The Violent Kind, helmed by The Butcher Brothers, is a film that I expect will leave many horror fans very divided. My major complaint with the film has absolutely nothing to do with the film itself, but the asinine marketing behind it. Stepping in the ” way back machine” I remember the horrible campaign that essentially capsized Clive Barker’s Nightbreed. Nightbreed, a victim of hapless studio heads that often cut their noses off to spite their greedy little faces, was marketed as an out-and-out slasher film… Which it was SOOO not. The film, which was one of Barker’s most ambitious projects, was a tried and true monster film and passed from theaters with nary a whimper, due to it’s commercial misrepresentation. Enter The Violent Kind, a tight well crafted little film that crosses enough genres that to call it ambitious would be a bit of an understatement. The Violent Kind, from it’s trailers and cover art, is meant to bring in audiences from Sons of Anarchy, I Spit on Your Grave, and even Texas Chainsaw massacre (thanks to it’s cover credits). The film actually doesn’t land near any of these and that’s a good thing, because when it finds it’s voice, we get a very original premise that keeps you waiting for an unveiling that is both unexpected and ambiguous in all the right areas. The Violent Kind opens with our three major antagonists whooping some ass with little to no conscience. Ringleader “Q” played by Bret Roberts is your quintessential badass, channeling his inner Brolin and channeling it well, but our hero (and I say that very hesitantly) Cody, played by Cory Knauf, is a little more understated, a man that has wronged, but has a little more self awareness about it. We have our eye candy too, and they play their parts as straightforward as our main trio and do so adequately. After our introduction to the boys, we learn of a birthday party for Cody’s mother at the resident biker gang’s clubhouse and our story begins. much reveling and partying is had ( more boobies too, hallelujah!!!!) and as our motley Crüe of tattooed riders all begin to head out, our core group lingers, to soon find out that a dark malevolence lies in wait for them. At this point we get treated to sadism, masochism, and even enough cannibalism that we think this is another paint by numbers slasher film… Well… did we actually hear that blood covered flesh eater utter a little demonic growl (might have been distracted by almost supernaturally firm ass on actress in question)? Ummm… Yeah I think we did…. enter a little originality that separates Kind from many of it’s peers. Well shot, well acted, and well crafted all around, The Violent Kind suffers a little from it’s unlikeable core characters and an antagonist that might prove a little too ambivalent for some. If you’re scratching your head at the end well, that’s not such a bad thing in a genre often polluted with remakes and DTV schlockers is it?
