Body Count
Written/Directed by J.C. McKearnin
Starring Rai Guatno and Andy Van Antwerp
Available on YouTube here

by Nikk Nelson, Staff Writer, Cinematic Maniac

For the past several years, I’ve competed in short film competitions based in Wichita with hopes on screening at the Tallgrass Film Festival. After six years, our team finally won the audience award and will finally screen this year. I can’t overstate how exhausting it is to make a short film. So, when I imagine making a feature, my knees immediately hurt. Still, what this has cultivated in me is a love of short films and a genuine desire to support anyone making them in any way I can.

After several competitions, covering a couple of festivals for MovieJawn, and attending events like the first Joe Bob Jamboree at the Mahoning Drive-In, I’ve gotten to see a lot of short films. If I have one overarching criticism of just about every young filmmaker I’ve seen, it’s please, for the love of John Carpenter, stop trying to be Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, The Coen Brothers, or Nicolas Winding Refn. I see these influences in Body Count (and maybe they’re not really there) but that’s where I would center the bulk of my criticism. There’s way too much profanity-laced dialogue—don’t get me wrong, I love profanity-laced dialogue, but when you cut from your two main characters standing up and talking to them sitting down and talking, it gets stale, fast.

Andy Van Antwerp as Paul conjured Corey Haim in Lucas/Jon Cryer in Pretty in Pink vibes for me, opposite the too-cool-for-school serial killer Delilah, played by Rai Guatno. Amateur acting comes with the territory in projects like this, Body Count is no exception, but I don’t think the script did them any favors. There are great moments, to be sure. My favorite line by far when Paul and Delilah are arguing:

“So, you just never want me to speak?”

“If that’s what you’re hearing, then shut the fuck up!”

For me, serial killers are played out. Don’t worry, I was about 7,500 words deep in a novella with a serial killer as a protagonist when I made this decision for myself too—I wanted to kick my own ass. Delilah is “cheating” on Paul by bringing other men back to her apartment to kill them. Paul seems to have a bit of a ‘Bill Murray in Little Shop of Horrors’ wish-kink to get murdered by his girlfriend, Delilah, who can’t do it, because she loves him. This story is about ten years too late for me after what feels like a post-Dexter deluge of every show serial killer. J.C. mentioned in their request they were interested in developing this short into a feature. I would advise against it. Not because there’s not obvious talent here, there absolutely is, I just don’t think the story has enough legs. The only way I see it working is to play it as a straight-up sitcom—laugh tracks and all. That’s the only arena of subversion left for this brand of source material, in my opinion. Something like Santa Clarita Diet meets John Waters’ Serial Mom (1994).

The music in Body Count stands out—I loved all the songs. The film is composed, shot, and executed adeptly. Costumes and makeup effects are on par with the acting—things like Delilah’s boots work, The Other Man’s injuries, not so much. The foundations are all there with J.C.—more practice will bring more effectiveness and I hope they stick with it. My best advice comes from Sean S. Cunningham who said, when asked about the world of imitators that followed him after Friday the 13th, “I think they ended up imitating my mistakes more than the things I got right.” I hope J.C. goes on to find more confidence in their own style and works to translate whatever voice that ends up being on to the screen.