Within Madness

IMDb

• Based off of true events, Within Madness follows the video diary of Donovan Summers, a personal trainer who tells his story through his videos. On the way Donovan starts to become obsessed with a customer at his gym which leads him down a dark road of obsession taking him to lengths of unimaginable self destruction. Within Madness is a dark tale of a man lost in his own desires and the consequences of what happens when all hope is gone.
  - Written by J. M. Stelly
• Within Madness is the brain child of writer director J M Stelly. Filmed over the past several years, Within Madness mixes the Found Footage genre with the abstract nature of an Art House Film. By using state of the art equipment and software, Stelly has been able to achieve the look of 16mm as opposed to the typical High Definition footage you find in today's market place. The movie is a truly unique look at self destruction from the point of view of a sociopath.

BrutalAsHell

By Quin

Within Madness is not a particularly enjoyable film. For me, its flaws outweigh its strong points, but I know that some of you out there will really love this. So, stick with me for a bit and I’ll walk you through it. But first, you might want to check out the three minute trailer embedded below. It’s filled with some footage that wasn’t even in the film and it gives you a good idea of the tone and look of the film.

What we have here is another film that claims to be based on true events. The press info indicates that it was inspired by Ricardo Lopez. He’s the guy that stalked Björk in the 90s and made videos about it. Really creepy stuff where his face is painted red. Google it and tell me it’s not George Lucas’ inspiration for Darth Maul. Along with the “Based on true events” disclaimer, Within Madness also looks like it was probably made on a tiny budget. This isn’t a knock, but for those of you who like their horror lo-fi (as do I, usually) – it doesn’t get much more lo-fi than this.

The film runs for a little under 75 minutes. It consists mainly of grainy black and white video footage of a young man named Donovan Summers recording entries for his video diary. He starts off by talking about himself. He mostly goes into details about his job as a personal trainer at a fitness center and he makes it a point to mention that he makes $65,000 a year. Donovan’s reason for making videos is that he wants to be able to connect better with other people. In the first couple of entries, he is holding a small white dog while he talks about himself. After a few of these, he mentions a client he has at his gym named Brandy. It doesn’t take long to figure out that Donovan is a sociopath and his fixation on Brandy gets pretty dark and weird. This all leads up to an ending that is both disturbing and genuinely surprising.

J.M. Stelly has made a few short films, but this is his first feature. His direction leads a little to be desired and the choice to use the black and white, grainy format makes the whole thing feel gimmicky. It even starts with an old projector sound. This only lasts a few minutes, but for the rest of the film we get a surreal blend of music and sound effects that are more distracting than effective. The placement of stock footage is a bit awkward too. It’s mostly scenes from old bondage films and clips from what looks an awful lot like Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. That film is from 1922, so it’s most likely public domain. But I’m not sure it was all that necessary to borrow from it.

Stelly does make a few impressive decisions with his direction. While Donovan is speaking to the camera, there are some great compositions. My favorite is a shot where he’s sitting in front of a painting and it’s above him. Then it cuts to a profile in front of a window with mini-blinds. It looks fantastic. The other aspect of the film where Stelly shines is with his writing. The script has some nice details and it takes its time moving Donovan toward full-blown insanity. At one point it occurred to me that this script might make a wonderful stage play. I would absolutely go see that in a heartbeat.

Finally, Matt Story as Donovan Summers is really good. Physically, he looks like Ted Bundy (the king of the sociopaths) but he delivers his lines like he’s improvising. It all feels natural and I believe much of what he’s saying. It goes without saying that there is more than a little Patrick Bateman in this character, but Matt Story draws you inside his feelings (or at least that place where feelings are made.) Summers is probably a little less sociopathic than Patrick Bateman, but he’s just as dangerous.

I believe if Stelly hadn’t chosen to make this with the grainy effects and the overdone sound effects, it would have worked so much better. The lo-fi mixed with some gore effects will appeal to those who want their movies bloody. But what we have is still a character study that is worthy of appreciation.

Within Madness is set for release on April 7th and will be available on special limited edition Blu-Ray and limited edition DVD at leglesscorpse.com/shop. Digital release of the film is TBD but will be available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and other popular VOD outlets from Self Destruct Films.

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