Review of '223 Wick': Psychedelic Parrish, Midnight Movie Madness
It’s no secret that I love low budget horror movies. I’ve also been drawn to the ‘midnight movie’ aesthetic where things are a little rough around the edges but everyone involved is giving it their all. While sometimes these films can end up feeling like they’re prime material for Mystery Science Theater 3000, I tend to find a lot to enjoy in them – certainly more than I do in some too slick, in-it-for-the-prestige or cynical cash-grab projects that have fully saturated the market. With a movie like 223 Wick (2022), the goal is straightforward storytelling with a classic midnight movie look and an entire cast putting everything they had into their performances.
What really surprised me about this movie was in the direction it went. The plot never goes too overboard, likely due to budgetary limitations, but the audience is brought into a weirder world than expected. Father John (Alexi Stavrov), a priest suffering from increasingly odd visions and overall malaise, is sent away from his post to get some rest and clear his head. He is told by his superior Father Murphy (Jack Dimich) that his visions don’t mean anything and what he needs is to get himself in order.
En route to his rest and rehabilitation, he asks the cab driver to drop him off at 223 Wick street, a place he’s seen in his dreams. Inside, he’s awkwardly welcomed by Paul (Greg Pierot) and eventually Katarina (Dawn Lafferty) who both seem like they’re up to no good. Since this movie is a brisk 75 minutes, there’s not too much set-up regarding the bad guys, especially with Katarina. Not too long after her introduction, we see her plotting and scheming and talking of power to the old gods.
Father John discovers a connection between Katarina, 223 Wick, and the order in which he was a part of, so when someone from his old post shows up in an attempt to help him, the visitor is killed in a biblical, dreamscape sacrifice. Katarina consults the Oracle (Alexandra Calvin), her younger deformed sister imprisoned in the basement, and is told that power is almost hers. The film only gets bloodier and stranger from there; pitting John between the Egyptian god Horus (voiced by Ken Zitello) and the Oracle, who whispers that self sacrifice is the only way out.
The real show piece in this movie is the tripped out visuals. Where some low-budget films try to live beyond their means, 223 Wick worked with what it had and flooded the last twenty minutes or so with images of old gods appearing in irises of blue smoke and Holy Mountain-type tableaus of characters trapped between worlds. This wasn’t an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach either; the tripped out moments tie together in a both thematic and visual cohesion. One of my favorite moments is when John’s friend Arthur (Sergio Myers II) wanders into a deserted area of the building and is confronted by a taunting vision of Horus then swallowed up by a swarm of insects. Once the characters arrive at 223, the hellscape comes to life, and it’s an interesting one, if not exactly a big-budget one.
I’m also a huge fan of solid performances in movies with a rougher feel. Dawn Lafferty as Katarina is a power hungry queen bitch who literally argues with Horus when he shows up in the climax. She keeps her expression tight and sneering through most of her scenes, maintaining a severe sheen of control and hubris. Lord knows how much I love cold women whose goals exceed the wildest dreams of the general population. With her sharp eyes and blood red dress, Lafferty shows no fear or hesitation, at one point telling Horus, “war is not pretty. You taught me that,” before returning to her exactly what she was doing: slaughtering a well-built priest currently bound to a chair. My kind of lady, all around.
If you’re someone with a low tolerance for the gritty wackiness of midnight movies, this isn’t going to be your cup of tea – I’ll say that in no uncertain terms. 223 Wick is a film that will be appreciated by aficionados of the experimental, underground works of the sixties and seventies where sometimes you’re only along for the ride because of the concepts and visuals. There’s a lot of good threads in this movie concerning power structures, who to believe and listen to as well as the subtext that corruption and evil are cyclical and nearly impossible to wipe out. But my main vote for 223 Wick is for the psychedelic moments and Alexi Stavrov’s six pack. Both are worth the price of admission in my book.
223 Wick is distributed by Gravitas Ventures and is available to rent on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and Youtube.
