SXSW Review Bitch Ass- Black Horror Gets A New Face

Bitch Ass is an enthusiastic if imperfect nod to Black horror that trods familiar ground in ingenious ways.

Bitch Ass from actor turned directed Bill Posley premiered at SXSW to enthusiastic crowds. An old-school slasher pays homage to the past by borrowing from those who came before it. There’s something comforting about a film that delivers exactly what it promises. It will make you laugh, wince, and cringe, sometimes at the production value as opposed to the gore, but that’s okay. Some of the gorier bits are obviously underfunded, and the acting isn’t always spot on, but that’s part of the charm. Anyone who is a fan of Blacula knows that’s part of the schtick. It’s a pact you make when you buy a ticket.

Q(Teon Kelley) is a good kid who is desperate to find a way to pay for college. Unfortunately, he and his mom live paycheck to paycheck, and tuition is not an option. So when he is offered an opportunity to break into the home of a wealthy eccentric for Spade, the local gang leader, he sees an answer to his problems. Never mind that his mom has worked hard her whole life to keep him away from crime. That’s the least of his problems, though, as the home he’s breaking into is Cecil’s, otherwise known as Bitch Ass, by the bullies who have tormented him since he was a child.

Cecil was a peaceful kid who loved board games. Being timid, overweight, and different put a big target on his back. Having an abusive, rigid caretaker made a bad situation worse. When Q and his friends break into his house looking for treasure, they find Cecil’s twisted traps designed to ensure someone plays with him, whether it kills them or not. Let the games begin.

Bitch Ass is self-aware enough to understand what it is and doesn’t try to do more than it can and should. This is an absurdist Black horror film with a hint of Saw-style gore. In that vein, its works with brio. A couple of good performances and one outstanding cameo from the King of Horror Tony Todd ties together a film that may not land all its punches, sometimes literally as in an early sequence, but is still fun enough to warrant a place in the subgenre canon.

The film begins with a callback to the horror hosts of the ’80s and ’90s, and that classical styling continues with clever game texting and split screenshots once the kids enter Bitch Ass’s house. A literal death count is registered using cards as the victims are bumped off in inventive, if not particularly scary, ways. You feel like you are watching a horror version of Clue where the killer is always the butler and Professor Plum is a foul-mouthed teen.

Kelley doesn’t oversell his good kid persona, and Tunde Laleye(Bitch Ass) is a hard-breathing creeper who deserves another movie. A believable Me’lissa Sellers plays Q’s Mom Marsia, who has her own past with Cecil, is a standout with the rest of the cast situated somewhere between deliberately dramatic and enthusiastically overacting. The effects aren’t perfect, and some weird camera angles don’t serve any purpose other than to irritate. Those things do detract some because there are moments where you feel this could actually have been an unsettling if not terrifying movie.

Although it is obvious the kind of film Posley is making, there is creativity there to make me wonder what an intentionally scary movie by him would look like? Could he be the next Ti West, whose X premiered to sold-out crowds? He clearly loves the genre and understands what makes a good slasher. Bitch Ass is the kind of effortless entertainment that requires nothing but the ability to laugh and some time on your hands.

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