


Gross, gory and psychedelically nonsensical, Alex Phillips “All Jacked Up and Full of Worms” plays like the sort of indie film guy with a camera and some stoner buddies make.
It’s sloppy, semi-scripted and lacks much of anything that you’d call a plot, just random, semi-connected characters bumping into each other, falling into The Latest Thing — hallucinogenic worms — and disemboweling each other to get their hands on more of those narcotic nightcrawlers.
“There’s only one WRONG way to do worms!”
“To NOT do worms?”
That can make it play like an improvisational exercise, see how “out there” you’re willing to take things. Maybe actually eat live worms (just a guess here) to really get into the part. And don’t worry about the filmmaker who’s staging stabbings, self-injury, guttings that take out intestines and the like. He didn’t even bother to get the smudges off the lens between takes.
The “plot” could not be more random. It’s got nudity and sex workers and near-nauseating sex, a paganist guru (Dodge Weston) and a pervy ginger named Benny (Trevor Dawkins) who’s ordered “my baby” mail order. It’s a “Youth sized pleasure doll” ready for molesting. Benny either wants to start a family or is on the hunt for an infant to molest, or both.
Disturbing? Yeah. And that’s before he gets his first taste of “worm.” Wanna share one?
“We could do it ‘Lady and the Tramp’ style,” the helpful hooker (Eva Fellows) offers. Eat, chew, snort or take in through gash you slash into your arm, worms are the drug of choice in this corner of the American drug-crazed cornucopia.
Me? I sit down at the bar and some dude’s scarfing worms, I’m telling the barkeep “Gimme whatever he’s NOT having.”
But it’s not really depraved if you’re mocking the depravity, is it? Eh? Is it? Asking for a friend who needs a lawyer.
Rating: unrated, graphic violence, sex, profanity, sex with a baby doll
Cast: Carol Rhyu, Dodge Weston, Betsy Brown, Phillip Andre Botello, Eva Fellows, Mike Lopez, Trevor Dawkins, Sammy Arechar
Credits: Scripted and directed by Alex Phillips. A Cinedigm/Screambox release.
Running time: 1:12