# WTF / worms / drugs / doll / body horror / trip / anxiety / disgust / gross / only for the ones with nerves of steel and a strong stomach / Polish premiere
ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS horror / USA / 1h 11min
Shocking, repulsive, disgusting
There are films so hideous that we have to look away from the screen. “All Jacked Up and Full Of Worms” has quite a few scenes like this. It’s a repulsive body horror pushing the boundaries of good taste further and further with each passing minute. The protagonists are social outcasts who are united only by a sense of rejection. Roscoe works in a seedy motel; Benny is a freak who dreams of having a child, so he buys a synthetic toddler; there is also a psychopath with a face paint and a drug-addicted girlfriend. All fall prey to addiction: they start snorting slimy bugs through their noses, which ensures them a trippy moment but also makes it even harder for them to return to reality. Because this is not a world that can be confronted sober.
“All Jacked Up and Full Of Worms” will not appeal to everyone. In fact, most viewers may consider Alex Phillips’s debut film a celluloid abomination and will crave a long shower after leaving the show. But there is a method to all the madness and grossness. “All Jacked Up and Full Of Worms” shows people who have taken the path of self-destruction and who have no desire to step off of it. Driven by drugs and intensifying sensations, they desire total decay. Though you watch their endeavors through your fingers, you can hardly not sympathize with them. The film resembles a nightmare with occasional tests of the viewers’ endurance via shaky images, swirling colors, and scenes of desperate sex. It evokes disgust with scenes in which worms jump out of the battered bodies of the characters. All of this makes closing your eyes seem like the only salvation. Yet it does not leave anyone indifferent, and after the screening, it will linger in your mind for a long time. It’s a strong, original debut that will shake up the audience’s value system.
directed by: Alex Phillips script: Alex Phillips cast: Phillip Andre Botello, Trevor Dawkins, Betsey Brown, Mike Lopez director of photography: Drew Angle music: Cue Shop editor: Troy Lewis language: English subtitles: Polish
WORLD PREMIERE: Fantasia International Film Festival 2022
