Sublime is the first feature directed by Tony Krantz who is best known for his work as a producer. The film like Rest Stop (which he produced) is another production from the Raw Feed stable. How ever unlike its stalemate which draws on the generic and mixes the supernatural with gore porn pretty unsuccessfully, Sublime is an all together different Beast. Sublime I am pretty sure will be one of those "love it or hate it films" and although it’s a "horror" movie I get the feeling a lot of the hate will come from horror fans confused by its complete failure to pay attention to many of the unwritten rules of modern mainstream horror filmmaking. Apart from its bending of genre rules its also fairly unique in that although the cover of the DVD may suggest otherwise this film is really not aimed at a teenage demographic at all. That's not to say they can't like it, but I get the feeling the aspect of life Krantz casts his directorial eye over is really not relevant to them. I think it would be fair to describe this as a adult horror film for that reason and that's not meant in any kind of condescending this is a film for people who think kind of way.
Sublime revolves around George Grieves (Thomas Cavanagh) who we are introduced to celebrating his 40th birthday. George is a successful IT consultant living just the life millions of us where told to aim for during a school days. He has a well paid job, an attractive M.I.L.F of a wife, two healthy children and a big house. He has the right kind of friends and the "dinner party" lifestyle that many people fall into as they hit their late twenties and onwards. The day after his part George is due to check into hospital for a routine procedure at Mt. Abaddon Hospital, though a little apprehensive it should be nothing to worry about ...
Waking up some time after his operation George quickly learns things did not go according to plan and he has been given someone else procedure. Visited alternately by a beautiful white female nurse named Zoe (Katherine Cunningham-Eves) who seems very concerned about him and a black male nurse named Mandingo (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) who seems anything but concerned. You can figure out for yourself what these two represent for yourselves when you watch the film (and you really should watch it) as I assume most people who drop by this site are bright enough to do that. Meanwhile try as he might George can never seem to leave the increasingly sinister medical facility as new complications are discovered as a result of his mistaken treatment.
Sublime is a strange blend of Daytime soap, Cronenberg, music video, psychological drama with a dash of Jacobs's ladder and a splash of nasty gore. In many way’s it should not work and according to most reviews in particular those on horror dedicated websites it doesn’t. How ever even though it does several things which would normally put me off a movie, I found that here they worked well. Where a constant musical backdrop and MTV influenced visual styling would normally irritate the hell out of me they work in Sublimes favour. Certainly the inoffensive and slightly banal ambient chill out type music and light sugary pop kind of reflect just the music that would back a modern middle class dinner party and is probably the soundtrack to many a banal life. I loved the fact the stylings like the music almost represents the look of the kind of TV the demographic of the characters would watch. While sublime does bring elements of traditional horror, including creepy characters and gore, it’s really a movie which relies on loss of control over what happens to ones self for it fear. More so even than that it’s a look at the thing many people really spend their time worrying about and fearing. Things like does the good looking wife who I managed to attain through my career success and material wealth really love me or the life I provide. And the constant fear that she will look elsewhere for carnal excitement. I won't go into those things really I just wanted to review this because I thinks it one of those films that’s been hard to market as it has no clear demographic and I would like to do my small part to urge more people to at least try it, some will hate it sure its one of those films, but I think I lot of people will be very surprised by just how good this under the radar straight to DVD film is. I will go out on a limb and say in my opinion this has a shot at not just being one of the best non theatrical horror films of the year, but there's a good chance it will be one of the best North American horror films of the year period.
Sublime is like one of those glossy "everyone's successful" high budget TV drama's except something has gone very wrong and the plot has taken an exceedingly dark turn.
tags: horror
