REVIEW: ROUGH CUT
WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER • TODD KLICK
WRITER/PRODUCER
• SEAN GASTON
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
• TODD J. SHILL
Would you kill to make a movie? The scary thing is, two independent filmmakers did.
In January 2003 a woman was found beaten, strangled, and stabbed in her Pennsylvania home. 8 months earlier, an independent horror film was shot on the nearby Appalachian Trail.
Rough Cut is a feature length documentary that explores the twisted true tale of two first-time filmmakers who had a dream of making a horror movie and the bizarre events that followed.
This was one truly bizarre fuckin’ story! I went in expecting one thing, and came out with the realization of another. First of all, I thought this documentary, upon hearing about it some time ago, was about a director who wanted to make his film so incredibly badly, no matter the cost, had gone so far as to actually kill someone on set…something of a modern snuff film in the “killer in the woods” vein. Though some aspect of the defunct horror film THROUGH HIKE’s behind the scenes is presented within the context of this documentary, so much more is going on beyond even that.
We have possible love triangles, always hinted at, but never fully realized. We have the police heavily interested in how Dungeons and Dragons may have played a role (it didn’t, but I always love it when I see authorities going after Dungeons & Dragons). For the most part, we have a long, twisted, and odd series of events that, for the duration, had me going “huh, who did WHAT now?” Rough Cut has it all in regard to “the truth is often stranger than fiction” vein. Let’s get a little more in depth…
We’re introduced, through wedding video at the beginning of the film (after a chilling 911 call in audio with subtitles describing a violently battered and stabbed woman, covered in her own blood, dead in her own garage) to Brian and Randi Trimble, newlyweds with seemingly their entire lives ahead of them (well, not really, I mean, come on, you’re reading about it here, something’s BOUND to go very badly.
Right after the wedding interviews, we’re led through a series of interviews with family members and detectives discussing the violent slaying of Randi Trimble. Brian apparently had come home from work to find her, face down in a pool of her own blood, dead. Beaten, strangled with an extension cord, and stabbed 27 times to death. The house had been ransacked in what, at first, appeared to be a robbery, but turned out to be staged, perhaps to get the police off the scent in regard to motive.
Cut to Blaine Morris, a wannabe filmmaker, horror geek, Dungeons and Dragons fanboy, lover of books regarding how to kill people as a hitman for hire. Oh, and there’s also the wall of midieval weapons. Sounds like a lot of guys I know. Blaine decides to make a horror film ‘THROUGH HIKE’ (the edited version of which is still rotting in the evidence basement of the local police department). Much of the documentary is spent taking a look behind the scenes into the making of the film. Blaine’s personal life, his heavy filmmaking debt (totalling around $18-$20,000), his failing marriage and strange sexual deviences. More or less, we’re introduced to a very odd individual.
Though ‘THROUGH HIKE’ looks like a fantastically awful piece of shit, it is interesting to see these behind-the-scenes looks into the making of an independent (albeit awful) little horror film. Within ROUGH CUT, we get interviews with much of the cast and crew on their thoughts on making the film. This was perhaps my second favorite part of the documentary, what goes on behind the scenes and everyone’s perspective on it all.
We, the audience are lulled into the normalcy of everything. The married life of Brian and Randi, as we come to find out that Brian has been diagnosed with MS and Randi has vowed to stick by him, though her mom suggests she not marry him as the responsibility of taking care of someone with a progressively degenerative disease is quite the herculean task. “I Love Him So Much,” Randi says to her mother at one point. Blaine, against overwhelming financial and technical difficutlties (not to mention it looks for all the world as though he has no idea what the fuck he’s doing), continues to plod along, working to get his own Citizen Kane (a terrible fucking movie, btw) made at all costs.
But then, as sometimes things dow, it all starts to spiral downwards, out of controll…
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scroll On Down Till You See “SPOILERS OVER” in Bold If You Like The Surprises Films Bring So Inherently!
