Lloyd Kaufman and several folks from the Troma Team states that this little film is one of the masterpieces that Troma has picked up. However, it's praise usually goes unsung, with very few folks actually giving the film it's day in court and even fewer talking about it. With that in mind, when I saw the newly released DVD at Suncoast, I had to pick it up to figure out whether this film was truly the masterpiece that it had been claimed to be or if it's obscurity is well-deserved.
In Hollywood, a young screenwriter named Edgar Allen (director Rufus Butler Seder) arrives in town armed with a typewriter and an urge to kill. However, Edgar doesn't act upon those urges in the way you'd expect: he's compiling every rude person he has had an urge to kill into his own murder movie script. He meets a washed-up agent, who is more interested in his family leaving him, due to his lack of money and stubbornness to ask his studio honcho brother for a job. While being mugged in a movie theatre bathroom, Edgar is saved by an apartment landlord named Martin (George Kuchar) who inadvertently kills the Edgar's mugger. To keep Edgar's mouth shut about the homicide, Martin gives him a job as a custodian at his apartment complex. While there, Edgar's script starts coming to life: every one of his neighbors he writes about ends up being killed in the exact way he wrote it.
Screamplay is indeed worthy of the "masterpiece" claim to fame. Rufus Butler Seder is truly a talented artist, combining matte paintings, various rear projection setups, old film tricks (scratches on the film as rain), and interesting set design to give the film the feel of a very demented horror film from the 1920s-1940s. With a touch of bizarre direction reminiscent of Eraserhead, the film reminds me of what would happen if David Lynch directed a murder movie, but with a style all of it's own. Seder had won several awards for his earlier student film and it's no surprise why: the guy had one hell of a creative look to his films. Best of all, the film has a great message about the hard-luck truth of Hollywood and what you might have to go through to be a screenwriter in Hollywood.
Which makes it quite a shame that Seder's film career came to a crashing halt following the release of the film. He created a truly fascinating little picture and did a stellar job acting as well. He made Edgar Allen one of the screen's most eccentric and undoubtedly creepy horror protagonists. It's somewhat surprising that Troma ended up with this wonderful little flick, but I'm for one glad it did. I'm assuming Seder's failed deals with New Line Cinema and other outlets are what lead him to Troma. He sounded pretty somber and melancholy toward Troma in his commentary (which shows he is just as eccentric as Edgar), which leads me to believe the lack of money from Troma might be what caused the end of his career. But regardless, I HIGHLY recommend Screamplay... it truly is the masterpiece you've heard it is.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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