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Transcript

This Indie Body-Horror Got Under Our Skin | IFP Reviews: Wormtown (2025) · Indie Film Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to an indie film podcast Film review.
• 0:03
  I'm Vic. And I am checked today we're
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  going to be reviewing the movie Wormtown, which was produced by
• 0:07
  Andrew James Myers, Philip Garrett and directed by Sergio
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  Pinero. When a cult that worships mind
• 0:13
  altering parasites takes over a small town, a trio of women in
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  lockdown are dragged into a fight for survival and revenge.
• 0:20
  Victoria, would you rate Wormtown, buy it, rent it, or
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  wait till it's free? On our scale there I would
• 0:28
  actually give Wormtown a buy it rating, not just because I
• 0:31
  really would love to see this film get supported, but because
• 0:34
  I have actually enjoyed watching it more than once I'm.
• 0:36
  Going to agree with you, I'm going to give it a solid buy it
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  rating as well. So let's talk about some of the
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  aspects that we enjoyed specifically about this film,
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  some areas that might need to be improved upon.
• 0:45
  Do you want to start off and and maybe tell us what the film's
• 0:47
  about? Yeah, absolutely.
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  OK, so Worm Town is set in small town America and the film drops
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  us into a dystopian future where worms run the world.
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  They are UV phobic parasites. They infect their leaders,
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  starting with Mayor Joshua, who then uses propaganda and fear
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  mongering to recruit more hosts over his very haunting, creepy
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  and persistent radio broadcasts. Our story follows 3 rebellious
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  women hell bent on avoiding infestation as they pursue
• 1:13
  greener pastures in nearby Amish country which remains safe from
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  the world dominating worms. Yeah, I dug the entire concept,
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  which was these these people that were infected with worms
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  were kind of vampiric in a sense.
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  They couldn't go out into the sunlight.
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  You had this this counterculture to these, but they were
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  basically religious zealots or political zealots or however you
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  want to interpret the type of zealotry that they.
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  That they there were zealots for sure.
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  The radio was playing throughout, most of the time
• 1:45
  through when you're in the town, worm town in the film, and the
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  people were infected with worms, couldn't go outside.
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  Really creative idea for. Sure, they give them the
• 1:55
  Nightcrawler cult. Yes, is what they're called.
• 1:58
  And do you want to talk about because I don't want to spoil it
• 2:00
  because this is you're big on art department.
• 2:03
  So go ahead and why don't you talk about art department first
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  on this movie? Art department absolutely
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  crushed it. This is just this deliciously,
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  disgustingly gore fest of a body horror film where you see these
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  worms actually crawling inside people's body.
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  If you don't like body horror, this is not for you.
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  Body horror is in films like Saw.
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  Where it's. Just kind of like, painful.
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  Yeah, but this one was much more interesting than like the
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  Hostile series for sure. Oh yeah, yeah, I would watch
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  this over Hostile any day. Sorry.
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  No shade to Hostile. No shade to Hostile.
• 2:38
  It's it's gross is the idea is like you're looking at some
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  decomposing bodies of a lot of gore.
• 2:44
  Yeah, those types of things, there is a lot of that happening
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  and it's just so well done. But it's paired with like these
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  really cinematic, almost art house wide shots within the
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  Super uncomfortable tight close-ups.
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  The makeup on some of these characters is just mind blowing
• 3:00
  and I don't want to give away too much there, but it's just so
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  worth the watch for the art department alone.
• 3:06
  Yeah, so indie films, I agree with that completely.
• 3:09
  So indie films that I usually watch, the cinematography and
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  the sound, as long as those are gold, then you're looking at
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  things like, OK, well what's the scope?
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  And also you have the story aspect, right?
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  So to me, I felt like the cinematography and the sound
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  were just gold. The scope of this film was
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  something that is really unique and indie film makers out there.
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  I think that you could take a look at this and be kind of
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  inspired at what you could potentially do outside of the
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  Hollywood studio or major your studio environment.
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  Because they bathe. They basically shot this in
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  Ashland. OH the town Worm town has a post
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  apocalyptic vibe and the locations where these three
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  women were hiding out also kind of post apocalyptic vibe.
