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Torn Hearts Review: FrightFest 2022

admin — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 01:50:49 +0000

“We’re like sisters,” says Leigh Blackhouse (Alexxis Lemire) about herself and her best friend/bandmate Jordan Wilder (Abby Quinn). Their country band Torn Hearts is starting to gain traction in Nashville’s bar circuit, but not nearly fast enough to match their aspirations.

Jordan has the talent, Leigh has the star quality, and in a town where, as their manager – and Leigh’s much older boyfriend – Richie Rowley Jones (Joshua Leonard) puts it, “nothing’s free”, both women understand that to exploit others on their path to success and fame, they also need to be willing to be exploited themselves. “You can’t just cut the line,” the much more successful Caleb Crawford (Shiloh Fernandez) tells Jordan, “Just gotta be patient” – even if Jordan has let Caleb sleep with her as part of a ploy to get Torn Hearts touring with him. The plan fails, but Jordan does manage to secure from Caleb the home address of Jordan and Leigh’s idol, Harper Dutch (Katey Segal), whose meteoric success in the Nineties, performing with her actual sister Hope (Alon McKlveen) as the Dutchess Sisters, had broken all kinds of ground for female country artists, before the duo’s popularity faded, Hope died (metaphor alert!) and Harper became a recluse.

Leigh and Jordan are genuine fangirls of the Dutchess Sisters, but they are also motivated by cold opportunism, hoping to persuade Harper to emerge from retirement and record some tracks with them, which would of course be their short cut to celebrity while giving her a comeback. Yet once they have entered Harper’s domain way beyond the city limits, they are also getting themselves into a fraught psychodrama that will amplify all the tensions that exist between them. The fame game can be cruel and cutthroat, and as these two young women negotiate their differences from and similarities to the singing sisters of a previous generation, a tragic history of jealousy, ambition and madness seems set to repeat itself – although surely someone stands to gain from exploiting this tawdry story.

Like her previous 12 Hour Shift (2020), director Brea Grant’s Torn Hearts focuses on women struggling to survive in a highly pressured environment where different drives and desires are in constant conflict, and where predatory men are always circling to take advantage. Overgrown and neglected, the outside grounds of Harper’s remote property instantly evoke Albert and David Maysles’ Grey Gardens (1975), while within is a pink-tinged museum/mausoleum festooned with memories of both Harper’s bygone music career and her late sister. Once inside this hermetic world, it is hard to leave, as menacing, manipulative, unhinged Harper plays – and preys – on Leigh and Jordan’s creative differences to manœuvre them towards enacting her plan to “even things out” and atone for her “unresolved issues” with Hope.

These are the shadowy realms of ‘hagsploitation’, as Rachel Koller Croft’s screenplay draws a little bit on Billy Wilder’s (duly namechecked) Sunset Blvd. (1950), and a little bit on Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), all the while delivering the kind of shrill melodrama often found in the lyrics of country song. These women setting out to work together may end up betraying each other, but what pushes them to this extreme (and to cold-blooded murder) are the forces of patriarchy itself (here encapsulated by the music industry) which first use women for their youthful appearance and sex appeal, and for half-hearted, tokenistic window dressing of mostly male playing bills, and then just as quickly discard them at what Harper terms “the wrong side of 35”. In such an openly exploitative environment, where the clock is always ticking, women are readily divided from one another and sisterhood made toxic (“Pick your poison,” as Harper tells her guests).

This is a grim picture of systemic, institutional, often internalised sexism that lets women shine only briefly if at all, and then holds them back and keeps them down, with only each other to fight and punish for it. Yet if you are seeking a cheerier alternative, look no further than Torn Hearts itself – a successful collaboration between a female writer, director and actresses, with a very strong focus on women’s experience (and with the men in the cast and crew all working to realise their female colleagues’ vision). Evidently, to create great feminist art, there is another way and hearts need not be torn.

Torn Hearts had its international première at FrightFest 2022.

