Revealer
The slum districts of Chicago, 1987, Angie Pittarelli trying to make ends meet and support both herself and nephew David by working as a stripper at Revealers, harassed on the way to another undignified day working booth number three until midnight by protesters led by the righteous wrath of Sally Mewbourne, could the day get any worse? Turns out the answer is yes
As Angie puts in the hours on the pole the Judgement Day of Revelations arrives outside, raining down brimstone and fire on the decency squad and their Bible quoting placards and forcing Sally to take shelter in Revealers, she and Angie apparently the only survivors who have retained their humanity and forced to cooperate if they are to make it to safety, Sally aiming for the sanctuary of the nearest church to await the rapture and Angie desperate to locate David.
A single-location low-budget horror directed by Luke Boyce from a script co-written with Michael Moreci and Tim Seeley, the premise of Revealer begs for rowdy comedy, the silver-bikini clad, neon-drenched flesh delight that is Angie, emancipated and determined, and the dowdy and repressed Sally, one who judges all and one to whom all clients are equal, their true selves slowly revealed in the crisis.
Regrettably, Revealer plays like a template, each argument and discovery of common ground ticked off against an apocalypse in which very little happens, Angie and Sally spending too long in a single dingy room and struggling to open a jammed door, each scene played too long as though reticent to move forwards knowing there is nowhere else to go.
Despite the two leads representing diametrically opposite experiences of what it is to be a woman in (retro) modern America, it is obvious that Revealer was conceived and crafted by a bunch of dudes, Caito Aase or Shaina Schrooten working with a mediocre script where the character development resembles nothing more than a child quoting scripture, lines memorised and spoken without thought, feeling or understanding.
Failing to deliver trashy laughs and gore or a deeper analysis of the divide between one whose being is built on lies and misrepresentation acceptable to society and another who provides an honest service yet who is frowned upon, it is difficult to understand how Revealer manages to be so dull, the most interesting part the end titles which suggest an imagination and scale never hinted at elsewhere.
Revealer will be available on Shudder from Thursday 23rd June