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  Very warehouse covered in plastic sheeting.
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  Yeah, and they did it really well.
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  And you didn't think that this was not a super high budget
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  major motion picture because they were able to convince the
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  mayor of Ashland, OH, to shut the town down?
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  Yeah, the mayor, Matt Miller, apparently was totally fine with
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  shutting down Main Street for two days for them to get the
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  shots that they needed in the big downtown square area where
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  they can't be out in the daylight.
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  So the town looks very empty during the daylight.
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  And it's so cool. And I love that the town that
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  shows me that the town cares about the arts, about this film,
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  about supporting their their own community.
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  I think that's really cool. It's sort of the Napoleon
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  Dynamite story. Yeah, absolutely.
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  And if you're making films, it might not be a bad idea.
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  This kind of like gives me ideas of location scouting is super
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  important. And if you want to have a post
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  apocalyptic vibe for your film, you want to try to find some
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  towns that you could potentially shoot in and people that are
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  going to be flexible and, you know, a town in the Midwest, you
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  know? Yeah.
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  Might not be a bad idea. It might not.
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  Especially a town that was, you know, heavy on manufacturing and
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  stuff back in the day and maybe isn't so much now.
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  Yeah. And not saying that that's
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  Ashland's case, just a lot of other cities in the Midwest are
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  that way. So you may be able to find some
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  abandoned buildings and things that might and get creative with
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  your shots. You know, all you need is a few
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  establishing wides that really show off that vacant feel.
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  Yeah. And boom, then you can just
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  creatively cut some tighter ones and it looks like it's still
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  real empty. And Worm Town did a fantastic
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  job of that, and they also just did a great job with the
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  cinematography overall. One caveat I do want to mention
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  about this film because I'm very much a plot person, but the
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  story here is definitely more vibe than intricate plot.
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  Still extremely entertaining definitely.
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  But if you're one of those people that wants to have like
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  an intricately woven soap opera type plot structure where every
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  action has an equal and opposite reaction, this one is.
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  This one is more about a holistic look, very artistic,
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  Yeah, about religion potentially, or politics, or how
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  those things can infect us and what the results of some of that
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  infection are. Yeah.
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  And I actually really liked that they went such a very visceral
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  reaction, right. Worms infesting your body just
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  kind of makes you squirmy and uncomfortable.
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  And so the fact that it can be applied to so many other things,
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  whether it is religions or whether it is politics or
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  whether it's the corporate structure that you work in every
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  day, whatever it is that you're kind of battling against, it has
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  a lot of allegory for that. But I also kind of like that.
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  I mean, between the idea of, you know, standing up against
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  oppressors versus the religious motifs.
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  It also had kind of a hard look at at motherhood and then also
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  had a couple moments of really, I don't know, almost an affront
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  to gender norms. And so I just feel like there's
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  a there's a lot of depth in how it doesn't matter who you are.
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  If you're an indie filmmaker or you're just interested in indie
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  films, you're going to find something to relate to in this
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  film. You just.
• 7:15
  Will and if you want to read the entire review in depth, you can
• 7:19
  go to indiefilmpodcast.com and go to the reviews page and
• 7:23
  you'll be able to read that there as well.
• 7:24
  As if you want to have one of your films featured on our
• 7:28
  YouTube channel or on our web page, you can go to
• 7:30
  indiefilmpodcast.com/submit. And if you would like to buy
• 7:34
  Worm Town, because we think you should, then you can go find it
• 7:37
  on Apple TV or it's streaming on Amazon Prime as well.
• 7:41
  Or you can go to crankedupfilms.com.
• 7:44
  Yes, to get more information about it.
• 7:46
  Excellent. So definitely check it out, give
• 7:48
  it a purchase. Let us know what you think in
• 7:50
  the comments. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Even if you just go watch the trailer, definitely let us know
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  your thoughts in the comments because this film is definitely
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  worth watching. Awesome.
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  Shall we succinctly say farewell?
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  I think so. Bye.
• 8:01
  Bye.