Review : The Pizzagate Massacre (2021)
Five years ago, I collaborated with Butcher Bear and BoomBaptist on a track titled Barbaric Rhetoric, which we gave the full single release treatment, including a music video. The following year, the music video was entered into the Austin Music Video Festival, and it was during this event that John Valley appeared on my radar for his stellar work with Sweet Spirit on their music video for Baby Doll. Cut to two years later, and I was just coming off of a lead role in Ryan Darbonne’s stellar short film effort I AM TX when the homie Morgan Davis reached out to me about a potential role in Valley’s upcoming directorial debut, then titled Duncan. I auditioned, which is where I learned my friend Tinus Seaux was one of the leads (and the titular character), and while I didn’t get the part I auditioned for, a small role was created for me, and it was at that point that I learned my cousin Alexandria Payne was the other lead. With so many connections, so much invested in the project and a stellar script on the table, it was a no-brainer to get involved with the film.
The crowdsourced fundraising and production went off relatively well, but once it came time to shop the film, a number of hurdles presented themselves. First and foremost, despite the amazing work done during the production, nearly every festival the film was presented to either didn’t get it or felt the need to distance themselves from the project based on its loose connections to the QAnon phenomenon and the then recent Pizzagate debacle. To further complicate things, 2020 presented the world with a pandemic, essentially shutting down nearly all businesses. Luckily for Valley and company, some stateside and international horror festivals discovered the film and embraced it, leading to major moves in 2021, including a purchase by Archstone Entertainment and Raven Banner Entertainment.
Finally, as of today, The Pizzagate Massacre has found a home on a number of popular streaming services, resulting in the culmination of years of blood, sweat, tears, pain and dedication. With the film easily accessible moving forward, now felt like the time to properly share my feelings on the film in as unbiased a way as I possibly could.
What really makes this film work is how bold it is in terms of taking the QAnon phenomenon on head on, providing us with an unflinchingly honest take on how conspiracy theories have transformed into modern-day fuel for politically and ideologically motivated extremists actions. While relatively simple in terms of spirit, Duncan perfectly encapsulates how a person raised and shaped by a questionable moral and ideological background can find themselves positioned as the aggressor when their ties to militias and extremists groups intersects with very tangible actions motivated by grey area information with little to no fact-based foundation. The character of Duncan is perhaps one of the most layered and complex antiheroes cinema has produced in quite a while. On the one hand, he stands as a protector of the media and free speech in the way that he protects Karen during their crusade to Austin to uncover the truth, all the while firmly professing his want and need to not be a part of the story. On the flip side of this Duncan coin, he is shown to be a relatively influential member of his militia (mostly based to his connection to his infamous father), albeit one that is taken with loads of resentment from the inner oppositional faction. It is this inner turmoil within the faction that further blurs the lines of Duncan’s character, as he unconditionally adheres to the militia’s ideals while constantly standing in the face of Philip and his attempts to overtake the leadership position, up to and including several violent skirmishes.
Karen, who was mentioned previously, is the purest protagonist in the film, and this is made doubly interesting when one considers that she is a firm symbol for honest, unbiased and truth-seeking journalism in the face of fake news, heavily slanted presentations and deeply emotional appeals disguised as hard news. She is presented as smart, capable, aware and willing to engage with any and all sides in the hopes of uncovering and presenting the truth, which is the polar opposite of Terri Lee (a not-so subtle presentation of the Alex Jones style of information dissemination), who leans into her listener base to support her stories, is more often than not prone to straying away from facts in the hopes of sparking emotional and irrational fears, and most importantly, is concerned with being a cult of personality much more so than a responsible journalist. Ideas of QAnon, Pizzagate scenarios and militia-based extremists may be the bait to reel potential viewers in, but the real meat of the story lies in the way that the media plays any and all sides against one another, as if truth is nothing but a rope in a morality and issue-based tug of war.
Valley and company are able to use the writing to say some very compelling things about the extremist approach to political and ideological extremists actions while still being able to provide an emotional compelling and often darkly humorous satire of modern living. The darkness of the satire is driven home further by the cinematography and color-timing of the film, which lands the presentation firmly within the realms of the work of directors like John Carpenter, Martin Scorsese and William Friedkin, capturing the look and feel of their 1970s work when directors ran the creative ship. Speaking of Carpenter, the combined scoring efforts of Valley and collaborator Erik Gatling give off major Carpenter vibes with the synth-heavy dark and brooding musical accompaniment to the disturbing series of events. Austin and its surrounding areas are captured in a way that makes the city both immediately recognizable and purposefully indistinct, making it easy to connect to for both day one supporters and the general viewing public in the hopes of illustrating just how easy it is for a series of events similar to this to go completely off the rails in real life. Kudos must also be given to the special effects department for their work with firearms, not to mention the make-up department for their ability to make gunshot victims appear genuinely mortally wounded.
I will try my best to avoid nepotism-based reflections for the cast, but it will be hard to do, as a handful of these people are close to me or would be considered my creative peers. In terms of the leads, Tinus Seaux and Alexandria Payne have wonderful chemistry together, with Seaux’s moral compass, frenetic fervor and steel reserve in the face of danger creating a volatile mixture when blended with Payne’s no-nonsense, deeply dedicated and driven approach. Lee Eddy puts on a performance for the ages, edging the line of comedic charicature and landing comfortably within that small realm of fear-inducing terror and emotion-inducing realism. Director John Valley also steps wholeheartedly into the antagonist role, encompassing the nurture-based zealotry of a lifelong true-believer and harnessing it into a highly-charged livewire of a performance. Steve Brudniak is truly frightening in his brief but key appearance, firmly playing the racist card while also absolving his character of any emotional remorse in terms of the way he meets his inevitable fate. Reynold Washam embodies the corporate spirit of ‘whatever keeps us in the black’ and ‘if it bleeds it leads’, pushing his crew like the captain of a rogue ship with media domination and the control of truth as his ultimate goals. Appearances by Zachary T. Scott, Derek Babb, J.J. SUmmers, Chandra Washington, Donald R. Harrell, Colton Ferguson, Morgan Davis, myself and a host of others round out the powerful cast of Austin characters.
The pride and joy my association with this project has brought me is immeasurable. The Pizzagate Massacre feels like a big first step in the career of John Valley, not to mention all of the talent handpicked to bring his vision to life. Pizzagate is most certainly still a very hot-button issue, and one that is known to trigger emotional responses, but my advice would be to reserve judgement until you buy the ticket and take the ride, as you may come out the other side with a broader perspective.