Discopath (2013)

I actually really wanted to like this one more since there were quite a few things I thought it was doing right that fell short, overall, due to all that it ended up doing wrong. "Discopath" is a French/Canadian slasher flick that occasionally hits it's 'mark' with it's horror/exploit 'throwback' aim, but mostly just sucks...

A demure 1970s New York fry cook loses his job after hearing some disco music and seizing up with rage. He then by chance meets up with a chick he used to know who invites him to a disco club where he blacks out and brutally murders her under the stage - thus, hopping a plane to Montreal to start a new life. We catch up with him four years later - working as the "deaf" maintenance man at a Catholic girls college. Once again, he ends up hearing some disco and loses his cool - slaughtering a few of them and reviving the case of the disco killer.

Again, the FEEL of "Discopath" actually reminded me a lot of 'old-school' 70s-80s horror/serial killer flicks, but unfortunately the movie is put together in such a blunderous and disjointed way that it's almost impossible to get 'into'. The main character (killer) is completely underdeveloped and no one else is given the central spotlight long enough, so everything just pretty much falls flat in terms of augmenting a primary character structure. You got your typical detective 'sub-plot' that doesn't fit in at all, with terrible - almost comically toned writing and performances - and there's the killer's psychotic alone-time antics with severed female heads, which is equally laughable when it seemed clear that it was suppose to be disturbing on some level. What I thought worked with "Discopath" was that, in certain moments, the shittiness and lack of direction worked to some degree in formulating a 'feel' that fit the time period in which the film was set. It's a very MILD plus, as far as I'm concerned and I assume it was incidental considering how terribly the film was directed... Also, controversial make-up FX artist, Rémy Couture, handled the gore work for this, which is expectedly good, though it could have used a bit more of his talents, I thought. Still, there's a few decent gore/kill scenes.

In all, "Discopath" sucks, but there was such a potentially decent movie to be done here that it's almost frustrating. Needed more focus on the killer, some more kill scenes and less of the annoying detective shit. And better story structure.