The Misfits are a great band. Danzig is a great band. Glenn Danzig is a huge musical talent and an icon in the punk and metal scenes. Based on his directorial debut Verotika, I’m not so sure those talents translate to filmmaking.
It’s fitting that the record label he started way back in the day was called Plan 9 records, because there are a number of moments in Verotika that recall the filmmaking style of Plan 9 from Outer Space director Ed Wood. I’m not sure the tribute is intentional.
Verotika, which just made its world premiere at the opening night of Chicago’s Cinepocalypse festival, is a horror anthology with its origins in the pages of Danzig’s own Verotik comic book. “Hosted” by a woman named Morella (Kayden Kross), there are three stories contained within the film, which Danzig described as his tribute to anthologies he loves like Trilogy of Terror and Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath. The first segment, set in Paris (meaning every actor speaks in totally different but equally cartoonish French accent), tells the story of a woman with eyeballs for nipples who conjures a giant, murderous albino man-spider every time she falls asleep. In the second story, a disfigured dancer collects other women’s faces. The third and final segment is a take on the Elizabeth Bathory legend, about a countess who bathes in the blood of virgins in order to remain youthful.
The stories themselves are not the problem in Verotika, though calling them “stories” seems a bit generous. Each one presents a premise and then simply repeats that idea four or five times before coming to a conclusion. The ideas presented within the segments are fine for a horror anthology: weird and dark and gory and right out of a horror comic book. It’s the execution that dooms Verotika, from its interminable editing to its uneven performances to its multiple instances of unintentional laughter – to the opening night Cinepocalypse crowd, the movie played like a comedy (and not on purpose). Actors are left stranded, vamping endlessly when the scene should be cutting away. The special effects work well at times and other times betray the movie’s super low-budget roots in a way that stops the film cold.
Making any movie is hard, and I can see what Danzig is going for with Verotika. There’s a definite European flair to the proceedings, which is deliberate, from the Fulci-inspired eye gouge that opens the film to the Bava-inspired lighting and set design of the third story. There is the occasional striking visual (Danzig worked as his own DP) and the score is effective (Danzig worked as his own composer), but these brief glimpses into what the movie could have been aren’t enough to erase what the movie actually is. It’s a catastrophe.
On the bright side, the audience reaction at Cinepocalypse suggests that Verotika has a future as a midnight movie in the same vein as The Room. There’s plenty of entertainment and plenty of laughs to be had, even if I’m not sure it’s what director Danzig originally intended. Creating a new horror cult favorite might just be the most punk rock thing he could have done.
Plus, maybe now people will start being kinder to the movies of Rob Zombie…
Editor’s Note: This Cinepocalypse review was originally published on June 14, 2019.
