This is a DayGlo-hued, heavy metal-spackled horror film that clearly hopes to provoke nausea in viewers with its abundant scenes of dismemberment and plentiful use of shaky-cam first-person point-of-view footage. But given that the “blood” being spurted out is mostly bright orange and belongs to extraordinarily fake-looking alien creatures, the effect is neither gross-out nor even the slightest bit engrossing; it is just boring and headache-inducing. Just as you should bring tissues to see Hamnet, viewers are advised to bring painkillers to this, and possibly a good book to read during the dull interstitial bits.
Made over several years in a single scuzzy apartment, Jimmy and Stiggs is the brainchild of writer-director-producer-star Joe Begos, who made the marginally better Christmas Bloody Christmas a few years ago and who plays title character Jimmy here. Having made a bunch of horror films with his lifelong friend Stiggs (Matt Mercer) – we see fictional trailers of them at the beginning, definitely the high point from which it all goes downhill – Jimmy’s career is evidently in a slump and he spends his time getting drunk and high in his grimy hovel, which has a cool jellyfish tank and seems lit exclusively by black-lights, like a 14-year-old metalhead’s dream digs.
Then aliens invade and Jimmy must fight back, although he’s not sure if they haven’t implanted him with mind-control devices, as such creatures are wont to do. Luckily, alcohol is poisonous to them and that’s one thing Jimmy has a generous supply of. Stiggs is persuaded to come over and help but is reluctant to prove he’s not an alien by drinking whisky, given he’s been sober for six months. It’s hard not to wonder if Begos and co have had a bad experience with AA or rehab and this is all some kind of metaphorical revenge, but in all honesty, if it is, it’s a pretty dumb takedown.
● Jimmy and Stiggs is on digital platforms from 16 February.
