Visions of Hell: The Films of Jim VanBebber Movie Review
Dark Sky Films have put together the best box set so far this year. Hands down this set which includes Jim Vanbebber’s The Manson Family and Deadbeat at Dawn is simply put inspiring. The films content of course is not the inspiring part but the story behind each film and the conviction of director Jim VanBebber makes this a must own for any independent filmmaker. If the thought of making a movie has ever even crossed your mind this set is going to make you get off your ass and start putting something together.
The set includes two cases, the first case is The Manson Family Unrated cut which was released awhile back. There is nothing new about it but the features are worth the price of the entire set. The first disc contains the unrated version of The Manson Family. This is a film that I had already seen but it was a censored version that I saw from Blockbuster. This is a film that CAN NOT be censored. The entire reason it was made was to show you how ugly the Manson killings were. Nothing in the film is exaggerated or overdone. You get everything that happened. Of course the director had to weed through the lies and deliver what was revealed as fact. Not an easy task.
The film is told in a very unique fashion. VanBebber tells the story of the Manson Family while simultaneously showing us how it is effecting us now. He manages to demystify Charles Manson whom so many have raised up. In this film you can see that Manson was really just a loon that had a bunch of henchmen to do his work. The film is also peppered with interviews from the killers as the film progresses telling there version of what happened followed of course by what really happened.
What is most astonishing about this film is that it took VanBebber 10+ years to get this film finished. It is simply amazing that he even stuck by this project for that long. The entire story of the film and the hard ships endured is revealed in the documentary on the second disc, The VanBebber Family. The second documentary on that disc is a very cool look back at the Fantasia Film Festival in I believe 1997. They actually talk to a lot of different filmmakers which is very cool. Especially a small section with Nacho Cerda who at the time was screening his short film, Aftermath. The last little bonus on the second disc is a short interview with Charles Manson. Not to exciting just a lot of ranting and raving by the man.
The second case includes another two discs with Deadbeat at Dawn and some of VanBebber’s short films. Deadbeat at Dawn is VanBebbers first full length feature and it really shows. Of course he was very young at the time and made it with most of his friends and people around town. However the film includes some really amazing stunts and special FX that really show glimpses of what was to come. At this point I should mention that Jim VanBebber in addition to directing has also acted in almost every single one of his short films and feature length films.
In Deadbeat at Dawn VanBebber stars as a gang leader whose psychic girlfriend is begging him to drop out of the violent world he has put himself in. Finally one day he decides he has had enough and wants to make his relationship with her serious. But this leads his gang to join forces with his rivals who are planning a little something for him. One day while he is out two gang members break into his home and murder his girlfriend. Now he is left with nothing except rage. A rage that overcomes him and quickly fuels his plot for revenge against everyone involved in the murder of his loved one.
The film is an obvious kind of homage to films by Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and even Steven Segal. It is also hard to ignore the comparisons to The Warriors. All of which combine in a pot to make this film. Now for this film to even be compared to those is an amazing accomplishment especially when you consider that this was made for next to nothing and using DIY special FX. Some of which are revealed in the behind the scenes featurette.
This disc also includes some other interesting bonus features. A short featurette interviews Jim VanBebber who reveals a lot of what happened as he tried to get this film put together. He also details growing up and his fascination with film as a very young child. He talks a lot about all the little 8mm films he made as a film student which are included on Disc 2 of this case.
The short films from VanBebber range from disturbing to a tad boring. My Sweet Satan is a short film that he made in order to raise money for The Manson Family. He wanted to show investors how much he had grown as a filmmaker. Luckily for us it is also the most entertaining of all of his shorts. It deals mainly with a group of youngsters who worship Satan and run around sacrificing humans and calling out fake worshippers. Next on the disc is Roadkill which is probably the most disturbing of all of them. The story is thin but with a short you don’t need a story just a concept and in this one it is of a man who kidnaps people on the side of the road and eats them. He does a fair amount of torturing before as well. Doper is actually a mini documentary that follows a young guy and his friends around while they smoke a lot of weed. It is quite funny because they talk to the kids co-workers who all assume he is a wholesome young man. They even made him employee of the month. Kata is the only short that didn’t grab my attention at all and is mainly just a man doing kung fu. I wondered why VanBebber would even do something like this and it was answered when the credits revealed he had only co-directed. The final short is actually pretty long for a short but I wouldn’t call it a feature either. It is basically the ground work for what would become Deadbeat at Dawn. Into the Black features VanBebber in high school and has quite a bit of kung fu stylings within it. There is no sound and instead is one constant musical score. So it probably just seems longer than usual.
Dark Sky Films have even thought about the people who already own The Manson Family unrated and are selling the Deadbeat at Dawn DVD exclusively online. If you don’t own either I can not stress how much you are missing out on. Rarely do I say this is a must have for everyone… but this definitely is.
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