Be honest: are you someone who hates frou-frou art films? Does the term “independent movie” make you frown because all you can think about are characters having boring conversations about their equally boring lives? Most of all, do you think the filmmakers behind these movies are pretentious young idiots who are way too full of themselves? In that case, I’ve got the perfect indie film for you: I Blame Society (2020). This is a movie where a young filmmaker is struggling to get her first real film off the ground before she finds her new focus…murder. Specifically, making a movie about what it would take to become a great serial killer.
This is prompted by a “compliment” she once received that she’d make a great killer (director Gillian Wallace Horvat once received the same compliment). She takes the subject a little too seriously, though, because in her mind, pulling off a perfect murder and making a perfect film require very similar skills. Thus, she engages in an increasingly unhinged, darkly funny descent into madness. Of course, the film explores the intersection between madness and genius as it skewers everything about modern moviemaking. Now that scary films Obsession and Backrooms are tearing it up at the box office, this is the perfect time to watch I Blame Society, the ultimate satire of modern horror moviemaking.
Sex, Drugs, And Doc’n’Roll
The basic premise of I Blame Society is that a character (played by writer/director Gillian Wallace Horvat) is trying to make a movie about how to become the perfect serial killer. What we are watching is the documentary she has created, making the whole thing feel caught somewhere between found footage horror and creative confessional. The character chronicles her increasingly transgressive crimes, like shoplifting and stalking. Eventually, she kills someone more or less accidentally. Instead of repenting and turning herself in, however, she leans in, perfecting the art of moviemaking by perfecting the art of murder, one victim at a time.
On paper, I Blame Society has many of the hallmarks of traditional indie movies: a crazy premise, an ongoing gimmick, and a young auteur at the center, holding it altogether. If you’re not a fan of indie films, though, why should you give this one a shot? The first reason is that its unconventional premise makes for a fairly compelling horror movie. Your mileage may vary, but I always find it scarier when a cinematic killer is completely nonchalant about the lives they are destroying, like Joe Keery in Spree. Horvat is the same in I Blame Society, and her performance alternates between amusingly deranged and utterly chilling.
Lights, Camera, Slashing
Additionally, I Blame Society is interesting because it relentlessly skewers many of the stupider things about Hollywood. For example, our protagonist has a meeting with two male producers who try to pass themselves off as woke but are soon revealed to be idiotic hypocrites. This scene, like many others, works because it tackles a hot-button issue in a way that different groups will find engaging. For example, progressive audiences will like this scene because it portrays the difficulties female filmmakers must navigate in a male-dominated industry. Conservative audiences, meanwhile, will enjoy this scene for how it portrays wokeness as a cynical marketing technique rather than a sincerely held belief.
If you like psychological thrillers, it’s also bizarrely compelling to watch our main character’s descent into madness and murder. Because we are watching the documentary, she is in charge of the narrative, and the movie trusts the audience to decide for themselves how increasingly deranged the protagonist is getting. This transforms her into the unreliable narrator of her own story; again, your mileage may vary, but I loved this because it challenged me to separate objective truth from her subjective self-perception. Plus, it’s wonderfully meta: I Blame Society is Gillian Wallace Horvat’s feature film debut, and she created a story about how getting away with murder is easier than getting a movie deal.
First Degree Auteur
It helps that Horvat gives such a great performance in the film. It’s convincing because it’s based partially on lived experiences: not only does she know all about the difficulties of getting a movie off the ground, but she actually received the “you’d make a great killer” comment in real life. She made a movie about how difficult it is to make a movie, featuring herself as a deranged person who thinks she’s actually a creative genius. Along the way, she dragged Hollywood with some of the most hilariously satirical caricatures this side of Dante’s Inferno.
I Blame Society isn’t a perfect film: it relies perhaps too much on its premise, and it will grate on anyone who hates found footage horror or the caricatures she populates the movie with. However, those caricatures help her create the freshest cinematic satire in years, all while Horvat gives a powerhouse performance both in front of the camera and behind it. Plus, you get to watch her stalk and slaughter her way through Los Angeles in what had to be a bleakly cathartic release for the filmmaker. If you’re looking for your own catharsis, it’s just a click away: I Blame Society is currently streaming for free on Tubi.
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