Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2017
Images from the Internet
The Short Films of Dakota Bailey 2014-2015
Written, produced, directed and edited
by Dakota Bailey
R.A.
Productions
About 30
minutes, 2017
If you are familiar with any of the trilogies of
filmmaker Dakota Bailey’s work, you know his subgenre of super gritty and
grainy life of the denizens of the lowest of low, consisting of nothing but serial
killers, drug sellers and addicts, prostitutes and generally people with whom you
would not want to be on the same street as, never mind the same room.
Like most auteurs, Bailey started small with short
films as he developed his style that remains pretty unique, as there is no one
I can think of who presents characters and situations so socially corrupt with
a fly on the wall creepy feeling, and yet makes them feel alive and fearsome.
These three shorts have now been released in a collection as a companion to his
features.
As the director explains: “While these short films
are not masterpieces, they are important because this is where our filmmaking
style originated, and these shorts provided us with a template to build off of.
Without these shorts, films like The Acid
Sorcerer [2017, reviewed HERE], American
Scumbags [2016, reviewed HERE] or My
Master Satan: 3 Tales of Drug Fueled Violence [2016, reviewed HERE] may not
have existed."
As most of his features are three intertwining
tales, it only makes sense that this release is comprised of three of his
shorts. The consistency of his characters, even if he considers some of his films
in the horror genre and others not, makes this for an enjoyable WTF viewing (in
a good way). I’ve enjoyed all of the Bailey films I have watched, even though
they could practically all run together and it would still work. I have watched
the growth from his first film right to his latest. He also shows that if
someone wants to just pick up a camera and start filming, it can be done, much
in the way so many people heard the gritty guitar of Johnny Thunders and wanted
to start a band.
Scumbags:
A Day in the Life of a Drug Dealer
8:08
minutes, 2014
Despite it being Bailey’s first film, so many of
the footprints that would appear in his features are already there, such as the
insertion of character description and story bit title cards, and the travelog
footage of drug dealer Marshall (Matt Marshall) driving around giving way too
much information about his crimes away on a cell phone (hey, Marshall, that’s illegal!) which also works for passing
along exposition to the viewer. There is
an inconsistent sound quality as most of it is recorded straight onto the
camera as it is shot al(though the reliability of it will improve with time and
future films). In this story, Marshall wants to do away with ex-high school friend
and partner, and now rival dealer, the heroin addicted Johnny (Bailey, already
sporting his trademark knee-length short pants). The film, which is in mostly black
and white, is short, and yet covers some nice ground as bullets fly and vapes
are vaped. The pace is a bit meandering at times, yet there is still quite a
bit of action in this short amount of footage. It’s a bit on the rough side, as
it is most first films, but it’s also easy to see the kernel of what is to
come. I am certainly enjoying watching the progression of a style that Bailey
has since made great use of over the past couple of years.
Satan’s
Coming for You
19:37
minutes, 2015
The longest film on this set, it appears to be a
collection of outtakes and additional footage from one of Bailey’s other films,
My Master Satan. Then again, in a
chicken and egg paradigm, perhaps this was filmed first, and it was used to
make up one of the three stories from Master.
Again, in black and white with some color, especially during an acid trip,
this is a loose yet somewhat coherent story about the revenge for Bubba (again Matt
Marshall) and Alister (Bailey) against the person who was having the affair
with Bubba’s since-deceased wife. With body exhuming from a cemetery and a bit
of blowtorch behavior, Bubba and Alister go on said acid trip and meet up with
Satan. From there on in it’s the two friends working through the kinks of
getting away with literal murder.
I Spread
Hate Like Herpes
2:12
minutes, 2015
This is a short-yet-not-sweet uncompleted fictionalized
documentary starring “BK” (Brian Knapp). In its two scenes, BK discusses his
own psychopathic behavior (while driving of coruse, since this is a Dakota Bailey film, and it’s a
given someone will do that). There is no direction, no point, just a camera
pointed at BK as he riffs. What I’m not sure of and wonder about is whether
this is going to be part of a whole film on this character, if the footage is going
to be included into a future Bailey feature, or was this just some goofing
around that was too good not to do something
with it. Too short to be boring and just long enough for head scratching,
it makes a nice coda to the rest of the shorts.
Trailer for one short is HERE.
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