Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise stripped the standard meet-cute romance formula of all its frills and delivered a dialogue-heavy depiction of two people falling in love over the course of one evening. Think independent filmmaking that favors naturalism, and an influential precursor to the mumblecore movement. Sadistic Intentions takes that same conceit, but infuses it with heavy metal and psychotic characters.
Chloe (Taylor Zaudtke) is a 20-something that spends her days escaping reality, either by drugs or by dwelling on possibilities of attending a college far from home. When she gets a call from her drug dealer Kevin (Michael Patrick Nicholson) asking her to go in on a deal, she’s reluctant but heads over to his specified address against her better judgment. There she finds a sprawling estate, but no sign of Kevin. Instead there’s Stu (Jeremy Gardner), Kevin’s bandmate who has also been lured there. While they wait for Kevin’s arrival, awkward small talk turns to tentative bonding to potential for something more. Until the rug is violently yanked out under both of them and they realize Kevin had something much more sinister in mind for the pair.
Save for an opening sequence montage that sets up the horror elements, much of the short run time is dedicated to the budding relationship between Chloe and Stu. Written and directed by Eric Pennycoff in his feature length film debut, Sadistic Intentions will likely lull you into forgetting there’s anything horror at all once Chloe and Stu grow more comfortable with one another. She’s bohemian and he’s hardcore metal, but can these opposites attract?
Pennycoff favors simplicity, letting everything hang on the actors’ performances. Gardner and Zaudtke are more than up to the task; there’s an authentic rapport between the pair that feels often awkward but always endearing. Even when Gardner’s Stu has a manic edge about him.
The movie shifts gears dramatically in the final act, when Kevin finally makes his entrance. It’s this turning point that brings the narrative back into the realm of horror, though it doesn’t quite offer any surprises. From the opening, it’s clear that Kevin is absolutely unhinged and dangerous. We never see him fully until the final 30 minutes; most of his performance is via phone conversations with Chloe and Stu as they try to find out where he is. In these phone calls, it seems as though Nicholson is channeling his inner Crispin Glover as a means of conveying his character’s psychosis.
The final moments are satisfying, and offer up an interesting subversion of character archetypes. Overall, this is a character study and Gardner’s show. It’s through Chloe that Stu embarks on an emotional journey, one that begins in simple metal aspirations and transforms into something more once human connection enters the fold. That’s this film in a nutshell; a simple meet-cute with a violent climax. Unlike the title implications, though, Sadistic Intentions is wholly tender and sweet. Which will polarize those looking for something much more traditional, and much more, well, horror-filled. If you can get on board with a horror adjacent romance that’s minimal on action and heavy on dialogue, then you’ll likely fall for Stu and Chloe’s twisted charms.
