The Story:
Director, writer, and star Brett Kelly is Danny. Things just aren't going great for Danny. His boss at his job is a butt wipe, and then his dad dies. When he visits the gravesite, he is attacked by some unseen creature and hits his head. That's when things get weird. Danny begins having hallucinations and dreams about being a carnivorous monster attacking various people in the park and in the woods. His temper starts getting the better of him, and he gets violent at his job. His personality change begins to come between he and his girlfriend. And before long, dead bodies begin mounting up, and the cops are on the hunt for a serial killer. One of the prime suspects is Danny himself, who is pretty sure he knows what his problem is. He was bitten by a werewolf. Or was he? Is it all just in his imagination?

Brett Kelly's movie is an extremely independent film that looks like a film school project. When you subtract the time spent on credits, the movie clocks in at about 50 minutes. There is a mixed bag of performances. None are all that bad (well, there are a few exceptions) and some are actually quite good. Brett reminds me of Live Schreiber (Cotton Weary in the Scream franchise), and is clearly the focus of the movie. Personally, the standout actor in the bunch to me was Steve Patterson, who played one of the detectives. His performance was very natural, and he's cute to boot—and I'm not even partial to blonds. The storyline itself was fresh for a werewolf movie, if not unique in genre (think Vampire's Kiss, in which Nicholas Cage believed he was a blood sucker). This movie is released by Splatter Rampage, a studio that promises gore galore in its marketing. This movie doesn't quite fit the bill. Brett admits in the interview & commentary that he had no budget for the film, so we don't see any effects. Just the occasional red liquid being splashed thickly onto a tree or wall. Brett was going more for a character study than a horror movie, but is clearly influenced by horror movie techniques. So, this movie is also not going to scare you at all—except this one audio moment (see below, under AUDIO). As a character study, it's interesting, but just not flushed out enough in the time allotted. This is most likely one of those movies that would have been a very different vision for the writer if he'd been given a budget in which to do it. As is, it falls short of being a full-length feature, and drags on a bit too long to have any impact as a short tale. Much of the filler (like Brett doing a lot of walking in his frantic state) seems to be there to showcase the bands who supplied music to this indy production. Even so, despite it's amateur sheen, there's something about Brett's mindset. He mentions Ed Wood in some of the bonus material, and I can definitely see that he has an eye for that campy schlock, and can probably make some really wacky stuff that goes from gore to comedy to psychotic sickness if given the opportunity. If you're extremely non-conformist in your love of cinema, you may want to give some of Brett's works a look.

The DVD

Video:
What can I say? The movie pretty much looks like it was shot onto video. It's grainy, it's blurry, there's extreme haloing around all edges, and the color is washed out and flat, the lighting spotty and uneven. I don't imagine anyone is buying a film this independent expecting to get visual beauty.

Sound:
The audio track sounds mono, but the rock music showcased sounds nice and clear. And ironically, the one point at which I jumped was at an unexpected bass thumping—a heartbeat-like sound effect used for atmosphere in the movie. It scared the hell out of me the first time it kicked in during a silent moment.

Extras:
Aside from an opening promo for Splatter Rampage movies that could definitely be appreciated by those with a gore lover's mentality, there are a load of extras here. The breakdown goes like this:

TRAILERS—for 10 movies, one of which is The Feral Man.

COMMENTARY with BRETT KELLY—Brett demonstrates passion and pride in his work, and you can tell he has the creative mind of a movie maker.

CAST INTERVIEWS—the gang talks about meeting, getting cast by, and working with Brett. 12 minutes.

INTERVIEW with BRETT KELLY—as is often the case, the director repeats much of the same stuff he talks about in the commentary track. 8 minutes.

OUTTAKES—it's called the "Mark & Steve show" because actors Mark Courneyea and Steve Patterson (the detective team) are said to be the two funniest guys on the set. So all 10 minutes feature them in outtakes.

GOOD DOG, DEAD DOG—Brett stars in his own short, 11 minute film, the story of a man who loves his dog—and begins to go insane when the dog dies, despite the fact that he won't admit it died…and cares for it as if it's still alive. You have the option to listen to Brett's commentary while watching this. Here's another plot that shows you the off-kilter type of stories Brett could supply to freshen up the indy scene.

FINAL CURTAIN preview & SPACEMEN, GO GO GIRLS & THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS preview—2 minute trailers for two more oddball works in which Brett was involved.

Final Thoughts:
The Feral Man is not for the casual viewer. It is strictly for lovers of indy upstarts, and those who want to see what kind of horror tale a filmmaker can make on a shoestring budget. Who knows? Writer/director/star Brett Kelly may some day be making an impact on the larger horror camp cult community.