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12 Hour Shift: An interview with David Arquette

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:03:56 +0000

Set in 1999 in a small hospital in Arkansas 12 Hour Shift follows junkie nurse Mandy (Angela Bettis) who is making extra money selling organs of dying patients whose demise she speeds along. But, when her cousin Regina (Chloe Farnworth) misplaces a kidney – which local gangster Nick (Mick Foley) was going to buy – Mandy finds herself having to acquire a fresh one during a 12-hour shift. Chaos descends when Regina insists on helping in lethal ways and a wounded murderer (Arquette) breaks loose.

We spoke to actor David Arquette about filming the comedy horror in an abandoned hospital and what it’s been like working as an actor for 30 years…

How did you get involved with 12 Hour Shift?

My wife, Christina Arquette, and I work with HCT Media Lot. They’re incredible filmmakers and they found the script from Brea Grant – she’s got such a great voice as a director and as a writer. She wanted to do this sort of thriller about those folklores about people stealing organs. You know… usually, it’s in Las Vegas or something and you wake up in a bathtub full of ice and your liver’s missing!

So they did this story of this underground world where nurses are stealing people’s organs and it spirals out of control. Angela is an incredible actress who’s the lead and she has this character who’s an addict whose world is spinning out of control and she’s just going with it. We wanted to do this, crazy little movie based in the Nineties!

Where did you film 12 Hour Shift?

We filmed it in Arkansas. Jordan and Matt, the two of the producers at HCT Media, and Tara Perry have a studio down there. We took over this abandoned hospital. My wife is so funny she came with Lysol, wipes and gloves and masks… and this is before any pandemic, so she was prepared!

It was a strange world where we were living in this hospital for a few weeks… actually on one of the bottom floors there were some people. [My co-star] Mick Foley (who’s an incredible wrestler and an incredible actor in this film) went down and we visited with some of the guys who had just gone through some bad accidents. He gave one [guy] the shirt off his back, which was his wrestling shirt – so that was nice of him!

12 Hour Shift was filmed in an (almost) empty hospital.

12 Hour Shift has a great mix of horror and comedy…

It’s really unique storytelling and this world [Brea Grant] has created is kind of trippy. There’s this really wild vibe to it. Chloe [Farnworth] is a really incredible actress and [her and Angela] together just start going down this rabbit hole of trouble… When I was younger there was a really obscure film called Eating Raw Wool, that was this really dark comedy – I like the balance!

What is it about horror and comedy that work so well together?

It’s sort of my life in a nutshell! I live my life from bizarre encounters to ridiculous embarrassments [haha]. I don’t know, life’s complicated, life’s beautifully tragic, beautifully romantic, beautifully exciting and suspenseful… When you find a movie that captures some of those elements, it’s really when the magic starts happening.

How do you normally choose a project to work on?

It’s strange, Hollywood has this way – if you’re in it long enough (and I’ve been acting for 30 years), you kind of go through these roller coaster rides. Sometimes it dries up and then you’re just looking to work and stay active, and at other times you can be a little more selective about what you do.

Ultimately, whether it’s film, TV or plays, you really want to connect to the audience. I’ve always done different stuff, I’ll do a horror film or a little Indie comedy or then some kids movie, so I never take all that too seriously and I kind of bounce around.

[Sometimes] you’re trying to set up a project for years and who knows if they’ll ever become realities or not! Or [sometimes there are] projects where you really love the script and you have loved it so long you’re now too old to even play the main character, so you’re playing like their father or something! It’s the cycle of life. It’s those moments like that where you just sit back [and think] ‘oh, gosh, look at this world!’.

You play a tank top-wearing convicted murderer in 12 Hour Shift. What was that like to play?

I was going across the country wrestling all over the place and I was in relatively good shape at the time, so I was like ‘okay, let’s utilise it, put a tank top on!’ I wanted to get the badass drifter dangerous bad boy cliches in there. I’m all about male exploitation [haha]. With wrestling, it’s like a giant male beauty pageant… but with violence! I’ve embraced that side of me and I like to work out!