Brian is originally tapped (as he’s a part-time professional wedding videographer) to DP ‘THROUGH HIKE’. It would seem that Randi isn’t having any of it. She doesn’t seem to want her husband trapsing about in the woods with a man she’s never met. So, of course, Brian bows out of the picture, opting instead for a compromise. He wants to lend Blaine the camera equipment. Once Randi hears of this, she flips out on the man and plants a solid no to answer the unspoken question of “can I lend Blaine the…”. It’s not an overly unreasonable response from her. That’s thousands of dollars worth of Camera equipment Blaine would be taking out into the dangerous woods and though the equipment doesn’t belong to Randi, per se, she and Brian are married and she really sseems to be looking out for his welfare…somewhat overbearinngly. (Really though, that’s what contracts are for kiddies. You fuck my shit up, you signed, you pay!)
Brian begins to complain to Blaine about his marriage woes (commradery I suppose, as Blaine’s exceedingly ugly wife, not that he’s a looker, is leaving him and taking the child as well). Blaine or Brian (it’s hard to tell) bring up the prospect of murdering Brian’s wife. Brian’s tired of Randi telling him what to do all the time, never allowing him to spend time with his friends, etc. He contemplates a divorce, but later says he “can’t put her through the pain and embarrassment of divorce.”
At first, the police of course suspect Brian and are curious a bit by Blaine as he hires a lawyer immediately after being questioned by police simply fom the viewpoint of a friend. Brian moves into a hotel and begins to spend his savings on booze, drugs, and girls, something not very befitting the grieving widow, but, hey, we all grieve in our own ways, right? An anonymous letter is sent into the police office stating that someone by the pseudonymn TROOPER performed the murders and that he’ll never be caught. The police take it somewhat seriously, but believe it to be another tactic to lead them off the trail of the real killer.
Bugs are placed in Brian’s new apartment, Blaine and Brian are trailed. Blaine’s property is seized (perhaps the final end for THROUGH HIKE). One detective continually harrasses Brian (which, really, I thought was over the line. The detective was speaking upon how Brian and he would run into each other in strange places purposefully upon the part of said detective. That same detective would show up at Brian’s apartment at 10pm, 11pm, on into the night, just to “see how things were goin’”. The detective states that Brian was starting to freak out. No shit. I really take issue with this as ANYONE receiving that form of treatment would be freaked and Brian would be well within his rights to pursue a harrassment charge (though, he’s a scumbag, so, in this case, fuck ‘im).
After months and months of police work, Brian confesses to the entire thing stating he didn’t kill Randi, but that he had planned it and gotten his friend Blaine to do the deed. Of course, that’s not a solid case against’ Blaine, so they confiscate every last stitch of anything from the man’s house and search his car as well, wherein they find a receipt for the clothes he bought specifically to murder Randi.
They are both arrested and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
SPOILERS OVER SPOILERS OVER SPOILERS OVER SPOILERS OVER SPOILERS OVER SPOILERS OVER!!!!!!!!!
Ok, so, likes and dislikes. I thought the subject matter was interesting. I mean, it’s a complete Jerry Springer, day time talk, fucked up story to be sure. Though there was murder and intrigue, something about the story just seemed so, well, ho-hum as the film plodded along slowly (intentionally no doubt), taking its time to reach the “climax” (though I don’t think Climaxes exist in documentaries). Any twists or turns are seen well in advance aside from perhaps a few aspects.
I enjoyed all of the behind-the-scenes camerawork inter-cut into the rest of the documentary, which was shot quite competently I might add. I found the film to be a rather interesting tale, to say the least. Though, at times I would feel like nodding off, so slowly were things brought about, but carried on for though I found the film boring at parts, I always found the subject matter and sheer “fucked-up-ed-ness” of the situation as a whole rather interesting altogether. Within the documantary proper (i.e. none of the VHS looking behind-the-scenes shots), the documentary look was upheld with competent lighting and camera placement. Sound seemed to continuosly go up and down with annoying irregularity, especially this bass hum towards the end that seemed to crescendo without warning to rattle the windows. Otherwise, however, a dencent early effort from filmmaker Todd Klick into this strange and off-beat tale of nerdy murder for hire and the strange and tangled lives we lead. I’d suggest giving it a watch. 3 out of 5 skulls.
