Review of Kaboom (2010) by Sheridan P — 08 Aug 2013

I guess that's what I get for not reading the full summary before watching the film. Kaboom is a gay movie without a lot of gay, a horror thriller light on horror and thrills, a comedy devoid of laughs, with a coming of age college sex story buried in the middle. It's about a character named Smith - apparently his actual first name, rather than nickname or surname - who is just moved into college and lusting after his very straight, very stupid roommate. The first few scenes of the film set it up to be about the roommate, who proceeds to be in almost none of the film. It also sets Smith up as our gay protagonist, who proceeds to have almost exclusively straight relationships. Once Smith goes to a party and unwittingly ingests some kind of drug, he goes into a bad trip that leads to him witnessing an actual murder. We soon discover that the murder was real and seems to be connected to some sort of mysterious cult-like group that has an interest in Smith.

It's possible that the reason I like this movie less than I might have is because I wanted it to be what it's not. I was expecting a sexy gay college movie, not a supernatural thriller with ambiguously oriented protagonists. Unfortunately, I am very sure that it is not just my expectations which were unfulfilled. The film is a mess. Sure, it's a low budget B-movie, so I won't dwell too much on the poor writing, lazy directing, single-note acting, or low production quality. The devil is in the script - not the dialogue, which I said I'd stay away from, but the story itself. It just, ultimately, has no idea what it wants to be. The film spends as much time dwelling on the fairly mundane interpersonal relationships and sexual encounters of the main cast as it does on the much more serious murder/conspiracy plot, and the characters, with their ridiculous names, are flitted between situations of wildly varying gravity without clear direction. While the plot does slowly build in urgency and importance, the intermingling of a generic college sex and relationships story leaves you feeling bipolar and lost.

That's all before realizing that the whole mess with the conspiracy theory, while at times intriguing, always feels like a disappointing distraction from the much more interesting character interactions. If the film had cut the entire plot about the murderous cult, it would have been an interesting and charming plot full of likable characters that, while stereotypical and interacting in predictable ways, could carry a film. As it stands, it never realizes this potential by being distracted by what becomes clearly the main plot. And while solving the murder and figuring out what this shadowy group of animal-masked men is up to is technically the A-plot, the characters don't actually seem to spend much time working on it. Sure, Smith does a fair amount of research, but he seems to accidentally discover as much information as he finds, if not more, and he never seems to do more than visit the library and google a few things, so it's not really an investigative piece. I could go on, but let's just leave it at this: This movie is really two very different movies inhabiting the same body, and it leaves you feeling just about as confused and uncomfortable as that might be were it happening to you.

The film is not without some redeeming qualities. The characters, while cliche, are mostly likeable. The murderous cult plot, while usually an unwelcome annoyance, does receive an interesting explanation - albeit one delivered with many flaws, by being delivered basically as a monologue, failing to explain several things, setting up several things which then never happen, and being just a bit too fucking nutters. The majority of the characters also have a very interesting relation to the plot which is a bit of a surprise saved for the end. I will admit that the ending, while being confusing and cliche, was fairly exciting and fast paced, had a few reveals that were mildly amusing, explained things well enough for me to hand-wave the rest, and seemed generally to be heading for an interesting, if not insane and perhaps unwelcome, climax.

Therein lies the final flaw worth mentioning before I finish this review (rant?). The ending. It is atrocious. I'm not sure exactly what the intent is behind the director and/or writer's choice to end things in such a way, and I don't want to spoil too much for you if you're reading this before watching while still intending to watch. Suffice to say, the ending comes all of a sudden, no less than ten minutes before expected, and is so furiously unsatisfying that it threatens to ruin any satisfaction I derived while watching the film. It's . . . it's just bad.

The movie overall is worth watching, if you know what you're getting yourself into. Hell, if you like horror thrillers and/or conspiracy stories, you might actually find it to be quite good. As for me, I was disappointed that the dish didn't look like I thought it'd be from the pictures, and when I dove in anyway I found there wasn't too much there. Not a terrible movie, but certainly not good, worth a few thrills and some nice moments but ultimately fairly devoid of substance and logic and with a conclusion that will leave most feeling cheated. The rest is for you to watch and judge for yourself.