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Live Feed (Unrated)
Directed By Ryan Nicholson
Released: 2006
Starring: Rob Scattergood, Taayla Markell, Kevan Ohtsji, and Lee Tichon
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Released By MTI Home Video
Emily (Taayla Markell) and her four friends head to Chinatown for a night
out. After angering some local gangsters, the group is rescued by Miles (Kevan
Ohtsji), a local who is looking for his missing brother. Things go from
bad to worse when Emily and company decide to visit a local porno theater.
Little do they know that the theater is owned by the same gangster (played
by Stephen Chang) they narrowly escaped earlier and that he intends to use
them as the entertainment for the evening. Each room in the theater is
equipped with video surveillance to capture all of the action as the five
friends are hunted for sport by individuals with an insatiable bloodlust.
Live Feed
is a trashy and disturbing little Canadian number from writer/director
Ryan Nicholson who has been a special effect makeup artist on projects
from “The X-Files” TV series to Blade:
Trinity. The film looks quite good on
digital video although some uninspired moments of photography and
occasionally bland sets cheapen some scenes. However, the lighting is dead
on throughout the film with multicolored lights giving everything a seedy
sheen. The plot is quite simple and depends on coincidence quite a bit but
it still gets the job done. Live Feed
tries to shock the audience with strippers, pornography, torture,
cannibalism, and a melon used as a silencer (?). Well, it worked on me. I
certainly won’t be watching this one with the in-laws anytime soon.
The cast of Live Feed
fairs pretty well but there are no standout performances in the film. I’m
not going to gripe too much on the acting because these folks get down and
dirty with characters that are little more than cannon fodder for the bad
guys. The male characters are pretty sleazy what with Mike (Lee Tichon)
being a roid-raging jock loser and Darren (Rob Scattergood) being a
two-timing sniveling wuss. Nice job taking your girlfriend to a porno
theater, Darren. Very romantic. These jokers just don’t measure up to our
hero, the goody two shoes Miles (played by Kevan Ohtsji) who is handy with
a pistol and a sword. The ladies of Live
Feed are certainly easy on the eyes.
Emily (Taayla Markell), Linda (Caroline Chojnacki), and Sarah (Ashley
Schappert) all get my vote for "Hottest Chicks In A Snuff Film" for 2006.
Great, now I’m scared of Vancouver! Watching
Live Feed is like
accidentally intercepting television feed from some faux Chinese
penis-eating planet. The influence of Quentin Tarantino is easy to spot
here as well as an army of exploitation films. Comparisons to
Hostel will be
inevitable due to the timing of this film's release and unfortunate
because director Nicholson and company have produced their own sick little
beast which goes pretty damn far to (dis)please its audience.
Live Feed also goes
for the extra gross-outs delivered completely deadpan like some of the
nastier Category III Hong Kong films. Clearly the product of a confident
(and sadistic) group of filmmakers, this film is a lot of evil fun and
features some downright disturbing images. Let the carnage begin.
DVD Stuff:
The Live Feed DVD features the film in widescreen
with several extras. Things start off with a hilariously cheesy promo for
the Richmond Night Market where part of the movie is filmed. There are
also several deleted and alternate scenes. And thank God, the fake porno,
“Womb Service”, from the film is included on the disc. Awesome.
The best of the extras an hour and fifteen minute documentary on the
making of Live Feed called “Behind The Blood”. This feature has interviews
with cast and crew as well as a behind the scenes look at the gore
effects, ballistics, stunt work, and some funny antics of the cast. It is
here that director Nicholson is very clear about his filmmaking aesthetic:
“We’re not making a fucking Academy Award winning movie. We’re making a
fucking balls out gorefest.”
Links:
For more information, check out
MTI Home Video
or the
Live Feed site.
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