Johnny Showtime: JIMMY AND STIGGS

 by JB

Watch out! This is going to get goopy.

I was introduced to Joe Begos’s new independent horror film when my wife attended a discussion with the writer/director at Kodak House in Hollywood. Begos self-financed the movie and shot it on film in his own apartment over the course of four years. Begos had an impressive collection of 16mm film prints, which he gradually sold to pay for new film stock for the nascent Jimmy and Stiggs.

Hi friends! Jan B here and yes, I very much did attend an event at Kodak House, during which film critic Elvis Mitchell interviewed Begos about Jimmy and Stiggs. It was terrific. Co-star Matt Mercer was there, as well as a couple of other folks who worked on the film, and Begos had brought along a few props and set pieces he'd used during filming. It was very cool to hear directly from a creator who is absolutely passionate about film making.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: Jimmy (Joe Begos) is planning a normal evening of drinking and ordering takeout with his girlfriend, when his apartment is besieged by evil aliens. He summons his best friend Stiggs (Matt Mercer) and gathers a few weapons. Jimmy and Stiggs vow to kill all the aliens together. They proceed to do so in the nastiest, messiest ways imaginable. What will be Jimmy’s bill for deep carpet cleaning?

Eli Roth’s new “The Horror Section” distribution company picked up the film for its theatrical release, but Jimmy and Stiggs is about as independent as you can get. Written, directed, and paid for by star Joe Begos, the film makes no concessions to what is popular or marketable in the current movie landscape. This is one man’s vision—a man obsessed with Alien Autopsy and neon rope lights. It is a fever dream of gore, special effects, and profanity, a film for every horror fan’s inner 12-year old. It’s even being released unrated. I’m not familiar with Begos’s previous work (though Patrick has written about Almost Human and The Mind's Eye, and Anthony King did a column that mentions Bliss). Begos's main inspirations here seem to be dangerously unregulated local haunted houses and first-person shooter games. Although I was entertained by the entire film, I was also blown away by the sheer audacity of it all. This is a movie, to use the parlance of F This Movie, that “goes there.”

Oh, yes.

Me again! How independent is Jimmy and Stiggs? During the interview Begos admitted that, more than once, his credit card was rejected when trying to buy film for the production. When he sold the last of his treasured 16mm prints, he put the money in his pocket and headed straight to Kodak House to buy MORE film. Jimmy and Stiggs started out as Begos's fifth movie; it ended up being his sixth (he made 2022's Christmas Bloody Christmas during production of Jimmy and Stiggs.) The "set dressing" was his stuff. Look for a red neon-rimmed mirror in the background—Begos brought it to Kodak House, it fell off the table and shattered, and everyone felt terrible about it. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but now we are all cursed with seven years of alien abductions.

I have loved horror movies since I could walk. It is my favorite genre. I did begin to wonder during my screening though, how a non-horror fan would react to this 79-minute parade of neon-soaked gore and relentless profanity? (Yes, this film just might feature the “F word” more times than either Raging Bull, Casino, or The Wolf of Wall Street. Take that, Scorsese!)

Joe Begos doesn't care if you don't like horror. He doesn't care if you don't like his style, or his pace, or his characters. He made exactly the film he wanted to make, exactly the way he wanted to make it because, in his words, "making movies is the best thing in the world." Yet, don't think he's just "winging it." During the interview, Mitchell said to him, "You seem to be intent on showing that film is an art form, that the frame is its own art form... you just keep getting better and better at what you do, and we can see that confidence in the camera movement."

Begos says the film was partially inspired by COVID's dread and restlessness, and by the gush of claustrophobic indie efforts coming out of that time. "I decided to make a movie out of that anxiety, but not a COVID movie. A real fucking movie... I'm not going to shit out a movie. I made this myself, in my apartment, but I'm still going to make it fucking awesome."

Adding to the nonstop horror of the main feature, Producer Eli Roth has grafted two fake trailers to the beginning of the show, very reminiscent of the fake trailers in Grindhouse, which I will not even name here for fear of spoiling them. Suffice it to say that one features an incongruous murder weapon... and the other features Snoop Dogg.

Kodak House is a great resource for photographers and movie makers committed to working with film. During Q&A, someone asked Begos if he'd shot all his movies on film; no, but "they're all going to be on film from now on," he said. "The 16mm handled the neon and colors better than any digital process would have."

According to Begos, a tight budget doesn't mean you can't use film. For Jimmy and Stiggs, Begos used his own camera, forfeited his own camera operator fee, and instead spent the money renting high-end Hawk lenses. "You need to make film part of the process from the very beginning," he told us.

If you want to hear more about this unique horror film, check out Begos and Eli Roth on Episode 150 of The Kodakery, Kodak's excellent podcast; it’s hosted by a good friend of ours.