Visual Vengeance: LA AIDS Jabber (1994) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Visual Vengeance

One of the virtues of boutique labels like Visual Vengeance who recently did a deluxe special edition of two Bret McCormick titles The Abomination and Repligator is how their catalog of titles often fills you in on something you never thought existed.  However ridiculous or offensively unacceptable of an idea or even the title of a film is, there’s a good chance someone in the SOV (shot-on-video) netherworld realized it into a watchable feature film.  

Such was the case with the astoundingly bottom barrel scraping L.A. AIDS Jabber, the sole directorial effort of character actor Drew Godderis who himself had a history with the horror genre.  Having starred in Blood Diner, Deep Space and Evil Spawn, the actor’s career was cut short by his wife’s death and having to raise his young son by himself.  Still determined to make a movie, Godderis sought to shoot a 16mm indie feature mixing fears of the AIDS epidemic with that of a trashy slasher flick.  Though technical problems on the shoot itself forced the director to shoot on S-VHS tape instead, effectively making it a SOV flick.

 
Young unstable loner Jeff (Jason Majik) has been diagnosed with AIDS despite having a meager sex life if any.  Already mad at the world before finding out about his death sentence, the news sends him reeling into a rampage where at night he roams the streets of Los Angeles armed with a syringe filled with his own blood intent on jabbing and thus infecting innocent bystanders.  Starting first with prostitute Tanya (Susan Para) whom he believes infected him, eventually the whole city lives in fear of the aptly named LA AIDS Jabber and soon the police including Detective Rogers (Marcy Lynn) and Detective Smithers (Justin Mack) and a hotshot news reporter are hot on the youth’s tail, threatening to balloon into a media circus. 
 
Rotten and ugly, from its grimy VHS aesthetic filmed hastily by Rick Bradach who does not do a good job of hiding the boom mikes from creeping into the shot to its sleazy keyboard score by John Martin Turner to its leading performance by Jason Majik that borders on Eric Freeman scenery chewing, LA AIDS Jabber originally released on tape under the title Jabber for obvious reasons is a festering chunk of slime.  While very clearly shot in Los Angeles with more than a few wide shots overlooking the skyscrapers and Hollywood mountaintop, most of LA AIDS Jabber takes place indoors in the police station or the perpetrator’s dingy apartment.  Though not boasting any production values to speak of save for a gross recurring image of the youth jabbing his arm before seeking out his next victim, the visual effects are fine and convincing when they need to be.

   
Something of a missed opportunity for not going as bonkers bananas tawdry as it could have (Ebola Syndrome being the crown jewel of sociopathic disease shockers), LA AIDS Jabber will nevertheless get the attention of SOV disciples and fanatics of Visual Vengeance.  Self-distributed by the director himself who oversaw the blu-ray authoring of the limited collector’s edition, the film comes with reversible art, an informative booklet and a plethora of retro VHS sticker labels.  Not quite insane enough to purport such an offending premise despite the amateur acting and photography, the appeal behind this SOV wiping of the hand across the inner lining of a toilet bowl is limited at best.  Visual Vengeance have given this a great release and it clearly represents an important entry into their catalog of SOV titles, but it could’ve been far wilder than merely inappropriate. 

--Andrew Kotwicki