Daddy — Daddy(DVD)

From the early 2000s, Daddy is a ghoulish and bleak example of low-budget horror filmmaking, which features a grimly original take on the whole zombie thing. Basically, this small rural town set film finds a dead man rising from his grave each night to rape a series of women. The outcome is not as sexually explicit as it could have been, but boy it’s full of very shudder and wince-inducing moments- as well as a decidedly woozily bleak atmosphere, that never lets up . Here from SRS Cinema is a region free DVD release of the film, taking in commentary tracks & a making of.

Daddy (aka Rigor Mortis) was made in the year 2003 filmed in rural upstate New York. It was directed & written by Michael DiPaolo, who over a fifteen-year period filmed over 2000 confessions of murders for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. We relatively recently reviewed one of his other films Transgression (also on SRS )- which was a sleazy and wonkily arty serial killer pic. In total since 1986 DiPaolo has helmed twelve feature-length films- these take in the likes of 1987’s Where No Sun Shines, whose tag line was ‘the whores, hustlers & homeless up close and personal’, and more recently 2011’s I Don’t Wanna Feel Nothing No More, which chronicled three generations of incest. Transgression was interesting if rather flawed film, but Daddy is much more impactful if terminally nihilistic affair- and I’d say I’ve not been so unsettled in some time.

The film kicks off in a very grimly disorientating manner- as we have a blend of loud mud squelching sounds and a gloomily and wonky droning string soundtrack, with a murky night-time POV around a graveyard & up to a house. This is rapidly intercut with grainy footage of a woman having rather pained sex. Fairly soon the large shambling figure breaks into the house of a woman- hiding at first then pouncing, and we get the first of the very unsettling attacks- with mud & worms falling from the man as he rapes the woman. 
First forward a few hours and we meet the films lead town sheriff Sylvia Carlsen (Selia Hansen), and her dept Richie Dagg(Marc St. Camile)- there at the house of the attack, but can’t seem to get anything out of the victim. The next day rolls on and we meet ageing and getting slightly too close police doctor Vance (David Shepard)- who informs the sheriff that there was no semen in the victim, just earth and worms.
As the film unfolds, with its use of more droning & unwell soundtracking, more attacks happen on women- and it seems they are all connected to the sheriff. She is decidedly getting more unhinged and unbalanced- shouting colleges down, sleeping with men from town- then getting them out of her bed by gun, and considering blowing her brains or sexual bits out.
 
The film runs at the one hour and twenty-two-minute mark- and largely keeps its focus and flow. As already mentioned, the attacks are done in a very unsettling and icky manner- as we get a blend of squelching grave soil and worms, dusty grave clothes, and bits falling off the attacker. The rest of the film moves between often grim and tense character interactions, very creepy out with a gas lantern night-time footage which features moments of nervy jarring jumps, and a general feeling of sleazed hopelessness. 
The soundtrack is most effective & key to enhancing the whole grim and icky feel of the film- it moves between wonky and wavering single string soundtracking, grey and crude drone matter, and towards the end more piano/ keyboard moments. The acting, for a low budget horror film, is ok, and the effects/ gore are largely kept low-key. Overall, I was most grimly impressed, and at points downright unsettled by Daddy.
 
 
Moving onto this DVD release. And there is not really much point discussing the print itself, as this of course is low-budget horror, and the film is ragged & lo-fi, with a grating-to-droning soundtrack. On the extras front, we get two commentary tracks- the first is a straight director’s track from Mr DiPaolo. He starts off discussing how the squelching/ worm sound in the opening shots, and how it took fifteen takes to get the zombie POV right. He talks about shooting locations, and how he found them. He discusses the worms used, and how he cut the footage of the attacks. He moves on to talk about how actors came to the project/ where selected, comments on-camera use and much more. All in all, a good enough director’s track, where we find out some worthy facts and info.  
The second track is with the director again- and this is labelled 'experimental'- so basically what we get is layered and reverbed elements of the first track, which I guess is ok. Otherwise, we have a ten-minute making-of, trailer and image gallery.
 
It really goes without saying Daddy won’t be for everyone, but if can appreciate grimly ghoulish & unsettling horror- that almost smells of decay, and sleazy unease…then this will most certainly be something you’ll just have to pick up. And it’s certainly made me keen to check out more of Mr DiPaolo’s work!