WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
The wonder of invention. With human kind’s natural instinct to explore everything around it, trying to dissect the intricacies of things known and more so things unknown, the light-bulb moment which occurs upon pioneering something groundbreaking to astound the world with is paramount and fulfilling. Of course, you hope it’s with the intent of “do no harm”. For struggling techno-music producer Roger (Roger Armstrong), life is nothing but a series of attempts to create the perfect beats–which has taken an absurdly lengthy time to actually accomplish–and hence has delayed a long gestating album. Still trying to follow his dream, his best friend John (John Hickman) is along for the ride, though ever so impatiently.
However, as Roger continues to explain his life’s ambitions, often to John’s ongoing, belabored annoyance with Roger’s musical “experiments”, a revelation comes that changes everything. Having located a specific set of tones and frequencies that greatly impact John during a session, Roger concludes he’s found the perfect tone that will aid a person to transcend consciousness once exposed to the music involved. Thinking Roger is rather off his rocker, John becomes a first initial test subject, with–interesting–results. Then, Roger expands his research and is soon convincing other people to try out his new creation via a homemade sound booth. But, the ensuing, murderous results become both an obsession with Roger, a bane to John, and a road to doom for anyone caught up in science gone wrong.
Next, my Mind:
With seriously dark comedic overtones paired with a nod to both the ever-prolific horror genre and good old fashioned buddy comedies, as was their stated intention, director duo Armstrong and Hickman deliver one whopper of an effort that, being honest, wasn’t quite in this particular reviewer’s wheelhouse ultimately. Now, the film very much succeeds in its purpose to provide both its comedic and horror elements on top of being filmed in “mockumentary” style, but for me, it was more that the type of humor and harsh language found here was just a bit too much outside personal preference. The bloody moments are actually so absurd in their context that it can’t be taken too seriously, though trust me, it’s still pretty intense and won’t necessarily be for everyone. Tongue-in-cheek is the final goal here, and I will say that is accomplished, but in that darkly executed tone.
Armstrong is quite humorous here, so don’t get my general non-preference for the film as negating what was acted out here. Watching Roger, a down-on-his -luck producer whose true prospects are not looking good suddenly discover something both scientifically relevant yet so overtly terrible is undeniably chuckle-worthy given the character’s overall demeanor and soon twisted mentality, which only gets worse as the story progresses. Soon, he’s beyond tipping point, and could become a victim of his own success. Hickman enacts John as an honestly goofy yet strangely intelligent bloke who manages to find a way to put up with Roger’s chaotic mind and experimentations until things take their nasty turn and John suddenly realizes perhaps he doesn’t actually want to be associated with it all anymore. Yet Roger’s insistence at having him around only draws John towards a possible sonic fate. Again, both Armstrong and Hickman perform well throughout.
Additional satellite characters appear in the midst of the insanity, much to their misfortune, except for one particular one that ends up adding a final, almost poetic exclamation point to the proceedings and how it all wraps up. In total, “Tone Death” will definitely appeal to those that very much appreciate the mash-up of genre films and associated content, while finding a way to laugh at it all as was purposed. But, for this reviewer, it simply didn’t resonate.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
