Pulp Features

In the worlds of big name film people with huge budgets, small time filmmakers with tiny budgets and those in between many talented people get lost in the shuffle. When I say “Greg Arce” I am assuming the bulk of the readers here will respond with, “Who?” I am am also assuming, however, that you have some interest in the man or you wouldn’t be here, so let’s take a look at him.

Greg Arce is a stage actor turned video producer, the complete opposite of Andre Van Heerden. This man has gone the other way, so to speak, with the production of Den. Not maliciously anti-church or anti-religion, as it easily could have been, it offers some interesting points within its odd framework. It is not entirely horror, not entirely philosophical and not entirely black comedy either. When I first found out about this production (by accident), I contacted Arce and he seemed like a very pleasant fellow. When I received a copy of his video, I kept thinking to myself, “God, Jesus, Zeus, Thor, anyone up there…don’t let this guy’s work be the drizzling shits, knowing what I do about indy projects…”

Well, it wasn’t that bad.

The concept of the film has Arce as a psycho killer (He directed, wrote and produced this also, which had me really worried at first) who kidnaps a group of people, holds them hostage in his basement and torments them both mentally and physically. He encourages them to play a warped game of trivial pursuit and here is the really scary part, I knew all the answers, including things on the God-awful Shenanigans kid show I thought no one but me and evidently Arce remembers), he sets them against each other and ultimately kills them. It is at this point; just when you want to groan and call it routine indy stuff, the movie takes a twist. It is revealed the killer is a religious fanatic, wanting to save the souls of the various sinners he has captured, but the lone survivor, a loud, atheist woman, actually confronts him and tears down his arguments in favour of the Bible which could well, match some of the emails between Andre Van Heerden and myself. In the end, captive and killer effectively kill each other and the production ends…

Like you would really expect a happy ending!

Arce, by the way, looks like an insane Pavarotti and his screen image carries well. He’s also a better psycho than many counterparts in higher budget films.

Curiously, this production started out as just a play, when they all had the idea of videotaping it and marketing it as a movie. Again, the concept works for them.

As for the anti-religious sentiment in the film, Arce said in one email conversation that he was raised in a Catholic school and now is pretty much a disbeliever. It shows in the script.

For more information on this interesting newcomer, visit his webpage at www.clowntearsproductions.com which will provide more information on Den, as well as upcoming projects.

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