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In an unnamed Midwestern city (actually Detroit), smartass movie fan JT (Sean Farley, who also wrote and co-produced) is the night manager at the VideoZone. He's got tickets for a midnight screening of Blade Runner, but at the last minute his ride falls through. So JT and his pal Ryan (Greg James) invite Alex (Dusan "Dean" Chechvala), the new clerk at the store, to join them. Alex has a car. Alex also has a girlfriend... all right, an ex-girlfriend, Adia (Tina Kapousis) but he hopes she'll help them out when his car breaks down.
That's when things get complicated. You see, Adia's an alcoholic, and she's a vampire and she's got a new boyfriend and he's got a car and since he's not around...
From that beginning, Tainted turns into a long-dark-night sanguinary comedy with snappy verbal humor, mostly from JT, carrying the plot from one weird revelation to the next. For the most part, it works.
[I remember the first time I read the script for Tainted. I laughed out loud and knew that if we could pull it off, it would be one hell of a picture. Funny, thoughtful to the human condition, interpersonal relationships and dealing with not only people but with yourself. All the characters confront that part of themselves that people or they cannot stand. We let then think about it but never say or allow the audience to think that they might change. - Rob St. Mary]
Director/photographer Brian Evans holds some shots too long, and a bigger budget might have given the action scenes more snap. An early slip-up is more problematic. At the beginning, he introduces two male characters who are so physically similar that you may think they're the same person. Once you realize that Slain (Jason Brouwer) - who's stalking the meat section of the grocery - and Ryan - who's a real rat with women - are not the same dark-haired guy, the rest makes more sense.
[Tainted had a two-man crew and a small budget (think Clerks). Given these limitations, I would say that for myself that it turned out about 100 times better then I thought it would! I had no idea going in that it would all turn out in the end. Mike, you are the first reviewer that thought Slain and Ryan are the same guy! I have never heard this before. - Rob St. Mary]
Once that's sorted out, Evans gives his late-night, shot-on-location suburban world the heavily grained, not-quite-normal look that the story needs. The performances are unusually good, too, and the characters avoid the stereotypes that plague virtually all horror movies these days, regardless of budget. The closing credits contain a virtual list of the filmmakers' influences. In that spirit, JT and Sean Farley should know that when Woody Allen said that he wouldn't join any club that would have him, he was quoting Groucho.
[As for the look of the film, we shot a lot of it in natural light. So if it was at night in downtown city section then it was lit by the street lights. We were really lucky to be able to get film that would give us that ability. I think that the look of the film is really interesting in the dark and the black areas. You can see a definite space between black and shadow. Tainted is all about taking something that we know and making it fresh and new. We have all seen the gen-x comedy about 20-somethings sitting around talking about sex, life and general stupidity. We took that idea and added a dynamic of a thriller/horror film with non-stereotypical vampires. We add to the fact that everyone is human. They all have faults and even vampires need things like love, understanding and maybe even jobs! Because remember they used to be human too. - Rob St. Mary]
