Footsteps (2006) — Triskaidekafiles

FOOTSTEPS

WRITER: G.H. Evans

DIRECTOR: G.H. Evans

STARRING: Nicholas Bool as Andrew

Mads Koudal as Paul

Jared Morgan as Cameraman

QUICK CUT: After the death of his father, Andrew spirals into despair, but eventually finds purpose when he makes new friends.

THE MORGUE

Andrew - An average young man who is having a rough go of it, and hitting rock bottom. He’s very quiet, just going through life, and he does not want to accept anyone’s charity as things fall apart.

Paul - A gang member who takes Andrew under his wing to show him the ropes. He’s gregarious, but takes no shit, and he’s very friendly to Andrew, as long as he doesn’t cross him.

The Cameraman - One of the top men in this criminal empire Andrew falls into. He gets his jollies by filming people getting beaten to death with a pipe. He’s the one who sees the potential in Andrew, and recruits him, and remains a vocal supporter.

Larry - Seems to be the big boss of entire thing. He’s nervous, he’s scummy, he trusts no one, and especially not trusting of Andrew, the new kid.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! So a few months ago, I heard about this movie, Footsteps. I added it to the Trisk schedule for this month. In the intervening time, I...forgot who was talking about it, why I thought it was Triskable, and why I pushed it so quickly. And lemme tell ya, I...still have no idea. I watched the movie, and it was simply too late to change my mind. But this isn't an entire wash. It's at least now worth talking about in this weird context, and see if I have made a grave mistake. Let's get into this.

The movie opens up with a man in a tunnel standing over a homeless dude with a pipe, as he's filmed by a guy urging him to do the bum in with the pipe. When he refuses, the man behind the camera shocks him, and tells the bum to kill him. My, how the turns have tabled.

With that task done, the Cameraman, as that is how he is known, sets down said camera, and takes out the bum, finishing the job.

During the credits, we get at least two more deaths, and I'll give the movie this, it at least starts out with some decent brutality.

We meet our lead character, Andrew, as he's just going through the motions in life. He's distant, and his girlfriend can feel how uninterested he is, and leaves him. This whole mood of his is driven home with repetitious images at work, and turning his back to his girlfriend, and very little dialogue.

Andrew visits his father in the hospital, receives a letter, and I get the impression that this is an event that takes place before he has distanced self, and is supposed to explain why he's numb. The movie seems to be jumping around a lot, without really explaining.

I can’t even hit a glass bottle with a rock, another reason my life sucks!

Following a meeting with his stepmom, basically settling his dad's affairs, but saying he doesn't need to be a stranger, it's back to work, and oop, they're downsizing. The hits keep coming for Andy.

He heads home, but the monotony and routine and pointlessness of it all sends Andrew spiraling. He ends up at a club where he stumbles upon listening to some utter banality in a public restroom, until Andrew can't take it anymore. He goes up to the guys and lays one out pretty quick. It seems like it's all he can do to feel anything.

Andrew ducks back out into the club, where he sees his ex with another guy. Before he can do anything to them, the friend of the guy from the restroom comes out to have a few words with Andrew. And he ends up in much the same position as his buddy; on the floor.

The first guy, if I'm reading this correctly, pops back up and sucker punches Andy, getting a bit of revenge. I'm kinda guessing at things, since it cuts right from Andrew getting pounced, to the aftermath of him with a bloody nose, sitting in an alley.

Which is when the Cameraman shows up, with another patsy with a pipe, to film his latest snuff film. This time with Andrew as the victim. Well, this was a short movie!

Andrew takes his licks, survives the encounter, and picks up the pipe to threaten the Cameraman. Apparently this so impresses the filmmaker that he decides to hire him on.

He hands Andrew off to Paul for some on the job training, starting with Paul disposing of...oh, it's probably bodies. While they drive off, Paul asks a few questions, but as you can pick up by this point, Andy isn't very talkative.

Paul picks up a dog called Max to take him for a walk, which is actually just an excuse to do a live drop to trade some stuff for their illegal businesses.

After awhile, Paul gives up, and they head back to Crime HQ, to run some more errands and chat. While Andrew hangs around, he overhears the big boss, I guess, upset over the new kid being shown the base of operations so soon. The Cameraman vouches for him, though.

This guy took mask mandates to a whole new level.

The next day, Paul picks up Andy for work, and he asks about the large bag in the back seat. They stop at HQ so Paul can drop it off, and the bag is very whimpery and moving. So uh, yeah, that's not good.

Paul and Andrew continue driving around doing criminal activity, including visiting a strung out blonde woman who owes them money.

Later that night, Andrew gets picked up and taken to an alleyway so he can have his pipe bashing inauguration.

