Kodie 2010 - REVIEW

Kodie was the final film shown on opening night at the 2nd annual DOA Blood Bath Film Festival so there was a lot of build up. As we were walking around we overheard most of the crowd saying this was the film they were anticipating the most. Of course with all the buzz, we began to get more and more jazzed about it. It's a hard thing being a reviewer sometimes. Especially when it comes to Indie films because you know that these people are probably the hardest working filmmakers out there. They literally dump their heart and soul into each and every project.

David (Jayson Champion) a paranormal investigator, has come to a point in his life where everything he cares about is being ripped away in domestic turmoil. He soon finds himself and his team caught in a world of an enraged murderous little girl named Kodie (Jennifer Stone), in the form of a Teddy bear. Set forth by a witches curse, she rips, eats, dismembers and lays waste to the abusive hearts of the town, leaving them in a pool of red chaos and mangled corpses. Now they must free themselves from the torment of Kodie's ruthless brutal Hell. (Written by Abel Berry)

And this is where it gets hard, on one hand I know that each one of these films were made with little to no funding. On the other hand, I also feel that it doesn't always take an ass load of money to make a great film. I don't want to condemn this film or the filmmaker. I'm not here to make anyone feel like shit. But I'm also not going to adjust my opinion based on the fact that I had a conversation with someone in it. It wouldn't be fair to them or to my readers (yes, I have readers :p).

I would've liked to have seen some further exploration on David's struggle to keep his life from falling apart. That would've connected me more to his character. Instead what we got was a shot of him drowning his sorrows in a bottle while holding a picture of his kid. Then a brief but heated phone conversation with his ex. Digging into that a little deeper would've made his character seem more real.

Another thing that bothered me is that I wasn't sure if they were really going for a comedic feel or not. It was hard to distinguish between what was intentionally funny and what wasn't. Any funny line or scene that came along seemed forced and awkward. For example when David's character was having a beer with Jasper (Abel Berry) there was a good 30 seconds where they just uncomfortably stared at each other. I guess it's entirely possible that it was done on purpose but I felt uneasy just watching it.

In a nut shell, I didn't think the film was great but I do think that Abel Berry is a very talented filmmaker and given the right tools, could really go places. I applaud anyone who has the skill and ambition to bring their vision to life. I wish him luck and look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.