"The Ugly" is one hell of an engrossing and chilling journey inside a serial killer’s haunted mind. We not only get to walk through the killer’s tragic and violent past memories but we also have to deal with the chilling supernatural touches that the film relentlessly slaps our way. Think the Hannibal Lecter/Clarice tete-a-tete in "Silence of the Lambs" but on a heavy dose of 70’s high quality acid and you’ll capiche what we’re dealing with here.

This gem was a hard watch for me but not for the obvious “horror” reasons. I just found the whole of it extremely sad and depression hit me hard once the end credits rolled. If it wasn’t Simon’s troubling relationship with his psychotic Nurse Ratchet-like mother (Lealand) or the “ugly duckling” childhood that he had, it was the poignant love story that inevitably ended on a very sour note. Ouch, I felt that one. Where’s the tissue, the rum bottle and the gun so I can shoot myself in the head in a drunken state?

This movie also managed to pull off quite a hat trick on me. At its core, Simon is a heartless killer but the film manipulated me in feeling lots of sympathy for him throughout. Paolo Rotondo’s riveting turn as Simon had a lot to do with that as well, but so did Reynolds’ gripping visuals. A note on the directing: not only was Reynolds able to evoke emotion through his aesthetic style, but he also managed to offer us quite an arresting picture that went from slow, morbid build-ups to flashier, quick cuts constantly. The play in both extremes gave the picture a mucho original feel.

Time is also a very prominent theme here and I relished the way Reynolds handled it. The film jumps from the present to the past in very creative ways, even incorporating both time periods together in one frame at times. That made for a very unique method of storytelling. The simplistic sets were also milked for all of their worth, fully conveying the necessary dread-filled atmosphere that this particular dark poem needed. I once heard that in a low budget film, if you want to make a limited location look striking, paint all of the walls white. Reynolds applies that and the whitish environment (with the bluish tint) gave the sets the cold and eerie feel which they needed. Add to that, a novel way of using the color red (all about that mom in the doorway scene…brrrrr) and you get one hell of a morbidly beautiful picture. I was flabbergasted.

Then you have the supernatural elements which I’m still confused about. I’m still not sure if my uncertainty about WHAT was really going down is due to the script being so good (and it going over my head) or because it just wasn’t tight enough to give us a concrete reason behind the apparitions. You decide on that one, but I’m leaning towards the “it was that good” vibe. Either way, the creepy ass cadaver appearances (cousins of the Cenobites perhaps?) definitely gave me the heebie-jeebies.

This flick was shot in Auckland, North Island, New Zealand.

Scott Reynolds also directed the features: Heaven (1998) and When Strangers Appear (1998).

Paolo Rotondo quote on The Ugly: "To work with a young director who has such a strong vision of what he wants for his film, that gave me the freedom to explore, to be secure with the nature of such a dark character."