All Jacked Up and Full of Worms is a true midnight movie because it is so strange and provocative that it feels just as inappropriate to watch it by yourself as it does with others. Disbelief, uneasiness, perplexity, and laughter are the main emotional reactions it provokes; when combined, these emotions can produce a potent aesthetic experience. Sometimes it seems like this feature-length debut from writer-director alex Phillips will succeed. It is obviously the work of an artist, and a dedicated cast and staff bring that vision to life. However, in light of the different experience, it's challenging to identify a theme that makes it worthwhile suggesting.

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms' narrative is fragmented and inconsistent, and attempts to summarise it risk making some of its concepts sound more cynical than they are, but we'll try anyway. The skeevy motel's maintenance man, Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello), is in a strange, tense relationship with samantha (Betsey Brown), who yearns for spiritual awakenings. Trevor Dawkins' character, Benny, is an odd, perverted, lonely man who claims that what he wants most in life is a baby. Benny's attempt to order a baby via mail is uncomfortable to watch. 

They meet after Benny learns they can "take" worms like hallucinogens during an unexpectedly warm motel encounter with a local prostitute named Henrietta (Eva Fellows). Their vacation takes a nasty turn after they become close friends with a sadistic couple (Mike Lopez and Carol Rhyu) who are partially dressed as clowns and have clearly been using worms longer than they have. They prefer to up the ante by performing random acts of mayhem.

Or perhaps none of that occurs. Nearly every point in Phillips' story lacks narrative certainty, and the bizarre images and jarring editing discourage definite interpretation. Is this the entirety of Roscoe's drug-induced nightmare? Is he in a hell ruled by worm demons, as suggested by a weird tv interview that the film refers to repeatedly? Who can say? No movie, especially one this psychedelic, has to answer any questions with its plot, but All Jacked Up and Full of Worms might have benefited from a little more clarity in its character development.

However, the viewer is left desiring more curation in this instance as well. It is the feeling of a steady hand guiding their route through the ether that makes such cinematic encounters meaningful, even when a film dares to untether its audience from reality. All Jacked Up and Full of Worms' formal flourishes demonstrate that there is a method to its madness, but this method gets lost in translation to the point where aimlessness becomes the film's defining trait as it progresses through psychosis.
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G GOWTHAM

20/11/2022 12:00 PM