Patrick Renna | Through the Shattered Lens

Filmed in 2000 but never given an official release (though it can now be found on YouTube), Ricky 6 takes place in the town of Harmony, New York in the mid-80s. Harmony is an upper class community, a place where the houses are big, the yards are pristine, and every father expects his son to try out for the high school football team. It’s a place that celebrates winners and exiles losers to the nearby woods. It’s the sort of town that seems like it exists primarily to give teenagers something to rebel against.

Tommy Pottelance (Chad Christ) and Ricky Cowen (Vincent Kartheiser) are two of those rebels. They both have long hair. They both listen to music that is designed to terrify their conservative parents. They both smoke a lot of weed and spend a lot of time obsessing on how alienated they feel from everyone else around them. Tommy and Ricky are best friends, bonded by their mutual feelings of isolation. They often talk about running off to California together and they’re not above committing a few minor crimes in order to do it.

Bullied by his father and laughed at by the local drug dealers, Ricky spends his time hiding out at the library and reading books on demons and magic. He meets Pat Pagan (Kevin Gage), a self-styled Satanist who appears to live in the woods and who, despite being middle-aged, spends all of his time hanging out with teenagers. Ricky starts to describe himself as being a Satanist, begging his friends to announce that they love Satan as a part of a ritual that he wants to perform. Most of his friends humor him, not knowing that Ricky hears voice and has frequent hallucinations. (The fact that his dealer keeps selling him dusted joints definitely doesn’t help as far as that’s concerned.) Ricky starts out the film as somewhat passive and very much in Tommy’s shadow but, as his interest in Satanism grows, so does Ricky’s confidence and, soon, Ricky is the one giving orders. Ricky goes from looking up to Tommy to being the one who issues the commands. When Ricky becomes convinced that one of his friends stole some drugs from him, he decides to get a very violent and bloody revenge….

Ricky 6 is based on a true story, one that was examined in a documentary that Jeff reviewed earlier this year, The Acid King. Because the film has never been given an official theatrical release and has mostly been distributed through bootleg tapes and DVDs, Ricky 6 has developed a reputation for being a bit more extreme than it actually is. Yes, the murder scene is brutal and yes, the permanently stoned and occult-obsessed Ricky does have some memorably surreal hallucinations. For the most part, though, Ricky 6 is more a study of Ricky and Tommy’s friendship than a straight horror and/or true crime film. Ricky and Tommy are both angry at a world that doesn’t seem to understand them, with the main difference being that Tommy rejects the world while Ricky tries to bring some sense of order and meaning to his chaotic existence by worshipping Satan. When Tommy angrily tells Ricky that there is no God and no Satan, Ricky rather innocently asks, “How could you want to live in a world without magic?” Of course, for Ricky, part of the magic means dragging his friends into helping him commit a murder.

Ricky 6 is a well-acted film, especially by Vincent Kartheiser, Kevin Gage, and, in the role of Tommy’s girlfriend, Emmanuelle Chriqui. Kartheiser plays Ricky as being someone who is so lost in his own head that he’s lost the ability to understand the enormity of his actions. And yet, it’s hard not to have some sympathy for Ricky because one look at his homelife and his overbearing father reveals that he probably never had much of a chance. There are a few scenes where Kartheiser flashes an appealingly vulnerable smile and, for a minute or two, it’s easy to forget that he is also a ruthless killer.

With a two-hour running time, Ricky 6 is a bit too long for its own good and the use of Tommy as the story’s narrator means that the film often tells us about things that it should be showing us. It’s an imperfect film but, due to the strength of the cast and the way the film captures the atmosphere of suburban ennui, it’s not a bad one.

The SyFy film Lavalantula opens in Los Angeles and we immediately know what that means. If it’s a day of the week ending with a y, it means that Los Angeles is about to attacked by some sort of giant monster. In this case, it’s due to a series of volcanic eruptions that lead to a swarm of gigantic, fire-breathing tarantulas being released into California.

Now, if Schwarzenegger was still governor of California, these spiders probably wouldn’t have been much of a problem. But have you seen the current governor of California? Seriously, I take one look at Jerry Brown and my first thought is that he’s not someone I would call if I needed someone to come over and kill a giant spider for me. I just wouldn’t. Sorry, Jerry.

(Incidentally, y’all love to make fun of people in Texas for loving guns but when was the last time we had a giant spider invasion get out of hand like the one in Lavalantula?)

When the spiders do show up and promptly start burning Los Angelenos alive, the police, the military, and the fire department all prove to be pretty much useless. Fortunately, L.A. is also the home of the film industry and, as has always happened whenever America has faced a monster-related crisis, the unsung heroes of the movie industry are willing to step up and save the day. Actor Colton West (Steve Guttenberg) may not know much about spiders. And, as we’re told at the start of the film, it’s been a while since he had a hit movie. But none of that matters. All that matters is that, back in the day, Colton starred in enough action movies that he now has a unique set of skills that can be used to defeat giant, fire-breathing tarantulas.

Of course, while saving California, Colton also has to save his wife, Olivia (Nia Peeples) but fortunately, Olivia is totally capable of kicking ass on her own. In fact, the entire film industry is shown to be capable of kicking ass, as Colton recruits the crew from his latest movie to help him save Los Angeles.

(Ian Ziering also pops up for a funny cameo. He can’t help Colton save Los Angeles becase he’s too busy trying to save the rest of the country from flying sharks. It’s a cute scene that works a lot better than you might think.)

Now, I have to admit that when I went to the DVR to track down and rewatch Lavalantula, I was shocked to discover that I didn’t record Lavalantula when it originally aired on July 25th! Usually, I both watch and record but, in the case of Lavalantula, I just watched. This review has been written from memory but that’s okay because Lavalantula‘s an extremely memorable film. Much like director Mike Mendez’s previous giant monster film — the beloved Big Ass Spider — Lavalantula is an enjoyably over-the-top B-movie that succeeds because, while it never takes itself too seriously, it does take itself just seriously enough to remain interesting. It expertly walks the fine line between tribute and parody. Regardless of how silly the film may get, the entire cast brings a lot of commitment to their roles and the end result is a genuinely fun movie.

One final sidenote: Apparently, this film was full of inside jokes about the Police Academy franchise. Having never seen any of the Police Academy films, I have to admit that the majority of the references probably went right over my head. I did, however, recognize Michael Winslow, the guy who does all the sound effects. He was one of the heroic crew people and he did a damn good job protecting California.

In fact, they all did.

Thank you, Hollywood.