From Houston comes William Humphreys’ utterly bizarre short “The Bad Guy,” in which a ruffian (scowling Marcos Fuentes) assaults an umbrella-toting pedestrian (Humphreys) in order to steal the blue-and-white striped umbrella. Both men appear to possess advance scientific knowledge that allows them to transcend the space-time continuum – which they use, oddly enough, to return to the scene of the crime to fight anew. This time, however, the fight involves large umbrellas wielded about like samurai swords.
Where does it end? Actually, it ends in the year 3217 – where every misogynist’s worst fear has been realized to the nth degree.
The film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, which is actually part of the fun. The cheesy special effects are genuinely funny (as they were meant to be) and the umbrella fight is actually a well-choreographed bit of lunacy. Fuentes and Humphreys take great pleasure in creating great pain, as buckets of stage blood pour over their overheated fisticuffs. And Louise Kelly, as the woman of the future, will make the men in the viewing audience cross their legs in panic!
