Directed by: Claire "Fluff" Llewellyn
Written by: Claire "Fluff" Llewellyn
Cast: Claire "Fluff" Llewellyn, Ron Fitzgerald, Matt Unkena
Conscience, the latest film from writer/director/actor Claire "Fluff" Llewellyn, comes close to being an engaging horror short.
The film contains several morally corrupt characters, from serial killers to a crooked journalist, and the film's title promises to delve into what makes one more acceptable than the other. It's unfortunate that the script fails to deliver on that promise, getting mired down in too many characters for the short running time, lengthy setup, and no real payoff.
The film opens "10 years ago" at a New England asylum. A writer, hired by a reporter for a paper, is getting the scoop on one of the doctor's illegal and unethical experiments. The story is published to great acclaim, with the reporter taking all the credit. But once the doctor escapes, the reporter fears his new-found fame might bring him unwanted attention.
The film then moves to present-day Chicago, where a young woman sits at a dining room table, drooling blood and sporting a nasty abdominal wound. The film shifts focus to another young woman shopping for a bottle of wine. A rather creepy man, calling himself a doctor, comments on her selection before offering to cook her a gourmet meal. She rebuffs him, leaves the store and is followed into a bar by Clarice (Llewellyn). As Clarice asks her about the doctor, the woman decides she's had enough with the pick-up artists and heads out the door (and out of the film). But Clarice won't be alone that evening, as another woman sits down and makes it very obvious she's looking for some company.
The creepy Dr. Cotrel (Ron Fitzgerald) has also found a date and is serving her foie gras and Chianti (and, yes, we get a line about liver and Chianti). Before dinner progresses much further, the film shifts to Joe Watts (Matt Ukena), a straight "A" psych student waiting for a call about a position as a research assistant. But, for the moment, he and his friend are taking in a burlesque show.
Clarice tracks Dr. Cotrel to his latest victim and waits for him in an alleyway. The two know each other, but their relationship isn't cordial, as Cotrel pulls out a knife and attacks. Someone is stabbed about the same time Joe is called by his new employer and finds himself in a basement, equipped with a makeshift lab and a human subject. Guess it's not going to end well...
It's a lot of stuff to cover for a 35-minute short and the film suffers for it. Several of the characters seem to exist only to get the plot moving, regardless of the amount of time spent on them. The woman buying the wine at the beginning of the film (credited as "The Shopper") is a perfect example. She's the most developed character in the film at that point, yet she leaves the bar and is never seen again. It could be argued that she is a McGuffin, a device used only to keep the plot moving. But such devices play a more intricate part in a film. Like the money in Psycho, which is gone in the first act but continues to play a role in the action, the McGuffin gets the plot rolling, but remains a key part of the story. The Shopper just walks on and off, which would not be a problem except the film has to start over developing the main characters.
The film meanders at times. We see the entire burlesque act, though it adds nothing to the plot. A flashback during the opening scenes also runs too long, despite a nifty little FX shot. All this takes time away from the main characters, leaving them pretty undeveloped.
Further complicating matters is the suspicious behavior of some of the characters. The asylum director talks about getting "lubed up" for the interview, something I wouldn't expect a medical professional to say. We never learn why the reporter sent the intern to the interview, or how he managed to keep the forgery undiscovered since the story garnered such acclaim (faking it would be the safer way to proceed and would have netted the same results in the film). And for a 4.0 student, Joe comes off as pretty stupid. Had he been desperate for the extra credit, one could overlook his involvement in a human experiment being held in someone's basement. But with his grades, I can't think of a reason for him to go along with it.
It's unfortunate that the script detracts from the film's positive aspects, most of which are due to Llewellyn's skill as a director. The title sequence with the corpse at the dining room table is beautiful, the character interaction scenes are well blocked and edited, and even the flashback sequence (which I said was too long for the film) is well staged. The soundtrack does get a bit muddy and unclear at times, and I think some of the budget might have been better spent on some post-production sound work. Yet despite that, and a couple of clunky edits, the film looks great for its reported $500 budget, and Llewellyn's camera work has a lot to do with that.
I need to give credit to the cast. The performances are strong, considering the budget likely didn't leave much time for rehearsals. Though Fitzgerald tries a bit too hard to channel Anthony Hopkins (which I suspect was dictated by the 
script, as he does quote lines from The Silence of the Lambs) and the sound sometimes wreaks havoc on the dialog, the cast, as a whole, does a fine job.
Had the script been a bit tighter, and a few scenes trimmed to keep the story moving, Conscience could have been a nifty little thriller. Instead, it ends up feeling rather bloated and incomplete. Like fellow writer/director Rob Zombie, Llewellyn's strengths as a director are weighed down by her weaknesses as a screenwriter. But her work is strong enough to make me anxious to see her next film.
Rating: (2.5 out of 5):