Paul finds a handy victim, which I think I recognise as the guy who box cuttered a dude earlier, and slips him some drugs. Once he's nice and woozy, Paul leaves him in an alley for Andy. Cleanup on aisle five?

Following the beating Andrew lets out, he ups and disappears for a few days to process. This sends his criminal associates into a bit of a tizzy.

The Cameraman takes to hanging out in Andrew's flat, hoping he'll show up. Eventually Paul runs into him wandering the streets and takes him back around the job, while people decide just how to deal with the kid.

Paul tracks down the strung out blonde from earlier, and stuffs her in the car to deal with her as well. Andy tries to wander off, but Paul makes his position very clear.

However, while he was distracted with one problem, the blonde finds a knife and slashes Paul across the face. She runs off to try and get away, while Paul yells at Andrew some more.

They track Michelle to a friend's place, and Paul goes full torturer mode on the guy's foot to try and find out where she is. She's hiding nearby though, and rushes out in response to her friend's screams.

Paul stabs her in the neck, and calls back to HQ to call in the cleaners and get some idea what to do next. While he's looking the other way, Andrew picks up the dropped knife, and hands it to the boyfriend.

Dean uses the knife, stabbing Paul several times, and hands the murder weapon to Andrew as he leaves the crime scene. But not before picking up a very convenient pipe laying on the floor.

Andrew heads to the Den, and there's a huge fight with him and everyone there, and he just kinda John Wicks his way through the lot of them. Actually, that is giving it too much credit, don’t look forward to an epic action sequence.

He makes his way to Big Boss Larry, and after a movie where he has a whopping two or three lines, most of them very quiet and mumbled, Andrew lets out all his pain and rage in a fury of shouts at the man. And he ends up just shooting him in the head.

So Andrew makes his way home, not knowing that the Cameraman is there waiting for him. But he's unfortunately too busy putting Andrew's pet fish on the stove to boil, and misses the kid coming home, when he would've been easier to catch unawares.

But it's not long before the two stand off against each other, and Andrew doesn't hesitate one bit, knifing the older man right in the neck.

Andy heads to the train station, where we've seen him have several pleasant memories of his dad, and chill on a bench. He sees his ex show up on a train, she sees his bloody face and is about to jump off, concerned, but Andy just smiles, shakes his head, as if to say no, don't worry about him, go live your life, be free, or some such nonsense.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It looks all right, very average.

Sound: Also not terrible

Body Count: Not too shabby, really.

1 - About 90 seconds in, and a guy gets beaten to death.

2 - And the man who did it joins the same fate shortly after.

3 - Some guy gets a box cutter down his throat during the credits.

4 - A woman ODs from coke, also in the credits.

5 - Blonde dies in a struggle.

6 - And then Dean stabs Paul

7 - Andrew bottles mask guy in the face

8 - Andrew shoots the big boss man in the head

9 - He stabs the Cameraman in the neck and then some.

Best Corpse: Oh, that’s gotta be the dude that gets the box cutter down the throat.

Blood Type - C+: Not a ton of blood or effects in this movie, but when someone gets bruised, it looks pretty good.

Drink Up!: Every time someone picks up a pipe

Movie Review: So. Did I make a grave mistake in deciding to Trisk this movie? Actually…no. Is it a great fit? Not really. But it’s not NOT a good fit, at the same time. This would go well with the Last Horror Movie from last year. They’re very different movies, and very different quality, but there’s a similarity to their stories that I think would go well together. It feels like there’s a lot going on here, and the movie isn’t quite putting all the pieces together for the audience. I picked up a lot more my second time through, and liked it more, and I definitely think there’s something here that will grow on me. I also THINK Andrew’s dad was the guy who got beaten up at the start of the movie, which would make this a bit more of a vengeance movie, and I like that idea. It is very obviously an early film, and the writer/director Gareth Evans has gone on to make The Raid movies, and I can see some of that here. There’s a grittiness to this movie, and it is VERY well shot, almost beautiful at times, it’s just the story that doesn’t quite come together. It’s not a BAD movie, but it has a lot of growing pains to get through. The highlights are the direction, and some of the acting is really good. I especially like Paul, he’s got an interesting role where he needs to be a bit of a heavy, but also very likable. He rides that line perfectly. I’d give this one a two out of five cameras. I see what you’re going for, but it didn’t quite gel.

Entertainment Value: Being a very quiet movie with very little dialogue, there’s not much to really be entertained by, aside from some nicely done visuals from time to time. Some of the weird characters are interesting, but not enough to comment on. It’s a solid enough film, but it’s just kinda there, asking the audience to figure it out. An intriguing movie, but little else. Two out of five goldfish.