In the name of full disclosure, before I get into my review
of Chastity Bites, let me first say that I'm a friend of the writer of this
movie, Lotti Pharris Knowles and the director is her husband.
With that in mind I was already pre-disposed to like the
film, or, at the very least be willing to forgive a fair amount, if need
be. Fortunately, my willingness to
forgive was not needed.
I'll be the first to admit, the horror genre is not my
forte. While I've seen a lot of horror
films, they do not call to me. There's
enough screwed up shit in life that pushing your comfort level by scaring
yourself is not something that interests me.
Chastity Bites is billed as a horror comedy, but really
falls more into the black comedy basket in my opinion. Yes, there are horror elements, but it's not
meant to scare. Like the Joss Whedon
written Cabin in the Woods, Chastity Bites specifically calls out horror tropes
and flips them on their head.
There have been several black comedies based in a high
school setting over the years; the two most notable that I've seen being
Heathers from the 80's and Jennifer's Body from 2009. In many ways, I see Chastity Bites in much
closer kinship to Heathers. Then again,
until someone pointed out to me several days after I saw Jennifer's Body that
it was supposed to be horror comedy, I thought it was somewhat of a waste of my
time. Once I went back over the movie in
my mind with an eye toward horror comedy the movie jumped from a horridly bad
movie to one I could kind of get behind.
But I had to be told it was horror comedy, which is a huge
negative.
Chastity Bites makes no pretensions about what you are in
store for. The opening scene pulls you both directly into the theme as well as
being pretty damn amusing. I'm not one for spoilers but I will say this: there
is a death in the opening scene and my wife commented about the character who
was killed off that she could have stood maybe a minute more of their
sanctimonious speech has they not been killed off. That they were killed off in mid speech had
all three of us laughing, my 19 year old son the loudest.
So, about the plot.
The movie is set in a small conservative Southern California town where
it seems one of the few sole voices of liberal dissent is our heroine, Leah
(Allison Scagliotti) a writer for the high school newspaper determined to swim
against the current of popularity and let you know she's doing it in both in
her writing and her sarcastic biting comments. Leah has one true friend,
another outlier, Katharine (Francia Raisa), a shy lesbian who is clearly a
romantic, but also self-conscious because of her acne, which she covers up with
painted flowers on her face.
Enter the evil.
We are introduced to the villain of the movie at a cocktail
party of "concerned" parents who throw out catch phrases from Fox
news with a bitterness only matched by some of the single mothers at the party
as they examine the relationships of their exes who have left them for younger
women. The lights dim and a gothic opera
ensues as Liz Batho (Louise Griffiths) enters the room looking like a regal porcelain
doll with a devilish glint in her eye. Liz has come to town to promote her
Virginity Action Group that has Chastity Leaders In Training.
Liz proceeds to recruit the popular girls in school for her
"Leaders," the same girls who's single mothers she also entices with
her "illegal" beauty product.
Naturally, our heroine is suspicious, especially after Liz enthralls
Katharine into the group. Research ensues
and our journalist in training makes the connection that Liz Batho is none
other than the real historical figure of Elizabeth Bathory, the "Countess
of Blood," a Hungarian serial killer from the 1600's who believed she would
remain young by bathing in the blood of virgins.
You can guess where the plot is going to take you next.
The funny thing is, despite some of the beat-you-in-the-head-with-a-lemon-wrapped-around-a-large-gold-brick
humor such as the obvious acronyms and some of the horror movie trope
characters Chastity Bites has a lot of subtlety, especially with its social
commentary. I was actually left thinking
about several of the themes of the movie well after it was over. And it's in some of these themes that the
real horror of the movie comes from.
First and foremost this movie really is about America's obsession
with physical beauty and the lengths some people will go to obtain it. A second, more subtle theme explores how
people can be manipulated, especially by those with a stronger mind (in the
movie's case there is some supernatural help).
There is also an undercurrent of longing throughout the movie that
motivates several of the characters. Finally
there is the theme of alienation and what people will deny themselves because
they see themselves as outliers in society and don't deserve to fit in.
Of course I could be full of shit here, having taken one too
many film study courses in college, and Lotti, when she reads this review, will
be laughing her ass off.
Let's jump to the characters both from an acting standpoint
as well as writing.
Lotti not only creates believable characters that say things
you might expect to come from teenagers and adults, that are full of current
social relevance, but their actions are also ones I've seen in the course of my
own children's teenage years and the other young adults they interacted with. While I found the single mothers to be fairly
one dimensional, that was intentional as a plot device.
As a villain, Liz was well handled. Her motive is unfolded at
a good pace and you can tell after centuries that she's got some world class
manipulation skills even without supernatural help. While she is a person of what America places
as stunning physical beauty, you can tell there is a lot of ugly roiling
beneath the surface and it comes out.
Leah's character is an interesting study. She's strong willed and deliberately places
herself outside of society in such a manner that she is an unlikely hero. But she is a hero nonetheless because her
best friend is in danger and she will move heaven and earth to fight for the
people she knows as family.
Katharine's character is another standout. She's a lesbian and has fully realized it,
something that is difficult at most times, especially so in high school. She endures her share of grief for her sexual
orientation, but because of the self-consciousness her acne has brought upon
her, I don’t think she's yet fully realized she's beautiful in her own right. While
it was necessary for her character, I would have loved to have seen some
seriously snappy comebacks at the sniping the popular girls dish out to her at
the beginning of the movie.
The final character that really shone is Amy Okuda's portrayal
of Ashley, the head of the popular girls.
Like the other strong willed characters in the movie, she rules with a
force of conviction that overruns (for the most part) the other young women in
her clique. She's on her way to being
another world class manipulator out of her intelligence on which way the waters
are flowing.
You might notice I've said little about the men in the cast
or as they pertain to the plot.
There's a reason for this.
As she's done with many of the horror tropes, Lotti turns them upside
down and the males in the cast are there for plot devices. Even Leah's romantic interest, Paul, another
outlier, is left without a lot of depth and, I suspect, deliberately so. This movie is ultimately a battle between two
strong women and, like other horror movies, the opposite sex are casual
throwaways.
So, is the movie perfect?
No, but there is nothing that screamed out for condemnation,
though I will point out some of my sore spots.
The direction is handled well, though there where a few
quibbles I had with lighting in a night scene and there were aspects of the
final battle action that felt a little unpolished, more so than intended.
The makeup effects of the film are very good, especially in
some transformative scenes, but I did take issue with the lack of arterial
spray in the ritualized neck cutting scenes (only one actually had some spray,)
which was especially noticeable in a flashback scene where there is plenty of
spray evidence from previous rituals on the walls, but not in the actual action
that takes place.
There is a trope in the writing that I felt could have been
handled better; a "big reveal" that didn’t have as much impact as it
could have and sort of came out of left field, though it was seeded earlier in
the film.
But these are nitpicks rather than complete detriments.
Overall I enjoyed Chastity Bites and have re-watched twice
it since my first viewing.
