Fatal Exposure – Through the Shattered Lens

In his mansion in Alabama, fashion photographer Jack B. Rippington (Blake Bahner) kills people in ways that are cruel and grotesque. He does it with a smile on his face and a spring in his step, and he always remembers to take pictures first because, I guess, he really does take the whole fashion photographer thing seriously. He has standards. He’s a professional. When he meets and starts dating a model named Erica (Ena Henderson), she soon finds herself unwittingly leading victims to their doom.

Why is Jack B. Rippington so obsessed with murdering anyone who comes by his house? Well, you could say that it runs in the family. He’s the great-grandson of Jack the Ripper. He informs the audience of this. Myself, I have to wonder if Rippington is a family name or if it’s just his nom de meurtre. If Jack the Ripper’s last name really was Rippington, that would be a hell of a coincidence, and it would also show that Scotland Yard really wasn’t doing a very good job of investigating the crimes at Whitechapel. I mean, why did they devote so much time to investigating poor Montague John Druitt when there was a guy named Rippington wandering around?

Of course, it’s also possible that Jack the Ripper moved to the United States, had a daughter, and then she married someone named Rippington. Still, that seems like it would be an amazing coincidence.

(For the record, the real Jack the Ripper was some guy that you’ve never heard of and who probably died without ever telling anyone the truth. The fact that he was never captured would seem to indicate that the police were investigating the wrong suspects. And don’t start in with any of that royal conspiracy nonsense either. Honestly, that’s one of the silliest theories that I’ve ever heard.)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Fatal Exposure. Fatal Exposure is a shot-on-video epic that has some surprisingly effective gore effects. Between burning people with acid and chopping off their heads, Jack B. Rippington really gets into his work, and the results are often difficult to look at. If I were to compare this to any other film, it would probably be William Lustig’s Maniac, which featured Joe Spinell playing an equally homicidal photographer whose crimes seemed to owe more than a little to Jack the Ripper. Of course, Jack B. Rippington is much more handsome than Joe Spinell was in Maniac. If Maniac was a plunge into darkness and a trip to the realm of absolute zero, Fatal Exposure tries to be a bit of a comedic romp. Jack B. Rippington may be a murderer, but he also enjoys talking to the audience. In its use of dark humor and its breaking of the fourth wall, the film has quite a bit in common with Lucio Fulci’s Touch of Death.

There’s not really much of a plot to Fatal Exposure. Jack B. Rippington takes pictures of women in lingerie. He kills anyone who comes to the house. Erica eventually gets suspicious. But director Peter B. Good keeps the action moving, and it looks surprisingly good for a SOV film. (Good was best-known as a cinematographer.) Blake Bahner gives a good performance as Jack B. Rippington. It’s not a film for everyone, but, at the very least, it feels like a real movie. That puts it ahead of most SOV productions.

Red flags, girls! You need to know how and when to spot them!

Photographer Ariel (Sofia Masson) is the victim of a violent home invasion and her sex buddy Derek (Stephen Huszar) just happens to show up a minute later? Red flag!

The only photograph from Ariel’s exhibit that sells is an erotic selife called “No Daddy Issues” and then Derek suddenly wants to be called “daddy” while in the bedroom? Guess what? That’s a red flag!

Derek invites Ariel to his estate for the summer without telling her that he’s a widower and that he has a stepdaughter named Chloe (Jasmine Vaga)? You better believe that’s a red flag!

Chloe is the same age as Ariel and physically resembles Ariel and calls her stepfather “daddy?” Red flag, red flag, red flag!

I watched this movie because it was about a photographer and there really aren’t that many non-documentaries about photographers. I didn’t think that the selfie that Ariel sold was that impressive but some of her other photographs showed a hint of talent. But a photographer has to be aware of the world around her and she has to be able to see the things that other people miss. That’s what distinguishes a photographer from someone who just has a camera. How could any photographer miss all the red flags and all the strange atmosphere inside of Derek’s estate?

(I did like that Ariel had somehow developed a system to allow her to develop film and make prints within seconds. I’d love to know how she did that.)

Fatal Exposure requires a big suspension of disbelief. If you can do it, then the film itself is enjoyably trashy. Derek’s gothic mansion is a great location and the acting wasn’t bad at all. But you just have to be willing to accept that someone could miss all of those red flags. Derek was too obviously evil from the start but he did give Ariel a nice studio to work in. Maybe he wasn’t all bad.