Writer/director Nathan Alan Thomas’ EP/2 is a takedown of grifters, scammers, and influencers. It’s also a horror movie about indie filmmaking, the festival circuit, and the nature of creativity and storytelling. The feature contains a heck of a lot of interesting concepts, even if the execution doesn’t always work.
Kyle Gregory stars as Kyle, a huckster who created a fake film festival to swindle struggling indie filmmakers out of money via submission fees and extremely pricey press packages. He promises to review their films, and he even offers interview coverage, but he never follows through. It’s merely a way for him to pocket money. Kyle receives a mysterious short film from a writer and director named EP (Paolo Ricci). Kyle and his partner in crime, Luke (Luke St. Germaine), groan at the thought of watching another arthouse horror movie. However, EP promises gobs of money, so they can’t refuse.
EP’s strange film looks so real that Kyle can’t look away. It features sequences where a young actress, Natasha (Jaclene London), wears a collar and endures a series of brutal tests, all directed by EP. If she doesn’t follow through, he’ll kill her. Some of these sequences play out like a snuff film, as if EP’s film itself is dangerous and poisons whomever watches it. This alone is an interesting concept and one of the feature’s strongest elements. London also gives a decent performance, considering her character’s brutal trials.
Eventually, EP convinces Kyle to meet with him to direct a sequel. In predictable fashion, this meet-up leads to more deadly games and endangers Kyle’s life. Soon, he’s fitted with a similar collar and forced to obey EP’s sinister direction. There’s also a twist that reveals Kyle knew Natasha and screwed her over, just like he did with countless indie filmmakers. It’s tough to feel bad for him once EP unleashes justified punishment.
The feature also comments on the nature of filmmaking itself, including how hard it is for indie filmmakers to crack the festival circuit and how expensive it is as well. Just consider the submission fees alone. Thomas’ work underscores the challenges of getting one’s art out there in such a competitive and increasingly expensive market. This is handled well, but there are one too many meta moments and sly winks at the audience. It grows tiresome after a while.
EP/2 has some interesting concepts at play and confronts the challenges of indie filmmaking. However, sometimes the film is a little too clever for its own good. Still, the issues the feature addresses are important and warrant attention, even if the execution sometimes falters here.
