The Gifted oozes with the ferocious innovation in today’s underground horror scene. Aguilar is able to stab the nerves deeper with this swift hour-long feature. He goes to places that the standard above-ground horror-film fears to tread. A sinister subtext writhing through the birthday party ends up wrapping around the whole sequence like an anaconda. It summons a whole new level of revulsion that will drive the horror crowd bats. Sure, this has that raw, homegrown horror look. Sure, it has visible financial limitations on the gore effects. Both look great here, adding a street-punk vibration to the proceedings.
There is something to be said about how far a trusty red light and some practical splatter can take you. In fact, I think everything hits harder due to how rough and rowdy everything is. Aguilar maintains an anarchistic momentum throughout that keeps you guessing the breaking point. Everyone appearing onscreen looks like they are having a fun time as well. Those of us in the audience also get to rock out to the energetic original soundtrack by Enemy on Tape. The creep factor of the second half doesn’t match the first, but it really doesn’t need to. The potency of the creep-out from the birthday party lingers well until it explodes again in the finale.
“…have the honor of reviewing a movie starring Ginger Lynn Allen.”
I never imagined I would ever have the honor of reviewing a movie starring Ginger Lynn Allen. Her adult movie career was already over by the time I entered high school, but it was still legendary when I worked in adult bookstores after film school in Toledo. She went mainstream and then was back into adulthood in the new century. Over the last decade, she has been doing a lot of horror movies, just like Bette Davis and Veronica Lake did later in their careers.
I know Allen has specialized in stunt casting roles, where the reverberation of her position in pop culture rings loud when she makes onscreen appearances. At this point in her career, she wields that power like a bloody axe, as she takes all preconceptions about her acting ability and chops them to pieces. I was so impressed with the emotional range Allen puts on display here. The despair and regret she delivers are tear-stained and genuine. But we also have some true menace coursing through the vein work. Allen can do scary in ways that you don’t see elsewhere. There is darkness, and then there is the darkness Allen brings, knocking out all night lights. I also love how the organically Barbara’s lesbianism is woven into the story.
If you need a reminder of why Allen is such a major queer pioneer, look up what she was doing in the mid-80s. I am going to start going out of my way for her upcoming work. The Gifted shows that some stars never go out. They just change shades of light and glow harder.
"…shows that some stars never go out, they just change shades of light and glow harder."
