It seems to be a given with fanatics of the genre - the desire to make the ultimate horror film. Armed with a camera, a bunch of friends and almost no budget, these would be Romeros/Jacksons/Raimis defy the odds and create what they must feel is truly the epitome of the art. However, as we all know, art is truly in the eye of the beholder. With this in mind, I sat down and watched Fabian Rush's foray into the wild world of indie horror, SO MORT IT BE.

A TV announcer reports more young men have been murdered in the deep woods, and warns the populace to stay home at night until the suspected cult responsible is caught! Two dudes - Dante and Jack - roll down the lonely highways that night. Suddenly Jack hollers for his pal to hit the brakes. He's seen girls dancing in the woods, and being a real horny desperate college kid, wants to go investigate. Hey, he might even score... So the friends approach the ladies, who are dressed in bizarre leather gear and indeed dancing to some unheard music. The guys join in, until Dante suddenly notices the two girls have become ten, and he and Jack are surrounded. Jack doesn't see what's so bad about that, until the girls become feral and attack! Jack is sliced to shreds, while Dante manages to escape, although he loses a hand. The high priestess sends her 'kittens' to pursue. It looks like the end of Dante - or is it all a dream?

Well, Dante wakes up, and despite the dream, is more determined than ever to ask out new transfer student, and goth, Lilith. Forcing Jack to be his stooge, Dante stages a phony conversation to get Lilith's attention that afternoon at the local goth hangout. He lies about his arcane knowledge and tells the girl he's going to have a ritual for the Dark Moon Goddess that weekend. This intrigues Lilith, who accepts Dante's invitation to the service. Of course, it's just a scam to get her to go to his party. What the boy doesn't know is Lilith shares her body...with the Dark Moon Goddess. Seems like it's gonna be one interesting party for Dante.

So Dante and Jack head to Uncle Jobe's mansion way out in the boondocks to prepare for the get together - Jack is watching the place while his religious zealot relative is away. They find a basement filled with rats and rancid food. The boys try to dispose of the rotten food, but wind up dropping it all over the place. Little do they know that when they leave, the rats feast...and change... Goth dude Adam, who also has the hots for Lilith (much to his girls Evette's dismay) wants Dante out of the picture. Lilith, or rather the dark Moon Goddess, prepares for her night out by watching snuff porn - to get in the killing mood, you know? Meanwhile, Dante and Jack have their hands full when the mutated rats attack. Is this going to ruin their 'goth orgy?' There's lots of sex, blood, terror (and a few laughs) yet to come for Dante and Jack. Will they get lucky? Will they even survive? So as it is, so mort it be...

And that ain't even the half of it folks. Now I give all the credit and respect in the world to Fabian Rush (and all other indie filmmakers), but what we have here in SO MORT IT BE is a case of just too much stuffed into a movie. SO MORT IT BE lacks focus - it just doesn't know what kind of film it wants to be. There's a strong sense of gothic horror, but it's offset by sophomoric comedy. Are we supposed to be scared, or laugh? The film's mood changes between, and sometimes within, scenes. Rush takes a page out of Steckler's handbook and seemingly uses everything he shot - the editing is extremely fast and loose. Rush uses a 'blue screen' technique for some scenes, and while certainly not at ILM standards, it still has a raw effectiveness, until the scenes go on for far too long, and then are repeated later in the film. The same is true of the mutated rats. While they look like demented fuzzy muppets, their shock value drops dramatically because they are overused (and they look like fuzzy muppets). Rush has many intriguing ideas, but it seems he uses them all in this film. The script must have looked like a phone book - focus, Fabian - FOCUS! The acting isn't too bad for the amateur cast, but here again editing could have tightened up scenes where there are noticeable pauses before the acting starts. The picture quality is uneven; most of the film is fine, but the overuse of the blue screen effect has a detrimental effect (you start to see all the flaws instead of watching the redundant action) Sound is uneven, too. There are noticeable overdubs and loops added after filming, which are not mixed in very well. The soundtrack is typical industrial goth - o.k. if that's your cup of tea (Hemlock, whatever). It's obvious Fabian Rush and his cast and crew had a great experience filming SO MORT IT BE - despite the many flaws, you can feel the passion in which they strive to make the best film they can. There is a future for Rush and any filmmaker who outs so much of him or herself into their movies. It's just we get too much in SO MORT IT BE.

The screener I viewed for SO MORT IT BE had only the film's trailer, and a sales pitch from producer Brain Damage. I hope the final release includes some behind the scenes footage - the bit under the closing credits is really funny.

SO MORT IT BE and so it goes. It shows an eager desire to make the ultimate film, but a lack of focus and the attempt to put in everything results in a film too long and too confused to know what it wants to be. There are great ideas and creativity behind SO MORT IT BE, so the future looks bright for Fabian Rush and company. Just remember to K.I.S.S. it next time, O.K.?

J'S PRETENSIOUS EDITORIAL: SO MORT IT BE is an independent film, made by amateurs with pretty much no money. Although the end results may be wildly uneven, the efforts and passion of these filmmakers should be supported and applauded by all MONSTERS readers, reviewers and assorted hangers on. Mundanes can go back to watching "Desperate Housewives"