Copp Films DVD (2009 dir Andrew Copp)

Ohio low budget horror filmmaker Andrew Copp has been an asset to the microcinema scene for well over a decade providing us with shoestring budget DIY motion pictures like the supremely original, dark, euphoric, and disturbing 8mm/16mm cult classic THE MUTILATION MAN (1998) and the raw, brutal, and vicious digital effort THE ATROCITY CIRCLE (2005). For his latest film, QUIET NIGHTS OF BLOOD AND PAIN, Andy takes the current political climate we live in and uses one of it's most controversial issues as the element that causes the main character to become a mad slasher.

An Iraq war veteran returns home. One night a couple is brutally murdered. It so turns out that this veteran has taken it upon himself to recreate vicious acts he was forced to carry out when he was on duty. He goes after people who he considers to be "unpatriotic," brutally torturing, slashing, stabbing, beheading, and gutting them.

Despite that description, the film isn't quite as much of a gore-soaked bloodbath as one might expect. Most of the emphasis is on character development and what it is that causes the main psychopath to tick. Some of the acting is really good for the most part. The film's overall message about what war can do to a person is very effective and there are moments when the film takes jabs at the previous administration. For a political slasher film, this one really doesn't take the side of either the left or the right, but rather it's an indictment of the government, the hawkish attitudes of certain politicians, and how some folks in society can easily be brainwashed and what it may do to certain people who are mentally unstable, though the message in the end appears to be very anti-war. One scene in the film that really made me cringe was the torture of a young girl near the end where she has her upper and lower gums slit with a razor blade. Ewwww!!!!!

Pittsburgh actor Nic Pesante appears in the beginning as a victim and Henrique Couto is an unfortunate "traitor" who gets waterboarded.

The Copp Films DVD of QUIET NIGHTS OF BLOOD AND PAIN contains a behind-the-scenes featurette, an featurette showing footage from a display of Andy Copp's artwork at a museum, the film's trailer, and trailers for THE MUTILATION MAN, BLACK SUN, and THE ATROCITY CIRCLE.

Visit www.coppfilms.com to order your copy and other merchandise.