky enough to meander upon their once friends.

Mershey Chocolate Corporation responds to the growing crisis with measures ensuring a huge rise in their profit potential. They create a ‘contained panic’ by rationing chocolate. With the military in their back pocket, the stage is set for Nails vision of true horror: over the top manipulation of authority.

The teenage victims, on the other hand, are downplayed so as to suggest their lives are normally heavily medicated. Nails plays one of the leads, Zoë, who with his sister Franny (Tracey Hayes) lead the lumbering charge to find some meaning from the ordeal while worrying if their parents will notice that they have gone missing.