My Father, Die (2016)

Not since "John Dies at the End" have I been able to figure out the ending of a film from the title. Ivan (Gary Stretch) is terrible. He kills his one son Chester (Chester Rushing) and hits the other one in the side of the head so he can't hear out of both ears. Asher (Joe Anderson) grows up deaf and decides to be a mute because he would talk funny. When dad is released early from prison, Asher is out for revenge. And there is a girl (Candace Smith) involved.The film won a number of awards for being the best indie out of Louisiana. It was professionally shot, however there were a number of things I didn't like. The first was the metaphoric and poetic language monologue that was fitted into the script by someone with less than the education to speak/write that way. Good writing, but didn't fit the character. Now for a deaf guy, I assumed he could read lips and sometimes read lips when he wasn't looking at them. And how did a deaf guy know to turn around when a gun was fired? I guess no one caught it in post or didn't care. The whole situation seemed like over reaction. I am sure grindhouse zealots might find a gem here. It seemed a bit tedious to me.Guide: F-word. Sex, rape, nudity (Frances Reagan James + uncredited)

When I think of revenge in cinema I think of "Oldboy" (2003), "Dead Man's Shoes" (2004), "Blue Ruin" (2014), "Lady Vengeance" (2004), "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" (2002), "Django Unchained" (2012), "Kill Bill" (2003;2004) "Gangs of New York" (2002), and even "John Wick" (2014). Now after seeing this masterpiece of revenge, "My Father Die" is now on that list."My Father Die" is as you already know, a deep southern Gothic revenge film, and is the directorial debut of Sean Brosnan. The film starts off with two brothers (Asher and Chester) walking around talking about sex and meeting up with a girl (Nana) so that Chester can have sex with her. As Asher keeps on watch for the two his father (Ivan) pounces when he's not looking and hits him so hard upside the head that he ruptures his eardrums. Ivan then confronts Chester and beats him to death in a fit of rage while the recently deaf Asher watches. Jump twenty years later where Asher is taking care of his overly obese mother who does nothing but sit on her bed and watch the local church sermon. Ivan is recently released from prison and Asher plans to exact his revenge upon his fallen brother. And so ensues one of the best revenge films I've seen.The film is so well acted by the entire cast, mostly the three main stars Joe Anderson (Asher), Candace Smith (Nana), and Gary Stretch (Ivan). These three actors did a magnificent job bringing their characters to life. Joe Anderson was magnificent as he never said a word in the film and yet you could empathize with his character so much. Gary Stretch was unbelievable, if you thought he was bad in "Dead Man's Shoes", you have no idea how much more bad he is in this film. Stretch is just absolutely brutal and brings so much tension and suspense in every scene he is in.Brosnan's direction is fantastic, he never loses control of the brutal and religious aspects the movie brings. He developed the characters so well and took time to really make them feel real. The cinematography is overall very good, when it comes down to the cinematography of a very low budget film I'm not so harsh on it considering that money is not very abundant, but the film looks beautiful either way. Throughout the film I couldn't help but see Brosnan's satire on Southern religion. I am not completely sure if it was intentional, but if it was good job. Periodically in the film a painting of Saturn eating his children is seen, which not only symbolizes the characters in the film but also gives the film a religious quality to it which I thought was interesting.I honestly don't know what else to say, this is a great revenge film with unique characters that we empathize and despise, a great story, acting, and direction. Sean Brosnan debuted with a powerhouse of a film and I will without a doubt be looking forward to what he has in store next.

This was part of Frightfest 2016 and it was really good. Now it has quite a few flaws overall, but just the rawness and the way it deals with things plus the way it is framed and filmed, all make up for it. Some may feel it is too "arty", especially the black and white shots of it (flashbacks) will be the target of that criticism.But it all makes sense (well apart from starting something and crazily enough not having finished it ... then again that creates a sort of magic aura that transcends this into a different dimension) in the end. And it is based on Freud partly of course. In the sense that sons want to replace their dad. In this case, the dad is not a nice one at all.A lot of violence and a lot of crazy things happening, but all with a purpose

Spoilers Ahead!!!This movie was not rated but deserves a XXX rating for the seriously over-the-top violence, torture, and gore. I've never understood those ratings because any hint of sex and you'll get an R rating which generally hurts at the box office but something like this will probably fly in with P-13 or whatever. I don't have kids but I would rather they watch hard-core porn than sick filth like this.This is basically a revenge movie. The kid's brother is killed by their father. The kid grows up and puts on a dog suit to track down his evil dad. No biggie and this is wrapped up soon enough...but not so fast because we have another hour of violence to go. Take a wild guess as to who ends up dead.I'm through giving this horrible bloodbath the time of day so just let me reiterate by saying that this is sick, completely unimaginative trash.