Arquette figured why not wear the tank top seeing as he was in good shape after wrestling…

You also have a producing credit on 12 Hour Shift…

It’s really Matt Glass, Jordan Wayne Long, Tara Perry, and my wife Christina, that produced it and were really hands-on. It was really amazing to see all of them do their magic. Matt Glass does incredible music in the film too!

What is it about horror films that appeal to audiences?

I think the audiences, in general, are getting so smart and filmmakers are understanding that, and so are storytellers who are including these very complex worlds. I think that’s why television is getting so exciting for different genres in general.

I love genre films. I love going to the conventions and meeting the fans. I love when you do something that resonates and sticks with them for years. Or characters that they feel like they really love. It really is an honour to be able to act and be a part of this business and be able to entertain people and hopefully get their minds off some of this madness for an hour and a half!

You’ve been in big horror franchises like Scream, and smaller, independent films like 12 Hour Shift – what’s your experiences been like between the two?

I like independent filmmaking and the kind of stories that they tell within there. They’re also typically, very character-based, and a lot of people are there working just for the love of the art. But then when you have more of a budget and people, and the luxury of time… that’s really wonderful too.

It really starts to become about working with really wonderful directors, writers, producers and actors, and just being able to meet these different people. My favorite part about acting in general is that you live all these different lives. You come to embody these characters and you’re trying to tap into what’s real about them and give them backstories, which sometimes connect with yours in a way. Just going through all that, you start realising stuff about yourself and why you do certain things and how can you improve yourself or not take things personally or blow up or whatever. It’s a long-winded way of saying that I love acting. I’m really happy to be able to do it and I really thank the fans for watching!

What do you have coming up next?

I have some fun movies coming out! Spree (that will be out in the UK soon) and Doctor Bird’s Advice For Sad Poets are both really fun independent films that I did last year.

I have a Zoom later with a director that’s got an incredible script and it’s another beautiful indie film, so hopefully we hit it off! Hopefully it will be the [next] thing, but it’s not real for me yet.

That’s the crazy thing about acting. It’s like you’re constantly almost fishing! It’s like ‘okay, let’s see, we got over here?! How’s that fishing hole over there?!’ [haha]

FrightFest Presents and Signature Entertainment present 12 Hour Shift on Digital Platforms on 25 January. Read our FrightFest review here.

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12 Hour Shift: Frightfest 2020 review

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 08:03:17 +0000

Set in a Nineties Arkansas hospital, 12 Hour Shift focuses on Mandy, a foul-mouthed, drug-abusing nurse. In need of a little extra cash (as most nurses unfortunately are), Mandy also has a side job – prepping patients to have their organs ‘donated’ to the black market by subtly murdering them.

Things are going pretty well for Mandy – despite the long hours at the hospital, there are a couple of patients who she begrudgingly likes or who are easy targets for theft/murder. That is until her cousin (by marriage, as we’re told many many times), Regina turns up, explaining that she is working as a courier for the black market organ business and has messed up her first assignment. That means she needs Mandy’s help to find a replacement kidney… or else Regina will be losing hers.

12 Hour Shift is hard to pin down, it is both a hilariously macabre farce and an intense heist movie. One thing that is clear is that this is for genre fans. Bursting with archetypal hyper-real, beautifully over-saturated characters and dripping with gloriously bloody murder, the movie features an outstanding central performance from Angela Bettis as Mandy who shoulders the entire tone of the of movies with every exasperated shrug she takes.

Brea Grant’s direction oozes style; the washed-out look of the drab hospital is enough to depress anyone and serves as an explosive counterpoint to the claret covered cadavers that Mandy and Regina leave in their wake.

12 Hour Shift is a deliciously dark, comic horror, elevated by its perfectly crafted aesthetic and killer performances to deliver a knowingly fun B-Movie genre delight.

FrightFest and Signature Entertainment present 12 Hour Shift in 2021.

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