Post by brizycomics on Jan 12, 2009 4:41:14 GMT 10
I ordered TRILOQUIST online (a movie I would never subject myself to were it not for Rocky's appearance), and it arrived by mail lickety-split.
First off, let me remind everyone that this is, at best, a B-movie horror flick. Don't go into this expecting the next Citizen Cane or Titanic. Ain't gonna happen.
As to Rocky, he alone is the reason to see this movie. In TRILOQUIST, Rocky plays Norbert, an autistic young man held under the thumb of both his sister and the demonic ventriloquist's dummy he carries around with him at all times.
Rocky is nothing short of amazing as the withdrawn and disturbed Norbert. His expression--which heaven only knows how he was able to maintain for the entire picture--is a cross between childlike innocence and serious dementia. When he moves, you're left to wonder if he is the puppet himself. Clad in a youthful cowboy outfit identical to the evil dummy's, Norbert moves in a jerky fashion that makes you wonder which of the inseparable duo is real and which is the living marionette.
You could almost feel sorry for poor Norbert, save for when he dances about in a carefree/deranged manner as innocent people are slaughtered around him. Still, seeing Rocky as the strangely-endearing psychotic little brother makes me yearn for a full photo shoot of nothing but Rocky hamming it up in this full cowboy gear. In this flick he literally is a livin' doll.
SPOILERS AHEAD! STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING RUINED FOR YOU! SPOILERS!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
As to the rest of the picture...meh.
The main character of the movie is the truly evil psychopath sister Angelica, played to disgusting perfection by Paydin LoPachin. Angelica is almost more of a caricature than the dummy (cleverly named "Dummy"), as she is so wicked and heartless that she will go ahead and run through a corner store clerk just to shoplift a candy bar and a bottle of pop.
The cruel sister's motivations are never clear, other than that she is frickin' evil. From the start, she unleashes the demonic dummy on anyone in her path--including little kids out trick-or-treating--blames the killings on her brother, then busts him out of the asylum so she can evidently boss him around while she kills even more passersby while on her mad road trip.
The sister is evidently bent on a trip to Vegas so Norbert can go onstage there as the best ventriloquist ever—as he never even moves his lips while the dummy unleashes his foul-mouthed repertoire. Of course, Norbert has a "cheat" in that the dummy is presumably some kind of demon-possessed object that needs no puppeteer to speak, or to help him gut unsuspecting victims like trout, apparently.
Why the sister wants to have a stage act to make money is beyond me when she has a murderous puppet at her disposal who can just help her take whatever she wants by going on rampages that don't depend on curtain times. Also, her need for Norbert (upon whom she happily pinned the dummy's previous murders) is unclear, as all she needs to do is sit there and let Dummy spew his semi-humorous filth from her lap onstage just as easily as Norbert can. She even tries it once herself, but does so onstage in a strip joint where the girls are expected to flash something significantly more than a talking block of wood, so that doesn't exactly speak to the lunatic Angelica's intelligence, either.
Assuming she needs the adorable Norbert's looks and charm to help sell their act, it still doesn't explain her next brilliant move, which is to decide that it's time the family had a baby (what the Sam Hill--?!). Here they are en route to Vegas and even though both siblings are quite young, the psycho sister is struck with the idea that they must have a kid right then and there in order to continue the family line. Thus they kidnap a shapely young girl from off the road and go through a few very uncomfortable and unnerving attempts to have the innocent-yet-disturbed Norbert have sex with her.
Clearly, there are plot holes in this picture big enough to pass a football stadium through. Why does the murderous Angelica insist on a baby all of a sudden? Is she planning on dragging the kidnapped girl around for nine months until her delivery day? But given the rate she keep stopping for roadside homicide breaks, maybe Angelica thinks that's how long it'll take them to reach their destination. Her final solution to the matter is more vile than anything her killing spree could have provided. I won't go into it here.
But my big question is about the dummy, Dummy. There must be some measure of evil magic at play with him, but where did it come from? What's the big origin story? The writer/director seems to know, but it would sure help if he'd let the viewer in on it. Is the dummy autonomous, as the story (such as it is) seems to imply, or is he being controlled by some outside force? And if the siblings' mother was the first ventriloquist, why is the dummy so drawn to Norbert, rather than Angelica? In fact, as the show drags on, Dummy confesses to Norbert that he's frightened of the psychotic bitch and wants he and Norbert to take it on the lam to get away from her. There is some mention of magic, and even a split-second or two of head-scratching "How did they do that?" moments, but nothing is ever explained, or applied long enough to allow the viewer to come up with his own explanation.
The big climax sequence makes so little sense that I found it more irritating than shocking. As it turns out, the sister was the real ventriloquist all along, and Norbert has no ability to make the dummy talk. Well, duh to that. For one, the dummy spoke with big sis in the strip club while Norbert was still a great many miles away in an asylum. I kind of figured that he couldn't throw his voice that far. Still, Norbert seems truly surprised and devastated to learn that he had had no hand (or vocal cords) in making Dummy speak all this time. When the Dummy protests this revelation, Angelica stabs him in the eye to shut him up. If she's the real ventriloquist, why did she need to do that? Here's where it gets really wacky. After Dummy gets stabbed, it's poor Norbert who bleeds from the wound. This seems to imply some type of supernatural connection between them, but within moments all signs of trauma to Norbert have vanished as quickly as they came. This may simply be shoddy B-movie editing, but I'm more likely to say it's shoddy writing. Don't set us with an image like that and then just leave it.
In the end, because I think there's been a Constitutional amendment passed for this, Rocky's character dies. With his death, so goes a multitude of possibilities that could have saved this dreary flick. I would have loved to find out that the supposedly-manipulated Norbert was the real influence behind everything, having the supernatural power to control Dummy even over vast distances. What's more, it would be great to find that l'il Norby had also been controlling his sister all along, and having grown tired of her, let's her get arrested before releasing her from his his control. Failing that, it would be one helluva overdue payoff to see the murderous bitch get her comeuppance and get skewered by the puppet. Or gunned down by the cops.
But alas, we get nada. Norbert dies, the sister absconds with the puppet (who leaves behind an arm which then appears to have mysteriously grows back by the next frame) and the ending is less satisfying than a wilted brussel sprout cocktail.
There are a few cameos by established actors like Larry Manetti (from Magnum P.I.) and Brian Krause (Charmed), but the only real reason to sit through this interminably long 80-minute penny dreadful is to see Rocky. Why else would any of us watch it anyway?