FrightFest Notes – Patchwork

A witty, gruesome spin on Re-Animator and Frankenstein (well, Frankenhooker) which defies the odds by coming up with a fresh take on the mad science genre.  After a blurry evening partially spent in a bar, three women – driven suit Jennifer (Tory Stolper), ditzy blonde Ellie (Tracey Fairaway) and offbeat Madeleine (Maria Blasucci) – wake up on an operating table stitched into one being.  Writer/director TylerMacIntyre comes up with a spin on the multiple personality/imaginary friend movie (cf: Identity, Fight Club) by depicting the arguments inside the patchwork’s triplicate mind as intricate conversations between the three women with the actresses in their pre-op looks while Stolper takes the lion’s share of the role when we get objective views of her sewn-together form since Jennifer was the chin donor. At first, the creature has three distinct hairstyles, but she gives herself a pink buzzcut makeover and finds dark glasses that go over the triple scar on her face and syntheises some sort of a balanced, if dangerous personality.

In separate chapters, we get brief snapshots of the women’s lives and their shortcomings – Jennifer was brushed off by her married lover and her work friends on her birthday, Ellie barely escaped being gang-raped on camera by frat boys – as the creature stumbles around in search of her creator, hooking up with Jennifer’s helpful medical student friend Gareth (James Phelps) and going on a feminist rampage by gleefully murdering oppressive men.  A highlight finds her returning to  the frat house and blundering into another party, taking down a hazing paddle from the wall and laying into the dazed, unselfconsciously awful bros.  Late in the day, we learn that the third part of the brain, Madeleine, wasn’t all there before this began, and conflict arises as her real agenda and backstory emerges.

When the Surgeon (Corey Sorenson) who put the women together is tracked down, the film gets a bit more Re-Animatory with an owl-cat hybrid, some stumbling remote control zombies and a lot of limb-lopping and power-tool surgery, but the best material involves the three women and their erratic killing spree cum consciousness raising session.  The three lead actresses are on the money, with Stolper especially delivering a tour de force.  Co-written by Chris Lee Hill.