Corpse — Corpse( Blu Ray)
Corpse is a 2019 horror movie written, directed, produced, edited and scored by Christopher Williams (Hell is Inside) and starring Joe Blackstock (no other movie credits), Walt Braley (Snapped), Reise Kitts (no other credits) and Mingo Perry (Death of the Final Girl and Neon Sinner).
The film opens with a man in a balaclava pointing a gun at another man (the victim is played by director Williams). The pair have an exchange about how the victim seems to be a nice guy, but the killer is going to shoot him anyway. The victim tries to run away and is shot in the back, at which point the killer makes a phone call to report that the job is done.
In the next scene, we are introduced to Walt (Braley, and yes, they are using the actors’ real names). Walt’s friend Joe (Blackstock) arrives to visit. Walt has been through a tough break-up and has been self-medicating with alcohol to get himself through. We are then introduced to Mingo (Perry), who seems a little nervous about seeing his friends again after a long time, he bumps into Doug (Kitts) outside, and the pair take a couple of minutes to reconnect before heading inside. The four friends have an awkward reunion, not helped by Walt trying to avoid talking about his failed relationship. They wake the next day to find a corpse on the floor of Walt’s living room. The body is unfamiliar to all four friends, and they can’t think of anyone who would want to do this to them. They decide they need to figure out if there could be a reason for this to have happened to them, and they begin to sift through each other’s stories in search of the answer before one of them emulates the corpse and turns up dead.
The film is shot wholly in black and white and features one location, Walt’s home. It is incredibly cheaply made; however, the cast are better than their lack of experience suggests, and the story itself is well thought out and plotted. This is not some cheap Tim Ritter film that works because of the overtly comedic elements. This is a claustrophobic thriller about four friends who reconnect through their difficult circumstances and have to analyse their lives and relationships in order to understand what is happening to them. All while a dead body lies on the living room floor.
The new Blu-ray from SRS features a good clean print of the movie. There are two audio commentaries, one with director, Williams and another with the cast, as well as something called After Party in which the cast and crew talk about the movie. On top of that, there is a selection of trailers for other SRS releases.
Overall, Corpse is a fun movie that belies its budget with a solid script and decent performances from a cast of amateurs. It’s a darkly comic thriller that doesn’t rely on comedy and campiness to carry the film, and it is far better than it has a right to be. This is a really impressive debut from Christopher Williams, and I look forward to tracking down his 2025 film, Hell is Inside.