Chaos — Chaos(Blu Ray)
Chaos appeared in 2005- it was the second of three films directed by David DeFalco- who before this helmed horror/ comedy The Backlot Murders, and after it action crime thriller Wrong Side Of Town. Though he's seemingly more know as a producer as he has fourteen credits to his name. Chaos is competently enough shot for a low budget film from the 2000s, with the cast going from just about passable & fairly good- but really with this type of film your can’t expect anything too mindblowing. I guess before we go further I should mention one of the films key influences- and a film that Chaos often takes its story beats from 1972’s Last House On The Left.
The film's title comes from the films lead criminal Chaos( Kevin Gage)- a powerful bearded skinhead, he’s joined by his plump & greasy son Swan( Sage Stallone), gone-to-seed punk girl, and gangly & long-haired sleazeoid Frankie(Stephen Wozniak). The films ‘victims’ are late teen girls- one African American, one white- who are heading out to a forest rave- where they try & buy drugs from Swan- who leads them back to rest of the gang. Added into the mix we get the African American girls mixed parents- who like in Last House.. in time come face-to-face with the gang.
The attack/ rape of each victim is suitable nasty & unpleasantly creative- though by ’70s standards rather brief. The film's plot really follows pretty much the plot of Last House On The Left, with just a few twists here & there. Gage works well as the powerful sexual sadist( though he's no David Hess), and the rest of the gang are largely effective. The two victims start off a little flat/ bland, but when we get to the attacks- they do a good enough/ believable job. The version we have here roles in at a fairly tight seventy six-minute mark- and I’d say if you’re a fan of the rape-revenge genre it’s worth seeing- just don’t expect too much, and It’s most certainly a fair way from being the most brutal film of all time- which it boasts.
Moving onto this recent Blu Ray- and we get an HD print from the original 35mm- this looks ok, though still a little murky in the films darker scenes. On the extras side, we get a commentary from the film's director & one the films producer's Steven Jay Bernheim- this is fairly standard director/ producer track- and it’s interesting enough. We get to find out the two victims were first-time actors, what daddy Stallone thought of Chaos, and that the attacks where based on those done by serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins. Next, we get two interview- the first is with the films another producer Marc Sheffler – who played the strung-out Junior Stillo in The Last House on The Left- this runs around twenty minutes, and is the best extra here. He talks about how he got involved with the film, going onto discuss how David Hess was going to the play the Sheriff film at one point, before moving onto talk about the cast & crew- he also does a nice summing up of his career thus far, and that he now does stand-up. We get a fourteen-minute interview with Stephen Wozniak who played gang member Frankie- this runs around fourteen minutes.
If you look on-line, the reviews for Chaos are decidedly mixed leaning more towards the negative- so it was certainly better than some say. Bottom line if you dig the rape-revenge genre, I’d say you’ll probably want to check this out- with the interview with Sheffler and the interesting enough commentary making it worth picking up this Blu Ray.