Acne is Beautiful
Horror Comedy Takes Teen Angst to New Level

Some films defy classification. With the film Acne by writer and director Rusty Nails, even words like horror, sci-fi, comedy, spoof, and satire don't seem to adequately cover it. This film is certainly all of these things, but with its apparent agenda to lampoon authority, it may also be a rallying cry for disaffected teens.

Acne
A teenager finds himself succumbing to a horrifying case of brain-popping acne in the comedy horror film Acne. (New Eye Films, 2005)

Directed by: Rusty Nails
Written by: Rusty Nails
Starring: Tracey Hayes, Rusty Nails, Jim Darley, Mary Luckritz, and Timothy Hutchings

Rated Not Rated
Running time: 65 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 8 out of 10.

In Acne, Nails provides a satirical horror film that has a lot in common stylistically with the propaganda films of the 1950s. Nails co-stars as Zooey, a teen who becomes infected by some toxic oil in the town water supply. His head becomes a giant zit, popping open to reveal his brain. Along with his sister Franny (Tracey Hayes), he spreads the infection through the town. Those infected -- all teenagers -- find their heads grotesquely mutilated into giant zits.

The intriguing thing about Acne is the lack of gore and bloodshed. These zombies do not eat human flesh. Rather, they crave sweets and creams that they can rub on their exposed brains and soothe the infection. While this is a little weird, and some of the scenes of popping heads are gross, there isn't the prerequisite bucket of blood per scene as in most modern slasher movies.

The military presence in the film exists both as a conspiratorial villain and as comic relief. As in a bad science fiction film from the '50s, the blind patriotism of the military makes it a danger to itself and the general populace. At first, it ignores the obvious threat that infects the town. Then General Minneburg (Jim Darley) conspires with the "Mershey" chocolate company to prolong the outbreak in an effort to control the infected teenage population.

Filmed entirely in black and white, Acne feels as if it had been made forty or fifty years ago. The film refuses to take itself (or its many subplots) seriously, however. The story lampoons everything from authority figures to teenage behavior. Like a B-movie from that period, the characters are ridiculous stereotypes of themselves. The authority figures (military, government, corporations) each act according to type. Only the teen zombies act in an unexpected way. They find themselves able to reason and speak when they avoid giving in to their cravings. They don't want to affect others and go out of their way to avoid contact with friends and family.

In a Q&A following the film, Nails said that the lack of violence and death is important in this film. The teen zombies are in part a metaphor for the awkward period of life that we go through. At the end of the film, the zombies are not destroyed, but change, even as in life our formative years do not kill us. We may emerge from our experiences more cynical and jaded, but the consequences are never as life-threatening as we assumed.

These teen zombies are victims of their world, unable to do much except for exist in their own way among their own kind. When they are eventually "cured," the experience freed them of their deformities but left them skeptical of those authority figures who let this happen. It is this idea that transforms Acne from spoof to social satire and makes it as interesting as it is fun to watch.

You can find out more on the official web site: www.neweyefilms.com