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The Ugly

1998, Movie, NC-17, 93 mins

The Ugly: Review

UGLY, THE
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Striking atmosphere and production design ultimately can't lift this serial killer story above the familiar drill, but the whole thing is so creepily, visually inventive that you can't help but want to see what writer-director Scott Reynolds does next. Celebrity shrink Karen Schumacher (Rebecca Hobbs) has built her decidedly mixed reputation on sympathetic interviews with serial killers, and is summoned to a grim mental hospital to evaluate the angelic-looking Simon Cartwright (Paolo Rotundo). He hopes she'll declare him fit to stand trial for a string of ghastly murders, apparently because he thinks her testimony could also help him beat the rap. Simon's regular psychiatrist, the sinister and fashion-forward Dr. Marlowe (Roy Ward), takes a dim view of Karen's mission, as do the thuggish guards (Paul Glover and Chris Graham) who live to intimidate and abuse their charges. Simon proves a frustrating subject, affable and articulate but committed to the self-pitying story that he was forced to kill: The victims were picking on him and made him do it; he was driven by the Ugly -- the embodiment of his mangled self-image; he was taunted by the Visitors -- ghostly, living-dead apparitions of his victims. Take your pick. And on top of all that, Karen begins to suffer disturbingly vivid glimpses of Simon's distorted memories and/or fantasies. A peek at Reynolds' video collection would probably turn up copies of underrated '80s shocker THE SENDER, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and the recent CLEAN, SHAVEN: Between the three you can see the roots of Reynolds' story and intensely subjective visualizations of the world of a madman. His meticulous rendering of a nightmare world dominated by eyeball-jolting slashes of red, blue and black is a triumph of resourceful imagination over budgetary limitations. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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