Midlands Review of Open Up
midlandsmovies • November 3, 2020
Open Up
Directed by Rob Gurney
2020
Digital Mechanic
Open Up is a new short film from first-time director Rob Gurney which follows an ancient vampire during the 2020 pandemic.
We are introduced to female vampire Tereni Fairuz in voiceover as she dresses herself in a leather outfit and dark make-up before a bombastic string score kicks in as the title appears.
“Do you know what lockdown means to a vampire?” she asks as she attacks a lonesome man at night in a flurry of anger and blood splatter.
Wiping her mouth of blood and leaving the victim’s body spent in the trash, our protagonist laments the current lockdown whilst also reminiscing over her experience of previous historical plagues.
The night-time photography is great with a clear, crisp and sharp image capturing the dazzling lights and shadowy alleys of (Leicester’s) city streets as our vampiress walks amongst the mostly empty roads and paths.
She is played well by the sultry alternative model Lady Viper, whose stage name could have been used without change here. However, the character’s name of Tereni Fairuz could also hint at darker symbolism with ‘teren’ sometimes meaning to rip apart or tear part of a creature’s body. Fairuz has its origins in Arabic as ‘victorious’, so both suitably apt for this vampiric fable.
One area of improvement could be the voice sound though. Some more dynamics or effects on the vocals (bit of delay, reverb or echo perhaps) could have added some much need depth and subtlety to the recording. With the dry delivery, the monologuing therefore at times feels a little flavourless and bland which could be fixed with another pass through ProTools.
Despite that, the film continues to explore some parallels with our current pandemic. “It’s only nature doing what nature does”, proclaims Tereni. And it’s a fact that diseases that plagued our past ancestors also played a part in the creation of myths like vampires too.
With a unique take on legends from an old world, the Covid metaphor spawns a number of ways to look at the untimely circumstances of the present-day world. And although it plays a bit like a showreel for both the star and the fantastic photography of the director, don’t keep your distance with this short.
Check out its infectious delights in a film that holds a gothic mirror up to our contemporary world to reflect our own dark anxieties.
Michael Sales
Up! (1976) Dir. Russ Meyer Well, bi-Adolf Hitler BDSM is not something (a) I thought I’d ever see 5 minutes into a movie and (b) ever expected to write in my lifetime to be fair but this spicy start is pretty standard for the work of exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer. Up! is a kind of r*pe-revenge softcore p*rn film (there’s gonna be a fair bit of self-censorship in this review so apologies in advance), the type Meyer is known for. I’d describe the plot in more detail but it’s mostly a convoluted and incoherent mess of double-crossing, murder, violence and lots and lots of humping. In short, a man called Adolph gets murdered and a woman investigates (kinda) the circumstances but as she does so, a group of locals blackmail, attack and screw each other with the murder mystery barely mentioned throughout. With so little narrative, it could be argued if it’s essentially p*rn? To be fair, not far off. It’s about extreme as you can go without simply making a s*x film. Is that a…no, it’s a belly button hole. Bookending the film (and also seen at various points throughout) is a Greek Chorus - simply a busty fully nude woman of course - who delivers dialogue like “Pummelling the scrotum with joyous supplication” and other such poeticisms. This artistic flourish is mostly pointless - the actress herself saying the words were tough to learn because it was utter nonsense. On a technical level, the editing is surprisingly well done and the 4k image is frankly fantastic. Someone somewhere must be putting together a post-modern take about the beautiful landscapes and cinematography of Meyer’s * ahem * output. But it definitely does have a kitsch artistry. It has certainly provided plenty of cinematic influence though. Elements of Tarantino grindhouse sensibilities are on show - Meyers likes bosoms as much as Quents likes feet - and there’s even a leather gimp early on. I can also see how its had an impact on Ti West X’s with a focus on sexuality and the body as well, more obviously, Anna Biller’s feminist-twist The Love Witch (2016). Suffice to say it’s not for the weak of heart. I think in this day and age you can’t go into this completely blind to its style, period and context though. It's an X-rated Carry On style that was bad taste then and it’s bad taste now. It revels in its sleaziness without a single hint of shame or apology. Simply saying 'deal with it'. The main negative though is the absence of plot - if the film can even be looked at like that - which is barely present. This is a shame as the whole thing could do with a bit more coherence rather than endless shagging. But it’s far from titillation, it’s mostly clowning - albeit a very adult version of it. More saucy than sexy. Trying to review this through modern sensibilities is almost impossible. It’s as offensive can be from the first scene through to the final credits - heck even this 4k menu is simply one of the film's many s*x scenes. But there are some progressive themes as it doesn’t shy from confronting sexual freedom, bisexuality, gay sex, BDSM and consensual exploration. There's moments of comedy thrown in and I enjoyed a frankly hilarious 5-minute monologue explaining the culprit’s intentions, which was a ludicrous way to deliver a slasher-style ending. I suppose the main thing about Up! (and Meyers’ work overall) is there’s a sort of love it or loathe it quality about the whole shebang. But it’s so unlike anything being made today - for good or bad - that it’s never anything other than unpredictably fascinating. More explicit than most Meyers films - in fact more than any film - it’s a lewd, rude and crude (s)exploration with a satirical edge and campy enjoyment bouncing from every frame. ★★★ 3 / 5 Michael Sales Severin Films releases Russ Meyers' UP! (1976) and MOTORPSYCHO (1965) on 28 April 2025 in newly restored and scanned 4k with hours of new and archival Special Features https://severinfilms.co.uk/
On the 24th of April, the Midlands Art Centre opened its doors to Gobby Flicks Productions for a night of live comedy. Proceeds were raised towards the production of new short comedy films, directed and written by women.
Ti West’s The House of the Devil makes a wonderful companion piece to his film The Innkeepers. Both maintain the director’s referential approach to horror, incapsulating it in a slow burning 90 minutes that manages to build and maintain tension while cheekily winking to the audience and showing the mechanisms behind the scares.
Read the full list of nominees for the Midlands Movies Awards 2025