Verdict
Summary
Relentlessly downbeat and grim with an “inside look” into the mind and soul of a killer who has no real remorse, The Ugly is a well made horror film, but it also tries to understand the killer, which might be the reason why it never quite works for me. It’s an effective little film (and very low budget, but I don’t mind at all) despite its faults.
Unearthed Classics brings The Ugly to Blu-ray for the first time in a new 4K restoration, and it’s certainly an upgrade from the DVD I’ve had for several decades, and they’ve included an isolated score, a commentary, short films, and more. If you’re collecting Unearthed Films’ releases, it’s numbered 18 on the spine.
Plot:
A psychologist interviews a serial killer in a locked down facility to determine his sanity.
Review:
Psychologist Karen Schumaker (Rebecca Hobbs) is handpicked by a notorious serial killer local to New Zealand for a one-on-one interview, and she drives in the rain on a dark and stormy night to sit down with him as he tells her his story. The facility is grimy and the orderlies / guards are just as scuzzy as the floors and walls, taunting the prisoners and treating them like trash. The serial killer is a handsome, but shy young man named Simon (Paolo Rotondo) who openly admits to using a razor to murder men and women alike, with no obvious pattern, and that he “enjoyed” the killings, but the truth is quite complex, as Karen will discover over the course of the evening as she grills him on his upbringing. He goes over his abusive childhood where his mother regularly beat and demeaned him, and he was relentlessly bullied in school and had learning disabilities. When he began killing people – including his own mother for which he spent four years in a juvenile detention – he transformed into “The Ugly,” a sort of entity of evil that made him kill. When, during his killing spree he was identified by a girl who escaped him, he tried to carry on a relationship with a woman he knew from childhood, and everything changed for him and he went over the edge into a whole new breed of killer … and was caught as a result. Karen ultimately determines that Simon is indeed possessed by a spirit – or spirits – of demons or the vengefully departed souls he is directly responsible for, but by the end of the night, she will have deeply regretted her decision to interview him … because he manages to escape and come after her too.
Relentlessly downbeat and grim with an “inside look” into the mind and soul of a killer who has no real remorse, The Ugly is a well made horror film, but it also tries to understand the killer, which might be the reason why it never quite works for me. It reminded me in some ways of the William Friedkin film Rampage, which was a very chilling look at a serial killer who had no rhyme or reason to his ghastly killing sprees, but is ultimately caught and examined by the court to see “why” he did the things he did. Writer / director Scott Reynolds sort of did the same thing here, but gives the film a slightly more supernatural element (at least on a visual, stylized level), and so the movie has an unnatural, fantastical bent to it that gives it a weird viewpoint. I remember seeing this about 20 years ago and feeling aloof about it, but now I just see it as a dive into depression and stylized excess, but it’s an effective little film (and very low budget, but I don’t mind at all) despite its faults.
Unearthed Classics brings The Ugly to Blu-ray for the first time in a new 4K restoration, and it’s certainly an upgrade from the DVD I’ve had for several decades, and they’ve included an isolated score, a commentary, short films, and more. If you’re collecting Unearthed Films’ releases, it’s numbered 18 on the spine.
