Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tyler Rice, Tyler Cornack, Shelby Dash, Brad Potts, Tyler Dryden
Intro:
If you’re a fan of Astron 6, Troma or wondered what a super-serious Greasy Strangler might be like, then Butt Boy is most definitely for you.
Detective Fox (Tyler Rice) has been living life at the bottom of a bottle for some time. Determined to kick his alcoholism, he joins an addicts’ support group where he meets his new sponsor, Chip (Tyler Cornack), an almost catatonic IT worker who doesn’t seem thrilled at their thrown together companionship. When a child goes missing at Chip’s workplace, Fox not only fingers his sponsor as the prime suspect but also eyes him up for the disappearance of a baby 9 years previously. So far, so noir. Butt Boy, directed and co-written by Cornack, ticks all the boxes of a cinematic game of cat and mouse. What makes it stand out from others in its field is Fox’s belief that Chip has the missing children trapped in his butt. No, really.
During a protracted opening – pun not intended – we see a younger Chip experiencing a sexual awakening during a prostate exam. Before long, Chip is looking for bigger things than a doctor’s finger to slate his thirst: spatulas, remote controls, the family dog. Each instance leads to the item disappearing into his seemingly TARDIS-like anus and Chip needing a bigger and better high. Sure, he has a fetish, but does that mean he’s capable of kidnapping?
Butt Boy is an absurd film that doesn’t really make jokes per se. In fact, one might argue that sticking things up your backside isn’t really that much of a joke at all. However, what makes the film work so well is the cast and crew’s commitment. The nearest comparison – and it’s hard to find similarities when you’re talking about films involving Chip’s proclivities – is Canadian action/horror, Father’s Day from the collective Astron 6. Whereas that film perfectly mimicked a grimy sexploitation aesthetic, it leaned into jokes whenever possible.
Butt Boy doesn’t do that per se. Cornack’s direction is tight, the cinematography is stunningly neon and quite honestly, the soundtrack slaps hard. It can even be argued that there’s a dissection of addiction and how it can tear families apart to be found. Having been ‘sober’ for 9 years, it takes something as simple as a ludo piece for Chip to fall off the wagon. His fetish becomes a security blanket for him, a way to stick two fingers up at his disinterested wife.
Elsewhere, Fox stalks his ex-wife, becoming bolder and bolder in approaching her as his case against Chip starts falling apart. Seemingly, he needs to be in control somehow. Even when the third act spirals down into a surreal Lynchian nightmare, Butt Boy never knowingly winks at the camera. And if we’ve learned anything from Leslie Nielsen, it’s that playing it straight can earn the biggest laughs.
And look, when it comes down to brass tacks, we are essentially talking about a feature film where a man shoves things up his orifice. For all the meaning you can mine out of its plot, its subjective success is going to depend on how you feel about the film’s opening when you come out the other end. Pun most definitely intended.
If you’re a fan of Astron 6, Troma or wondered what a super-serious Greasy Strangler might be like, then Butt Boy is most definitely for you. For everyone else, as Chip can attest, you don’t know if you don’t try it.
