Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls
An acolyte of Satan and dark disciple of Bartok the Great who splits his time between his bedroom in the house he shares with disapproving mom Nancy and her antagonistic new husband Todd and Marty’s Meat Shack where he engages in the intellectually stimulating activity of flipping burgers, opportunities have been few for Marcus J Trillbury AKA Onyx the Fortuitous until he finds he is one of the lucky winners of the grand getaway, a chance to meet Bartok and participate in a major ceremony.
Invited to Briardale Manor, clutching his BattlKatz lunchbox Onyx makes his way to meet his fellow inductees into the dark domain, a group with diverse backgrounds among whom he remains the outsider, but pledged to assist in the summoning of the demon Abaddon he forges forward with the trials they all must face to prove their worthiness and desirability, though for Bartok and his assistant Farrah the tests of suitability are for another purpose that has already been determined.
An inhabitant of the darker corners of the internet where he has become a cult figure, Onyx the Fortuitous is the creation of Andrew Bowser, writer, director and ostensible star of Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls though he never pulls the spotlight away from his ensemble of Rivkah Reyes, Terrence Carson, Melanie Chandra, Arden Myrin and Olivia Taylor Dudley as investigator Zee, linguist John Duke, gothic vegan tattoo artist Jesminder, eccentric poet Shelley and the aloof but efficient Farrah.
Cult leader and multimedia guru Bartok the Great himself played by genre favourite Jeffrey Combs, enjoying himself in a part which almost parodies the mad geniuses he has played down the years with the only restraint placed upon him an eyepatch, with each of the guests bound to him and given a role in the summoning appealing to their egos, the Queen, the Lycan, the Viking and the Witch, that leaves the highly-strung Onyx as the Virgin, a designation to which he strongly objects but cannot deny.
Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls a cavalcade of secret passages, arcane tomes and opened tombs with occasional musical numbers when things get too tense for Onyx and his defence of manic logorrhoea can no longer suffice, from the start the odds are against him and Zee, the only one of the group who politely introduces herself to Onyx on their first meeting rather than dismissing them, faced with dark magic, demonic presences and soulless zombies.
Bowser a declared and enthusiastic fan of eighties comedy horror in all its excesses and glory, with nods to everything from Lifeforce and Beetlejuice to Meat Loaf videos the monsters of Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls are crafted through entirely practical means, the destination apparent from early on but the joy being less the arrival than the journey, the crazy company and the shenanigans which unfold along the twisted and bumpy route.
The Glasgow Film Festival has now concluded
