Choke (2020)

When first viewing Gregory Hatanaka’s Choke, I was not sure what to expect. From promotional material, it wasn’t totally clear as to what the storyline was or what genre it resides under. The film’s IMDb page states that Choke is a horror-thriller, yet after viewing, I must say, in many ways, it is neither horror nor thriller. Definitely a film that is tough to pin down, genre-wise. I see it as more of an experimental suspense-drama in a lot of ways, but there are thriller elements there. Horror is a reach, in my honest opinion, yet I tried not to get too hung up on that and just try to enjoy the viewing experience, which I ultimately did.

This film has an interesting structure and is more an attempted character study of three people, shown in a disjointed, non-chronological fashion, much of it told in flashbacks. The story also boasts two protagonists, both of whom are in many ways, anti-heros. This made it tough to actually identify with, or root for either one, yet, I persisted.

Initially I had a problem with the way the film was shot and the story told. While the cinematography is a mixed bag of what may or may not be some purchased footage, as well as many beautifully shot scenes. With the film being a low budget indie, I tried to concentrate on the latter. Some of this film is, indeed, expertly and beautifully shot. This earned it major points in my book. However, many of the scenes were shot/edited as montages, with a dreamlike quality to them. While that works in small doses, here it sometimes felt as though it was acting as filler in order to stretch the film to feature-length. This caused many scenes to have a music video feel to them, which in my opinion is less cinematic and distracts from the story. This created a distance between viewer and film, especially in its early stages. Still, I persisted and kept watching.

Amongst the above mentioned eye candy and drawn-out sequences, most of which had very little dialogue (though there was some voiceover narration/off-screen dialogue, also a pet peeve of mine), there were some details regarding the three main characters sprinkled in. While the non-linear structure and many flashbacks made it difficult to follow at times, these characters were, in many ways, intriguing and thus the film held my interest. The three characters in question are brooding Serial Killer, Brandon (Shane Ryan), disgruntled Police Detective Robert (Scott Butler), and Jeanie/Peyton (Sarah Brine), the young object of both characters’ love and desire. Other characters came in and out of the story, most notably Lisa London as Stephanie, Sal Landi as Stanton, and Chris Spinelli as Timothy, as well as many others who were not of much importance to the overall story.

The performances, in my opinion, were largely uneven, ranging from quite great to borderline embarrassing, but I won’t mention people by name. What I will mention, is that in my opinion, Ryan and Brine’s performances were the standouts. Ryan was well under control in the scenes where Brandon was played down, and downright intense when he wasn’t. It should be mentioned that Brandon is a character which has been well represented in Ryan’s own films, namely the Amateur Porn Star Killer Trilogy, as well as the upcoming Ted Bundy Had A Son Trilogy, yet in Choke he appears for the first time in a role that largely in front of the camera, rather than the way he was used in the APSK films, which was behind the camera, found-footage style. Brine is extremely likeable and plays the innocence of her character as a strength, which is somewhat refreshing.

A major gripe I had with the script was to do with its concept. As expected with a film titled “Choke”, there is bound to be an element related to choking in the film. Brandon, being a serial killer, has that for a Modus Operandi, it is simply the way he kills his victims. Yet, Robert and in some ways, Jeanie/Peyton, also share a choking fetish, as do a whole group of people who are introduced as some kind of cult who get off on the act of choking and all its “healing properties”. That, to me, is a little too convenient of a plot point and felt somewhat manufactured. A more natural plot development and potentially expanding on how all this came to be and having it seem less “suspect” and shallow, would have been a huge improvement. The film’s relatively short run-time (a tad over 70-minutes), while welcome, could have been expanded upon to fill-in these holes.

It has been widely reported that Choke was shot concurrently with another feature film, Heartbeat, made largely by the same cast and crew. That fact, which is a whole other type of experiment, can in some ways explain (yet not excuse) some of Choke’s shortcomings, yet somehow it did not end up completely ruining it. Shooting two films simultaneously is something that is definitely not recommended, as in most cases, both films would end up being, at least in some ways, lesser than they could have been, which is undesired. Reportedly, actors had to quickly switch between characters on set, and learn some lines as they went along, though that may have impacted Heartbeat more than it did Choke.

The Choke storyline as a whole, involving the three main characters, is strange and somewhat unclear (while Brine’s character provides some kind of stability and brings forth a more humanised side to both male protagonists, it is unclear exactly why things end up as they do, which I won’t spoil here) yet the dreamlike nature of the film and its experimental feel somehow end up playing to the film’s strengths, and I for one, was left with a quiet feeling of satisfaction at the end of viewing. Even though I found several flaws in the film, the whole ended up greater than the sum of its parts and I found to have been left with an overall positive impression of this film. In future, I’d advise Hatanaka and Co. to deal with one film at a time and tighten up a script as much as possible. In the case of Choke it may have elevated it from a good film to a great one. Then again, considering the level of difficulty introduced with shooting two features at the same time, Choke is quite an accomplishment and even a filmmaking feat and should be applauded for the result.

A pleasant surprise. 7/10

Choke is now available on Amazon Prime, Tubi TV and Vimeo on Demand, distributed by Cinema Epoch. Click button below for options on Project Page.