Boardinghouse is a really strange, strange film. I picked it up on DVD about a year ago after hearing about it psychotronic movie podcast called That's Cool, That's Trash. It's a shot on video horror film with a unique history - it is purportedly the first film to be shot on video and then theatrically released, as well as the first film to use computerized credits (if you believe the interview with writer/director/star John Wintergate). Also, on the DVD there is a Director's Cut that clocks in at (a certainly punishing) 157 minutes, while the Theatrical Cut is 98. I watched the Theatrical cut, because spending 157 minutes on a shot on video film just sounds crazy. But I dug it enough that I'll have to watch the director's cut - maybe as something to kill time while I try to get black-out drunk on Election Day? (Seriously, I'm terrified about what might happen. Voting early in the morning and then trying to pass out might be my best course of action, if I want to avoid any anxiety attacks.) And I don't know, something about Boardinghouse's sheer lunacy just seems like it might be a good fit.
My Synopsis: So there's this house with a history of gruesome deaths - I guess it's haunted or something, but Boardinghouse isn't really a ghost film. A guy inherits it, and as you do, decides to put an ad in the paper for potential boarders. (Something along the lines of "beautiful women between 18 and 25" - yeah, that's not creepy.) Oh, and this guy is also a master of metaphysics and basically has a lesser version of The Force. Of course, the girls move in, bad stuff happens and wackiness ensues. But there's so much more...
Elaborate Genre: Shot-On-Video all kinds of stuff. Slasher / comedy if you have to pick two?
Overall: A real treat. It could be kind of tough to stomach if you aren't well-versed in bad, bad cinema. But for me it scratched that "I've never seen anything like this" itch.
I'm curious about the Director's cut, because one thing that makes the Theatrical cut so interesting is the way that it's edited. According to Wintergate, they shot the film as a horror-comedy. Which is, of course, a very Wiseau-esque thing to say: "it's *supposed* to be a comedy!" But there's enough pies to the face in Boardinghouse to support this claim. But apparently the distributor said it needed to be more of a horror film, and edited it down. The end result is a bizarrely-paced, dream-like experience. Scenes are cut at very weird spots, and feel way too short. Like you wandered in (and then out) of a conversation, leaving things vague and mysterious. Characters are not well-defined and are sometimes hard to differentiate from one another (if you recognize them at all), so you are constantly wondering just what is going on. I mean, you can imagine what happens if you try to cut an hour from a film. But I think they wanted to keep all of the horror/gore stuff in there, so they couldn't really just cut characters wholesale. I'm not explaining it well at all, but it just leaves things in a sort of fascinating mess.
But despite it's craziness, it's also sort of charming. I mean, these old SOV flicks usually look bad, have some questionable effects and bizarre acting choices, and Boardinghouse is no different. But there's a lot of heart and passion here. It seems like everyone is having a good time, but they're also actually trying to make an entertaining movie. And they succeeded.
I just don't know what else to say. There's a rock band in it. The haunting is represented visually by a weird red blob. There's a lot of gratuitous nudity. It's nuts. It's bad. It's super fun. Boardinghouse has cheap monsters and gore, some crazy performances, and a bizarre method of telling a story. And looking back on it, I guess it did have kind of a coherent plot, but wading through Boardinghouse feels anything but. I still don't really know *what* this is. But if you are interested in Shot On Video madness:
I would recommend this film. If you're into that sort of thing.
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