[Triloquist]
Plot:In a seedy motel in Hollywood, a down-and-out ventriloquist with a creepy looking Dummy kills herself with a drug overdose as her two young children watch. The kids are sent to live with a perverted uncle who ends up dead. Turning eighteen, the beautiful and twisted sister tells her brother they will head out to Las Vegas so he can be a great ventriloquist like their mother was. The brother has never spoken since the death of his mother - the creepy Dummy does all his talking...and the Dummy seems to hate the sister. This weird 'trio' set out on Halloween night, and end up killing a young kid. The sister and the Dummy blame the silent brother, and he is sent to an institution. Months later, the sister and the demented Dummy break the brother out, and the three of them set out on a road trip. They kidnap a young girl so the brother can impregnate her, to carry on the family bloodline. Being hunted by the police, this desperate and psychotic 'trio' fall further and further into darkness...and the creepy Dummy seems to develop a life and mind of his own.

Cast:Rocky Marquette, Paydin LoPachin, Katie Chonacas.

My Thoughts:Intriguing trip into weirdness.

Review:I didn't really have high hopes for "Triloquist". Indie horror pictures are mostly toss ups across the horror spectrum, but when you talk about killer doll or dummy movies....the indie ones have been awful. It takes a certain budget to make an appropriate killer doll movie. One that can scare, as well as seem realistic enough from an animatronics point of view. "Triloquist" though uses a really special ingredient to get the job done, creativity. The film follows a brother (Norbert) and sister (Angelina) who live in a Hollywood motel with their mom, a ventriloquist who is down on her luck.

When she dies of a drug overdose, the duo is then sent to live with their uncle who soon turns up dead. At that point, with no parental guidance or otherwise...Norbert and Angelina quickly take up the opportunity to flee and go on a twisted road trip of sorts. They however take their mothers dummy with them, a dummy which seems to be more fond of Norbert than Angelina. Angelina tries to ditch her brother by commiting him to an insane asylum. He however escapes with the help of his dummy friend, and Angelina takes him back into her good graces seeing as how she's now stuck with him.

They continue on their trip from there, pretty much "deep sixing" anyone they come across. However, as the bodies begin to pile up..and a young girl is kidnapped for "child bearing" purposes...the cops soon catch wind to the twisted trio. Now, as the situation becomes more and more desperate, and the dummy begins to become a wedge between brother and sister...who will survive this expedition of carnage, bloodshed, and mayhem? "Triloquist" does one thing right above all else...it doesn't take itself seriously.

Which is a smart thing to do. It really helps the viewer settle into the movie better, knowing that it pokes fun at it's outrageousness and really pushes the envelope with black humor and morbid imagery. It's also a very smart movie, setting up a pretty intriguing scenario early on, and running with it for the entire duration. See Norbert hasn't spoken a word since his moms death. But the dummy has had alot to say ever since then. So we're left to figure out as the film goes on, just what is the deal with the dummy? Is Norbert making it talk? After all, ventriloquism is an art that can easily be passed down through family lineage.

Is Angelina the voice of the dummy? Or did the mothers spirit somehow trap itself into the dummy in an attempt to be the eternal guiding voice of her children, keeping them out of harms way? The film does eventually answer this quesiton, but not until very late in the game. And the fun part of the movie, beyond it's cheery and cute musical scores and chimes...is figuring out which of the three options can be applied to the situation...if any. There isn't alot of blood and gore in "Triloquist". So gorehounds, who might get fooled by the dvd art into thinking it's gonna be some kind of bloodbath might wanna think again.

People die in the movie, yes....but most of the deaths are implied rather than shown. Beyond one shooting, there aren't a ton of gutting, slicing, dicing, dismembering death scenes. This film also relies on it's start performers which is something many indie horrors avoid doing. But LoPachin, who plays Angelina, and Marquette who plays Norbert have great acting chops, and great movie chemistry. While Angelina is the dominant personality in the relationship, the dummy acts as a great catalyst to keeping Norbert with some small semblence of a backbone against her risky and always psychotic demands.

The black humor is sharp as a tack as well, including one scene where a shotgun-wielding Angelina crashes a bar during a musical act only to have control of the situation rivaled by someone else, and many other scenes in the film which are just a barrel of laughs all the way. The ending of "Triloquist" is a sad one in a way, but above all else it's really weird. Just...extremely strange. Overall, think "Chucky meets The Devil's Rejects". That's pretty much "Triloquist" in a nutshell.

Positives:Great performances by LoPachin and Marquette, unique storyline, great black humor, and good in-movie chemistry between the leads.

Negatives:The ending was a bit much.

Overall:Three stars.





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