Movies
‘Bitch Ass’ SXSW Review – New Masked Killer Creatively Plays With the Slasher Formula
The conventional slasher formula is simple; a killer, usually masked, embarks on a murder spree, picking their targets off one by one in a variety of ways until a final confrontation with a survivor who’ll outlast them. Bitch Ass adheres to the tried-and-true slasher setup, transporting it instead to an urban setting with untraditional characters. Its gleeful sense of fun and creativity outweighs its constraints.
Bitch Ass opens with Tony Todd, playing himself, as a Tales from the Crypt-like curator and host to introduce the tale. It sets up the potential for a brand-new cinematic anthology, but more importantly, it instills the tone. Bitch Ass might carve up some kills and touch on serious subject matter, but it’s out to deliver an entertaining time most of all.
Todd tells of the eponymous masked killer, a recluse who’s created his own house of horrors after falling victim to a horrendous gang initiation ritual as a teen. Bitch Ass (Tunde Lelaye) now tasks those who enter with a deadly game of survival, inspired by the board games that triggered his bullying. Those who fail to win the game lose their lives. That’s terrible news for the new group tasked with entering his home as part of their gang initiation.
Working from a script he co-wrote with Jonathan Colomb, director Bill Posley demonstrates a strong eye for style and visual flair. The innovative ways that Posley presents the game-within-a-game scenario imbues a larger scale and scope to a smaller feature and goes far in maintaining the sense of unhinged fun. Posley uses board game imagery, art, and animation to give a sense of layout and the unwitting player’s movement on the killer’s board. The commitment to the board game theme permeates throughout, both in the finer details of the production design and the kill pieces, each inspired by classic games.
The simple, straightforward premise makes character and narrative flaws more apparent. The total commitment to the board game theme and the tender relationship between Q (Teon Kelley) and his mother Marsia (Me’lisa Sellers) anchors the film when its rougher edges show. In true slasher style, many of the supporting characters are fodder for the kill count and lack depth. It’s clear that Q, a college hopeful, is our Final Guy, and Marsia’s ties to the past feel a little contrived even if they ensure the theme of trying to improve one’s lot in life despite constant economic obstacles. It may play out predictably, but their heartfelt bond and Posley’s more lighthearted approach ultimately works.
Bitch Ass feels like a retro slasher that you’d discover late night on cable or the shelves of a video store, where’d it’d discover and amass a cult following. It doesn’t deviate from the familiar formula at all. Still, Posley’s clever direction, a strong sense of style, and an entertaining twist to a new masked killer’s choice of weaponry make for an infectious time that’ll leave you curious to see whatever tales of terror Tony Todd may have in his collection.
Bitch Ass made its World Premiere at SXSW.
The creators of internet icons that go on to inspire collaborative online fiction tend not to have much control over their creations once they leave the proverbial nest. From Victor Surge’s Slender Man to the anonymous user who first posted that Backrooms image with the accompanying text, once the internet hive mind takes over, artists are usually forced to sit back and watch as their stories take on a life of their own.
One exception to this rule is horror artist and creature designer Trevor Henderson. Back in 2018, Henderson introduced the world to an enigmatic figure named Siren Head and gave the online horror community their last great mascot. However, while the immensely popular creature made several unofficial (and sometimes unwanted) appearances in games, videos, and plenty of fan-art, Henderson miraculously managed to keep creative control over his monster even as it became a worldwide sensation.
With the success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms film encouraging Hollywood to scour the internet for more online horror properties with an existing fanbase that might be enticed to show up to theaters, it makes sense that both Trevor and his digital offspring would be next in line for a big screen adaptation.
However, while Siren Head became a massive hit among the younger crowd who were in search of an online horror icon to call their own, much like my generation did with Slender Man, there are plenty of genre fans who aren’t familiar with the story behind this peculiar creature. That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me as I dive into the origins of a beloved internet monster with more cinematic potential than you might initially believe.
Trevor Henderson’s Viral Horror Universe
To understand Siren Head, you first have to understand Trevor Henderson’s spooky body of work. A Canadian artist with a passion for coming up with online cryptids, Trevor went by the moniker of Slimyswampghost and would occasionally post photorealistic artwork on both Twitter and Tumblr as part of the internet tradition of sharing “cursed images” on social media. These found-footage-influenced digital paintings would often be accompanied by brief snippets of text contextualizing them within the artist’s larger universe of bizarre entities.
In August of 2018, Trevor posted several creepy creations that would end up becoming fan-favorites (from the 1930s-animation-inspired Creepy Cat to my personal favorite, Long Horse), though none of these could compete with the popularity of Siren Head. A tall, slender figure that camouflaged itself among telephone poles on isolated roadsides, this humanoid monster was inspired by the mysterious number stations phenomenon (real-life cryptic radio broadcasts that repeat coded numbers ad infinitum).
In his original post, Trevor included the following text alongside the picture:
She was on vacation with her husband, and they were scoping out graveyards on the way, as you do, when she saw it. Rising out of the old cemetery, big as an old (macabre) telephone pole. Was this some kind of bizarre art piece the authorities hadn’t gotten wise to yet? Even as she stepped out of the car, the megaphones on its “head” screeched to life. “NINE. EIGHTEEN. ONE. CHILD. SEVENTEEN. REMOVE. VILE“. A buzzing, doubled voice screamed random words at her. At this point, it jerked into motion, striding down the hill towards her.
And just like that, a new horror icon was born.
However, the creature didn’t become an overnight sensation like some other popular internet legends. It was only about six months later that Modus Interactive contacted Trevor asking for permission to include the monster in his contribution to that year’s Haunted PS1 Halloween Game Jam. The ensuing free-to-play title was a moderate hit, but Siren Head would lay dormant for a while after its release as Trevor continued to focus on other projects.
How Siren Head Went Viral
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and short-form video content took over the internet. In April of 2020, Tiktokker and VFX artist Alex Howard created an eerily believable video of Siren Head towering over a cityscape, with this viral hit catapulting the character to mainstream recognition as genre fans raced to find out more about the enigmatic creature.
Suddenly, Siren Head was everywhere. Memes, toys, short film adaptations and even more videogame appearances led to the character occupying the same place that Slender Man had once held in popular culture. The only difference was that fans continued to refer to Henderson for more “official” lore about the monster, with the artist encouraging fan-made work but continuing to expand the mythology surrounding the character (which has since been revealed to be the physical manifestation of an Eldritch entity that preys on humankind).
Henderson even went so far as to discourage the character’s inclusion in the SCP Archives, as this would give Siren Head a Creative Commons license and allow bad actors to take advantage of the creature’s popularity. Not only that, but giving fans too much creative control over the monster would have inevitably lead to what some genre enthusiasts, such as Kane Parsons, refer to as “lore creep”: the overaccumulation of fictional information regarding a horror property that ultimately makes the story less scary.
While we’re past the peak of Siren Head’s online popularity, the character still holds a special place in genre fans’ hearts as an icon representing a particular moment in internet history. That’s why even horror titans like Junji Ito have expressed their love for the monster, and also why it makes sense for Hollywood to finally get off their butts and get around to adapting the creature to the big screen – especially since the monster’s success has led to Henderson developing a career in the horror genre (with several freaky projects ranging from Young Adult Horror novels to Bloody FM’s own Mayfair Watchers Society Podcast).
With the cinematic dream-team of both Zach Cregger and Brian Duffield joining forces in order to steer Trevor’s ideas towards box office gold, I think it’s safe to say that Siren Head is about to get the big-screen adaptation the fans deserve, and I know I’ll be there on opening night!
You must be logged in to post a comment.