Movies
SXSW ’10 REVIEW: ‘Suck’ Fails to Bring the Rock ‘n Roll
From the SXSW Film Festival we’ve got a second opinion on Rob Stefaniuk’s rock ‘n roll horror-comedy Suck, which failed to impress me (review) at last September’s TIFF. You can check out Tim Anderson’s mixed review by reading below and keep up with all of our SXSW coverage by clicking here. Suck is a rock’n’roll vampire comedy about a group of musical wannabees in search of immortality and a record deal. The rock band “The Winners” have sunk so low, they will do anything to make it big. After a life-changing encounter with a vampire, they rocket to stardom only to discover that fame and fortune are not all they’re cracked up to be.
Ya know, there haven’t been enough Rock and Roll Vampire Movies. I mean, Queen of the Damned might qualify, The Lost Boys certainly acted the part of 80’s metal gods. Near Dark‘s vamps had a punk rock vibe to them. But none of these really fit the part. And that’s the problem, other than these films what do we got? Rockula? Come on, I love “Chainsaw” Dean Cameron as much as the next kid who was in 8th grade when Summer School came out, but why is that the only representation of bloodsuckers on tour? Think about it. A rock and roll lifestyle sleeping days away in a tour bus, traveling city to city, endless groupie sandwiches to snack on. It’s a vampire’s sticky red dream come true.
Suffice to say, Suck might just be the first full fledged rock and roll vampire movie to come along since Rockula. Of course like Rockula, it’s a comedy–not a cheesy late 80’s comedy–but the two do both share a penchant for some stupid slapstick moments regarding vampirism and a futile attempt to legitimize themselves by parading out a group of rock n rollers in cameo appearances. In Rockula we get, Toni Basil, Bo Diddley and Thomas Dolby. This time (and I think Suck wins here) we get Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Alex Lifeson and–in the greatest cameo perhaps ever–Moby (..,and no, I won’t spoil it here). And while Suck isn’t an awful movie, its not exactly hitting a home run with its plotline either.
Joey (Played by writer/director Rob Stefaniuk) is the front man for Canadian bar band The Winners–a name that is clearly meant as an irony in a film that forgot subtlety the second the first word was typed into Final Draft. The Winners aren’t so much, and so the glory of a record deal and international fame and fortune continues to elude them. They are managed by the faithless Jeff (Dave Foley) who can’t seem to quit but begs to be fired for the sake of the bands future. After one late gig, the band’s sexy female bassist (and Joey’s ex-girlfriend) Jennifer (Jessica Pare) heads off for a hook-up with a guy that looks like a cross between Paul from The Lost Boys and Radu from Subspecies. The next day it’s all clear. She’s a vampire now.
What little bit of subtlety I mentioned the film not having is tossed out the window as Stefaniuk is clearly going for a Vampirism as Heroin addiction metaphor here (I guess he never saw Abel Ferrara’s film The Addiction) as Jennifer’s body moves from euphoric bliss to a morning-after mess every time she needs to feed. It’s just another example of the derivate concepts and mediocre execution on display here. It’s also something I’d be willing to overlook if the film had been a lot more humorous. As it stands, the only real highlight of Jennifer’s turning is her need for an assistant (ala Renfield) as she turns the band hilarious roadie Hugo (Chris Ratz) into her bug eating sidekick whose stuck cleaning up the bloody mess of bodies Jennifer’s leaving in her wake. But once Jennifer’s secret gets out and the fans find themselves captivated by her presence, it’s not long before the rest of the band is willing to sell their souls for rock and roll.
Suck gains quite a few points for actually trying to be a good movie. It’s not just tossing jokes out there and waiting to see what sticks. The concept is solid and were the case not made so poorly Suck would have been a winner. What I mean is you can see the good movie inside clawing and scraping at the coffin lid, just trying to escape from the unfortunate production. The band isn’t horrible but you can totally buy into the idea that they’d need a little vampire glamour to get anyone to notice them. It’s too bad Jennifer’s Body came along last year with the same idea and pulled it off much better. What really keeps the film watchable is Jessica Paré. She does a great job with what she’s given and she knows how and when to get a laugh out of a straight performance. It hardly hurts that she’s “too die for” gorgeous–a point that serves the character as well as the male viewing audience well.
Look, compared to the nightmare of stupidity that is Rockula, Suck is a 5-star flick, but we’re not grading on a curve here. If this were American Idol and I was Randy Jackson, I might just tell you the film is “pitchy” dawg. In the end, Suck just can’t completely overcome tone problems and it can’t seem to manage to bring the funny exactly where and when it needs to. The music is fine, the band is somewhat likeable and the journey is peppered with a few moments of hope But in the end, the parts that work pale in comparison to the ones that don’t. This one is late night cable fare at best. Still, the best thing I can say about it is, if it showed up on HBO or Showtime at 2am, I would probably sit down and watch it again. It’s sorta of the cinematic equivalent of an emo band. I probably wouldn’t change the channel on my radio, but I’m not gonna run out and buy the record.
2.5/5 Skulls
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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