Paul Solet: Director
Review: Means to an End
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Means to an End
Director: Paul Solet, Jake Hamilton
Release: 2005
A glorious and openly sophomoric love letter to genre special effects, Means to an End follows the sub-industry exploits of Skinny Guy (Paul Solet) and Heavy Guy (Jake Hamilton) as they attempt to sell their slasher services to Hollywood.
The problem is purity according to Skinny Guy, but when the props provided by PJ FX prove a bit too real, the two are thrown off the set and must convince sleazy hard-sell Mr. Devlin (Neil Clayman) that they can deliver something people will want to see.
The solution is brutally simple. The duo begins to hack and slice, drill and shave each other with real implements. As their bodies are carved down, their reel is built up. Devlin, however, makes the fatal error of telling them their demo tape lacks a killer ending. The rest, as one might imagine, follows logically from that request.
Theres nothing at all sophisticated about Solet and Hamiltons story, but Means to an End surprises in that it is artful. However low their budget, the gore on screen is arresting. More interesting, however, is the camera.
Director of Photography Adam J. Allecas camera moves with a grace and fluidity that nearly eradicates the sometimes-poor lighting and grainy digital video glare. Hamilton and Solets story is told through gliding Steadicams in convenience stores and lingering mise-en-scene that take risks. Note the shot of blood creeping toward a sink drain. Means to an End pauses at moments of beauty recalling cinematographer Barry Abrams study of water and light in Friday the 13th.
As an unbridled romp, Means to an End owes little debt to theme or subtext. It is certainly a mild commentary on the state of horror within a bottom-line-versus-high-concept industry, and it has fun with the desperate artist characters of Heavy Guy and Skinny Guy. Mostly, it is a promising piece of cinema better appreciated for its technical execution on a tiny spreadsheet than the kind of heavy-hitting social dialogue Solet would open with his 2006 follow-up short, Grace.
James OBrien
Cinescare Staff
