By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Gut begins with our protagonist Tom (Jason Vail) who is sick of his job and his overall life. He continues on with his daily activities but has lost his luster. Monotony is a dangerous thing for the creative mind and Tom’s mind is certainly a creative one.
His friend and coworker Dan (Nicholas Wilder) who is much more easygoing wants to cheer him up. He suggests an all-night horror fest. He brings over a video, but doesn’t disclose what it is. The movie shows a woman lying down. Her stomach is cut open and blood emerges. The question arises as to whether this is a real snuff film or just some fake nonsense.
Whatever the case, Tom is unable to get the short clip out of his head. It begins interfering with every aspect of his life. When he makes love to his wife, he pays close attention to her abdomen. Even as he is playing with his child, the thoughts drift off to what he had seen. Dan continues to get more DVDs in the mail and Tom continues to watch them. Tom attempts to fight the instinct to watch them and tries t encourage Dan to get rid of them, but Dan refuses. In fact, he makes copies for Tom.
Slowly, Tom becomes leery of Dan as he sees that his friend is far more obsessed and influenced by the movies than he is. In fact, Dan seemingly finds enjoyment in it. When they watch one DVD together, immediately upon finishing it, Dan asks to watch it again.
Things only get worse when a waitress that they both know is killed in one of the films. Dan tells Tom that he believes the killer only did it to get to him. Tom tries to convince Dan to go to the police with all the DVDs, but Dan had already destroyed them afraid that the police would think he had something to do with the murders. He confesses that he never ordered the DVD and it just arrived one day in his mailbox. Tom becomes furious and worries about his wife and child. He tells Dan to stay away from his family and orders his family to stay away from Dan. His wife not fully understanding doesn’t heed his warning.
The conclusion is a surprising one and leaves some questions unanswered. It packs a punch and delivers quite well.
Overall, I thought Gut was successful in many ways. Though the beginning was slow, I believe it needed to be to show Tom’s mundane life and why it made sense for him to become so interested in something that the average person would be horrified by. It also explains why he didn’t rush to the police. Here, he finally has something new, different and exciting. He has something to focus his attention on and as much as he hates what he’s seen, there is an unhealthy allure to it.
Both Wilder and Vail do really well in the leads. The differences in their personality are really the driving force behind the film. It is the separate and dissimilar ways in which they react to the clip that really captivates the audience.
Though this definitely could fit in the horror genre, I would more-so categorize it as a suspense/thriller. It’s quite original and once it starts going the plot really grabs a hold of the viewer. It isn’t as gory as one would expect but I think that’s a good thing. They focused on the characters more than the amount of blood or the actual murders taking place.
Overall, I would certainly recommend this on a night that you’re looking for something a little artistic, and a bit different from the mainstream. It is certainly a satisfying movie that has the charm of American Psycho (2000) and the tone of Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10
