JIMMY AND STIGGS

****

Directed by Joe Begos.

Starring Joe Begos, Matt Mercer.

Horror, US, 79 Minutes.

Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - UK Premiere

When you hear that Joe Begos, a man known for retina scorching and ear-splitting films full of bloody violence, sex and foul language, has made a film set entirely within his own apartment, starring himself,  involving a case two lifelong friends dealing with a case of alien abduction, you may wonder if he’s taken a turn for the restrained. Well, the answer is no, or as Begos’s character Jimmy would scream “FUCK NO!...FUCK!!!”

Starting with a lengthy POV shot that takes in a glorious LA sunset through the titular character’s apartment, the tone is set immediately not just in style, but for Jimmy himself as he gets ready for a visit from a girlfriend by snorting coke and necking booze straight from the bottle. After suffering a jump in time, Jimmy begins to suspect he’s been abducted by aliens and reaches out to his once lifelong, now estranged friend Stiggs to find out what’s going on.Soon finding themselves under siege from otherworldly forces, the two friends defend themselves as best as they can with the help of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.

Putting you in mind of the early works of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, JIMMY AND STIGGS is a riotous tale with a gory, gloopy nature. While the appearance of the aliens may raise an eyebrow, the rest of the practical effects, with gallons and gallons of blood, both alien and human, is energetically realised. The film soon descends, or ascends, into a psychedelic haze in all shades of neon as Jimmy’s odyssey becomes stranger and stranger, with time even beginning to become unreliable while the two characters go through their own physical and mental changes to gory, mind-bending effect.

Some viewers may be put off by the chaotic series of events and the chaotic style in which it unfolds, both visually and aurally. Fans of Begos however will no doubt be delighted to see him return to his abrasive style after his killer robot xmas story CHRISTMAS BLOODY CHRISTMAS. The result is his strongest film since 2019’s BLISS, and oddly enough it can also be counted as his most personal film yet, with its examination of strained friendship and an artist under pressure.

This is a gloriously realised exercise in excessive cinema. Low in budget, high in concept and achieved through gloriously handmade and practical  means, JIMMY AND STIGGS sets the bar high for what can be done with low budget genre cinema. A true labour of love, it only proves how much creative skill and verve Begos has, making his voice one of the most distinctive, and loudest, in horror today. It’s great fucking fun.

Iain MacLeod