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FLOODING
It’s always great, after sitting through hours of no-budget trash, to be rewarded by a film of real merit...especially after you’ve spent part of that time viewing something like FLOODING! Certainly there are worse amateur horror films than this one, but there are also many, many, many, many better ones.
The Package
FLOODING (1997) was released on VHS as part of the “First Rites” video
series that was distributed through Hollywood Video in the US and Rodgers Video
in Canada, and whose ranks included no-budgeters like IMPOLITE, THE WIDOWER,
HORROR UP NORTH, BORN TO LOSE and FALLOUT. (Never heard of those films? Don’t
worry, not too many others have, either!) The series seemed like a great idea
at the time, an excellent way to showcase worthy films from first time
filmmakers that were overlooked by mainstream distributors. Unfortunately, the
sad truth is that with the vast majority of FR titles, there was a damn good
reason they were overlooked!
About FLOODING’S background, there’s not a whole lot to be said. It was
made for very little money (that much is obvious) in various Southern California
locations by first time filmmaker (that much is obvious, too) Todd Portugal, who
admits in his pre-film “Mission Statement” that he was deliberately aping Alfred
Hitchcock...or attempting to, at least!
The Story
Joyce is enjoying a day at a carnival with her loving hubbie--but suddenly
he’s shot by an unseen assailant! Joyce becomes a basket case suffering from
agoraphobia (fear of the outside), and so stays shut in her house. Her best
friend Evelyn persuades her to answer ads in the personal column of her local
newspaper in order to assuage her loneliness. The first of Joyce’s dates is a
dweeb who she nonetheless allows to have sex with her; she throws him out after
he finishes, but then a man she’s never seen before comes staggering into her
living room and promptly dies. Cops are called, who when they arrive are
skeptical of Joyce’s claims that she had nothing to do with the death,
especially when she reveals the name of the guy she had sex with, which turns
out to be that of the stranger who now lies dead on her living room floor.
Her pretty boy shrink Hank is the only bright spot in Joyce’s life, but he
insists upon keeping their relationship platonic. Enter date number two, who’s
an even bigger drip than the first. Joyce throws him out pre-sex, but he lets
himself back into the house later on to finish what he believes they started.
Shortly afterward there’s another break-in, this time by date #1, who saves
Joyce from being raped by drowning date #2 in her bathtub. It seems date #1
busted in on the orders of a third party who’s paid him to retrieve an
incriminating videotape in Joyce’s possession. In order to find out just who
that third party is, however, Joyce will have to overcome her agoraphobia and--gasp!--leave
the house.
The Direction
This isn’t called an amateur film for nothing: the photography is
cheap, the acting uniformly stilted and the direction by Todd Portugal (who also
wrote and produced) alternates between staid and outright clumsy. Worse, much
of it is plain BORING, with by the numbers camerawork in service of the standard
wide/medium/close-up series of shots. There’s also a fumbled attempt at
Hitchcockian suspense in the climactic bathtub drowning scene (ruined by the
fact that none of the participants look particularly nonplussed) and a poorly
edited chase through an amusement park that closes things out.
That’s not even taking into account the exceedingly
dumb, implausible storyline, which further suffers from dialogue exchanges that
drag on and on, most notably an interminable nine minute yakfest between the
protagonist and her shrink that exists solely to establish her agoraphobia. The
scene in question points up another of the film’s major flaws in the way
Portugal uses scads of dialogue to explain what he should be showing us.
Certainly that’s a lesson any true Hitchcock devotee should know intimately!
Vital Statistics
FLOODING
Greenlight Productions
Director/Producer/Screenplay: Todd Portugal
Cinematography: Roland Canamar
Editing: Noel Guerra, Todd Portugal
Cast: Brenna Gibson,
Lauren Bailey, Greg Fawcett, Dominic Dirito, Randy McLeod, Jeremy Flynn, Jack
Turturici