I remember hearing a story about someone from the New York Times gave a negative review to Ernest Hemingway's new book, at the time. When Hemingway read it, he took the time from his busy schedule to visit the home of that New York Times critic and beat the fuck out of him. Which fuck'n rules. Because it's Hemingway. On RAPT, they take "handling criticism" to another whole level. Written by first timer, Russell Hackett, with Jerry Janda (Painkiller) and direct by Tom Ryan, RAPT tells the story of a aspiring filmmaker trying to make a slasher film that will win the hearts of horror fans. Sadly the reaction wasn't was what he was looking for.
The movie takes place at a film festival in the woods of New Jersey, where our filmmaker (played by Russell Hackett) is premiering his film, "16 Steps of Death". Things didn't turn out well once people started walking out of the screening. To make it worse, the Filmmaker would hear two festival attendees shitting on the film. And of course a review by a blogger named The Horror Pro (Jerry Janda), in which he shreds "16 Steps of Death". After hearing all the negative comments, the Filmmaker decides to do something about it. He invites The Horror Pro over his house to get his opinion about a scene he just shot. As The Horror Pro watches this new scene, we (the viewer) see that this isn't just any low-budget indie slasher. The Horror Pro gives his opinion, which of course was negative. But he did give props to the actress' "performance". And the "special effects". But then the Horror Pro would get his face smashed with a beer bottle by the Filmmaker. Later, the Horror Pro wakes up in the woods, only to find out he's the next victim in the Filmmakers new film. And since then, the filmmaker starts hacking off everyone who disliked his film, which would inspire his new direction..
In today's age, we've seen many people bitching and complaining about recent horror films. Yes, not all of them are original. But there are some that are fun to watch. And of course there are filmmakers who don't seem to make the effort to tell a good story. When it comes to taking criticism, it doesn't seem that many people can't handle it. We've seen many filmmakers go on a online rant. Saying how people are too stupid to understand their film. But of course you have bloggers/critics who seem like they just want to hate everything because it makes them feel good about themselves. Even though the Horror Pro's opinion are very harsh, he does give his honest opinion. But it's the usual criticism I see every blogger says. Now with the Filmmaker, he didn't took the criticism well. He also seems to get upset when someone else gets some praise. But it seemed that he made something out of all the negative comments. Now it's not something I suggest people to do, but it's not like he started going online and talking shit. Don't make snuff films. So anyhoo, RAPT was a fun short to watch. Everyone there seemed to be having a good time. If you enjoy the films of Bill Zebub, then you should dig RAPT. The location where it was shot looked really nice. There really isn't any gore, but I don't think it really needed it. The aftermath is just good enough. This is a nice addition to the Slasher genre. I can definitely see this being a full feature. But RAPT was able to tell it's story in that half hour. A nice writing debut by Hackett, and I'm looking forward to see what he pens up next.
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