Tweet
Released by: Saturn’s Core Releasing
Released on: April 11th, 2023.
Director: Miguel Coyula
Cast: Adam Plotch, Talia Rubel, Diane Spodarek, Jeff Pucillo, Limor Shopen
Year: 2005
Purchase From Amazon
Red Cockroaches – Movie Review:
Set somewhere in an unspecified future where acid rain falls from the sky and strange insects live in the sewers, Red Cockroaches follows the story of a young man named Adam Zarrasky (played by Adam Plotch). On the surface he seems like a normal guy and he’s certainly lucky enough to have a cute girlfriend who spoils him rotten, but there’s something off about Adam. You see, back when he was younger, he had some problems with his relatives in that, yes… he was taken advantage of.
Cut to the present day, a girl named Lily (Talia Rubel) shows up while Adam is waiting for a train in the subway station. Adam sees in her his dear departed sister and soon his heart starts going pitter patter over her. Soon after, she shows up on his doorstep one night now speaking in an odd French accent under the guise of wanting to rent a place to stay. He’s obviously hung up on her already, and he obliges, and soon the two are out in the nearby cemetery getting it on.
The next day, Lily is gone again. Adam doesn’t know where she went until he finds out that she’s gone to his (read: their) mother’s house where she claims to not remember anything from the night before. It would seems she has suffered some serious memory loss. She’s trying to get back in with the family who thought her lost so long ago, and Adam is hoping to get back into her pants. What Adam doesn’t realize though is that there is a lot about Lily that he still doesn’t know. Their relationship grows in strange ways, and soon it seems like they’re in way deeper with one another than brother and sister really ever should be – as if you didn’t already know that.
This is a pretty twisted little low budget movie that unfortunately bites off way more than it can chew. The concept is interesting, and a little twisted, and the performances are reasonably well done but where the movie really falls short is in the realm of poor digital effects. The CGI inserts in the film are so obvious that they really, really hurt the tone and pace of the film in that whenever you see them, you’re instantly sucked out of the strange and marginally intriguing story that the filmmaker’s are trying to unload on you. If you can get past that and the unnecessarily complicated storyline, you’re left with a well-made film on a technical level, despite some rather obvious flaws.
Sadly though, decent cinematography and a few clever camera angles aren’t enough to save this one, despite the evidence of some genuine potential from the film’s director. The movie was shot for around two grand, and with that in mind they accomplished a lot but maybe they should have set the movie in the present and ditched the science fiction aspects of the movie (as they don’t go anywhere or add much to the movie), and put that money into a better story. However, the director is to be commended for casting real looking people in the lead roles. Not that we necessarily wanted to see the abundance of body hair Adam Plotch rocks in his birthday suit but it’s not a bad move to use people who look like real people you’d see walking down the street. The end result is a messy film that has moments and elements that are interesting but which, unfortunately, ends up feeling slightly pretentious and overwrought.
Red Cockroaches – Blu-ray Review:
Red Cockroaches arrives on region free Blu-ray from Saturn’s Core Releasing in an AVC encoded 1080i transfer framed at 1.33.1. The film was shot fullframe and that’s just how it’s presented on this disc – in short, the movie looks pretty good. For a film made without a whole lot of money the crew took the time to light things properly and there’s some obvious care put into the shot set ups and the cinematography. As far as the transfer goes, compression artifacts are only visible once or twice in a couple of the darker scenes, there aren’t any print damage problems, and edge enhancement and line shimmering is kept to a bare minimum. Skin tones look decent, there’s a surprisingly good level of detail present, and there’s not much to really complain about here in terms of presentation.
An 16-bit English language DTS-HD track is provided in the original 2.0 Stereo with optional subtitles provided in English and Spanish. The mix has plenty of atmosphere for such an obviously low budget production. While the movie didn’t rock my world, I’ve got to hand it to the filmmakers for making the most out of the limited resources that they had at their disposal as the movie looks and sounds quite decent on this DVD. There’s some nice directional change ups, some solid bass in the lower end, and dialogue is always clean and clear and easy to follow.
First up, as far as the extras go, is an audio commentary with director Miguel Coyula who is joined by performers Adam Plotch and Jeff Pucillo. This is a pretty interesting track to listen to and it is dominated by the director who spends a lot of time explaining the casting decisions and why he chose to work with the actors he ended up putting in front of the camera for the movie. He also discusses shot set ups, the use of CGI, and offers plenty of insight into the film itself, explaining some of the more unusual aspects of it. Pucillo is there, but doesn’t contribute too much though Plotch is an amusing and interesting participant, particularly when he discusses his working relationship with his co-star, Talia Rubel.
Up next is a strange black and white short film from Coyula entitled Valvula De Luz, mad in 1997. It’s a pretty abstract film, more of a series of strange images than an actual narrative story, but it makes for an interesting look as there are some truly odd images contained in its forty-eight minute running time.
The disc also includes a bizarre three minute short film that uses news clips from recent events and strange narration to create a fairly surreal but interesting and experimental piece worth checking out.
The Front Row TV review is an eighty-second clip that preserves an archival television show review of the movie. Rounding out the extra features are a trailer for the movie and trailers for a bunch of other Saturn’s Core titles, a quick seven minute look behind the scenes at the making of the film, a series of deleted scenes and outtakes from the production.
Red Cockroaches - The Final Word:
Red Cockroaches never really comes together the way you want it to, despite some nice cinematography, decent performances and interesting ideas. That said, those who do appreciate the movie will find a lot to enjoy about the Blu-ray release, as it gives this low budget SOV movie a nice presentation on a disc fairly stacked with extra features.