Kamal Ahmed, best known as one-half of the now defunct Jerky Boys, is a director and, at that, twice over in the field of feature-length cinema. Interestingly, given Ahmed’s history, neither is the previous effort of four years prior, God Has a Rap Sheet, or Rapturious an overly verbose horror comedy. Instead they are dramatic works and tales of psychological terror respectively. How does the low-brow-comedy-cum-filmmaker fare in his newly chosen medium? Quiet well as Ahmed shows a surprising amount of celluloid acumen, both behind the pen as well as the camera.
The newest hit in hip-hop, Rapturious (Robert Oppel), is battling, not only with the pressures of newfound fame, but also with his abusive past. He erroneously attempts to escape from his troubles via drug use, which further exacerbates matters. Yet, is the young entertainer’s mania due to his social woes, schizophrenia, or something more ethereal?
Ahmed not only directed Rapturious, but also single-handedly composed the screenplay, the latter of which compensates for what he lacks in experience behind the lens. Rapturious is best described as a manifold character profile. As the director patiently fleshes out a Cobain-cum-Eminem figure, that is, a white rapper uncomfortable with fame who is attempting to fight personal demons through drugs, Ahmed kicks dust over our faint chalk line of interpretative demarcation as the viewer is left to conjecture if Rapturious is insane, merely drug-addled, or literally haunted. Regardless, the unease which the rapper reluctantly saunters through life is paralleled by Ahmed casting an almost perpetually eerie atmosphere to the proceedings, thus having his audience empathize with the character as opposed to merely esteem to answer the pressing question of circumstance.
Cleverly, the turning point for our protagonist is when he is given a new drug, aptly named “Afterlife,” for shortly after consuming the narcotic, Rapturious begins having out-of-body experiences which recall the events spoken of during the film’s epilogue. Over a century-and-a-half before Rapturious is born, Dead-Eye Pete (Jim Fletcher), a murderer and rapist, is hung for his crimes in the American West. After taking a hit of Afterlife, Rapturious begins believing that he is somnambulistically or viciously killing people, which goads the question of whether the rapper is the reincarnated killer, if he is channeling Pete, if Pete is possessing the boy, or if everything is merely drug-induced coincidence. Of course, when we add in the death of Rapturious’s father, his being adopted out by his widow mother, and the youngster’s abusive foster family, only the mention of possible schizophrenia forbids us from choosing a ready polarity in which to side.
It is with this, the revolving door of possibility, that Ahmed keeps his viewer involved as his slow burn plot continues to warm with the aide of Timo Elliston’s exquisite score. This is second only to the masterful nuances which the director makes sure to include, such as having a white rapper, who is admittedly out of synch with the world around him, brandish a revolver (thus evoking, but not solidifying, Pete’s role in Rapturious’s dilemma) as, almost childlike, the hottest ticket on the hip-hop bill, who is obviously a millionaire, humbly goes home to his small apartment without so much as a second thought as to the mansion which his finances now avail him.
Granted, Kamal Ahmed’s Rapturious is not a great film, but one of promise. Sure, the surreal montages could have been tightened, Tom Agnello’s camera work should have been more dynamic as opposed to frustratingly static, and the feature threatens to lag at times, however, once a Faustian leitmotif is offered as mythological overtones are simultaneously introduced, even the most reluctant viewer will find it difficult to not give the novice filmmaker benefit of the doubt. Russ Rutter of Bloodtype compares the production to such classics as Alan Parker’s Angel Heart and Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder. Such is not bad company to be in if one is a beginning filmmaker. As such, I look forward to what Ahmed will produce in the future given a little more time and money at his disposal for he is a rarity of rarities: an artist who respects film and the craft of telling an original tale.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
