The Dark Backward

Written by youthful director Adam Rifkin while still a teen, THE DARK BACKWARD is certainly a triumph of individual will over the bottom-line realities of filmmaking. One can only imagine the reaction of the average studio executive to a screenplay that includes such scenes as a featured character molesting a corpse in a garbage dump, or smearing himself with dog food and inviting three grotesquely fat women to lick it from his body. But though it's heartening to aspiring filmmakers everywhere that THE DARK BACKWARD was made, the film itself is quite dreadful.

Marty Malt (Judd Nelson) is a garbageman who aspires to be a stand-up comedian. His buddy Gus (Bill Pa...