REVEALER (2022)

Studio:     Shudder
Director:    Luke Boyce
Writer:     Tim Seeley, Michael Moreci
Producer:  Sarah Sharp, Brett Hays, Robert Patrick Stern, Aaron B. Koontz
Stars:     Caito Aase, Shaina Schrooten

Review Score:

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Summary:

In 1987 Chicago, a peepshow stripper and a religious protestor are forced to forge a reluctant alliance when an apocalyptic event traps them inside a sex shop.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In 1987 Chicago, snarky stripper Angie Pitarelli engages in her regular rivalry with Sally Mewbourne, who leads a league of religious protestors, outside of Revealers adult bookstore. Angie then works her shift as an exotic dancer in the store’s peepshow booth.

An otherworldly tear in the sky unleashes the apocalypse. People on the street begin tearing each other apart. Revealers proprietor Ray gets swept up in the chaos when he tries turning away protestors who attempt to seek safety inside his store. Angie witnesses Ray dying horribly as she becomes trapped inside her booth.

Sally ends up as the only survivor to make it inside Revealers. She and Angie continue stoking animosity over their different morals and religious beliefs even though they realize they will have to team up together to escape the store.

Ray reanimates as a zombie that attacks Sally. Angie provides a distraction so Sally can beat Ray to death with a crowbar. Sally returns the lifesaving favor by rescuing Angie from a sentient tentacle creature.

Angie becomes drawn to the voice of her nephew David pleading for help. The source of the sound turns out to be Asmodeus, whom Sally identifies as the demon prince of lust and judgment.

Since Revealers used to be a speakeasy during Prohibition, Angie and Sally escape to underground bootlegger tunnels. Sally starts seeing Angie in a different light when Angie discusses how she became her nephew’s guardian. The two women gradually form a bond as they come to understand each other better.

When Sally insists on taking a tunnel toward Saint Augustine’s Church even though Angie wants to follow a path toward David, the two women decide to go separate ways. However, they come back together after Angie returns to rescue Sally from a swarm of slithering snake creatures.

Sally’s religious beliefs are shaken when she realizes the snakes were coming for her instead of Angie even though she tried to lead a pious life. Angie discovers Sally secretly envies her and is also a closeted lesbian. Angie explains that the demons don’t want Angie because she is gay, but because she won’t stop lying to herself.

Asmodeus attacks the two women. Following a series of unusual events, Angie and Sally take down the demon together.

Angie and Sally finally find themselves at underground doors that supposedly connect to the church. Sally worries that the world outside ended and senses something strange about their circumstances. Undaunted, Angie takes Sally’s hand and they go through the doors together. The lights flicker, demonic laughter is heard, and the fourth and final trumpet foretold in the Book of Revelations sounds. The camera pulls back to show the world above overtaken by the end times.

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Review:

After nearly a decade of writing 1,750+ reviews, there are days when writing another one truly feels like an unwanted job instead of a passion project I originally pursued for fun. Sometimes, the movie puts me in that mood. Other times, I may be bringing along external baggage that makes it difficult to get into fictional fantasy.

Eight minutes into “Revealer,” I had an urge to do something else. The (ultimately pointless) prologue features a televangelist in a strange supernatural situation. Maybe the sequence calls for a faint whiff of corniness to set the overall tone, yet the performer gives off an overwhelming aroma of overacting. The scene also takes place in a tight alleyway at a canted angle drenched in red light, making it reminiscent of “Creepshow’s” TV series aesthetics in several ways, none of which are necessarily enviable.

Even though initial indicators weren’t encouraging, I wasn’t anywhere near far enough into the runtime to get an accurate read on “Revealer.” My engine just wasn’t juiced for what looked like another average horror movie with a mildly irreverent edge of humor. So I considered what else might be coloring my lack of enthusiasm. Perhaps because I had a birthday on the horizon, I couldn’t help but think of my dwindling time left on Earth and wondered, “Is this how I would prefer to spend this particular afternoon?”

To make sure I was being fair to the film, I chose to stick with it. I hoped I’d be able to say that the issue of my disinterest was due to me and not to the movie. Then “Revealer” went on to remind me that, while watching any film under any circumstances, it’s never a good sign when my dominant thought is, “Should I go do some laundry?” and on top of that, not being sure if the movie needs to be paused while I load the washing machine.

Set in 1987, with a telltale synth score and matching fashion to ensure you don’t forget, “Revealer” tells the tale of sassy stripper Angie and self-righteous religious protestor Sally, who enter into an uneasy alliance to escape an adult bookstore after the apocalypse explodes outside (via a CGI tear in the sky and little else, mind you). That’s a good logline. What isn’t good is the shrunken theatrical play staging that strips away any sense of scope while dragging out drama through redundant dialogue.

Most of the movie takes place inside a sex shop that’s about as big as a toddler’s bedroom. Eventually, Angie and Sally head underground where they follow a map from one brick-walled tunnel to another brick-walled tunnel that might only be the same corridor shot from the opposite direction. At other points, the women swing steel chairs and crowbars with all the force of flicking a booger, like they’re worried about damaging another wall that’s crammed six inches behind them.

I’m not trying to put down a production for being restricted to tiny sets that force them to do the best with what they’ve got. But what’s a viewer to do when those locations don’t remotely resemble reality, much less afford actors enough open space to fully immerse in their roles?

“Revealer” tries to make its hay out of disparate character dynamics, with Angie representing tolerant liberalism influenced by loosened morals and Sally playing the part of a conservative crusader motivated by both the Bible and (insert-marginalized-group-here)-phobia. For “Revealer,” the dots it connects to modern discord in a divided America are on open display every time Angie and Sally argue, which is often. A meaningful message doesn’t develop though because, in keeping with the stage play feel, the two women monologue in each other’s direction far more frequently than they carry on a conversation.

Of course, Angie and Sally come to understand each other better over the course of taking down one zombie, one snake (twice), and one big bad demon in a small cheap cape. Whatever your personal politics are, you’re exponentially less likely than the two of them to come out of “Revealer” with an altered outlook that enlightens you on another person’s POV. Angie and Sally are merely caricatures talking at one another, and what they have to say isn’t anything substantial to sway someone from one side of a fence to the other.

Someone can argue, “Well yeah, you’re not supposed to get balanced perspectives on conflicting, complicated worldviews. This is a horror movie with some humor, not ‘Meet the Press’.” But if “Revealer” doesn’t want to put dogmatic belief systems on trial by highlighting hypocrisies on both sides when they’re put to practical applications, then what’s the point of Angie and Sally’s dithering discourse about who deserves to go to Hell and who’s to blame for bringing about the end times?

I can give all the benefit of the doubt to “Revealer” regarding its well-meaning intentions as well as its barren bank account that puts the low in low-budget. At the end of the world, however, it’s a middling movie that people aren’t going to come back to after its first week of release expires. Playing my own demon’s advocate, maybe I wasn’t in the right mindset to get into the movie. Then again, “Revealer” didn’t do anything to break me out of my blasé attitude toward it, either.

Review Score: 40

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