The debut feature of SOV auteur Charles Pinion was this self-proclaimed “Psycho-Punk Splatter Comedy.” Filmed in Gainesville, FL, it was evidently quite a groundbreaker in 1988 (or maybe critical standards were just extremely lax back then), based on the superlatives by FACTSHEET FIVE, SLIMETIME, MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL and FILM THREAT VIDEO GUIDE (which distributed the pic on VHS in the early nineties). Some persuasive superlatives have been lavished on the film, as in the 2023 critical study AESTHETIC DEVIATIONS, whose author Vincent A. Albarano equates TWISTED ISSUES to the “Trance Film” aesthetic of underground film pioneer Maya Deren, but I remain blind to its virtues.
Subsequent Pinion SOV features include the incomplete MADBALL (1988), which currently exists in short film form, as well as RED SPIRIT LAKE (1993) and WE AWAIT (1996), his most accomplished work in my view. Yet TWISTED ISSUES for some reason remains his most popular release.
Pinion himself headlines as Charles, a young man seen dispassionately viewing his friends on TV while his girlfriend hovers nearby. As Charles chops sprouts with garden shears his GF disses his efforts, leading Charles to slice open her head with the shears–only to have her return to life bandaged. Eventually Charles himself gets caught up in the brutality he watches, which spills beyond the limits of his TV set and challenges his seemingly godlike status—as Albarano stated, “Pinion employs the viewing of video media to initiate a journey to awareness,” which may or may not have been the filmmaker’s intent.
The major plotline, watched by Charles on his TV, involves the mouthy skateboarder Paul (Paul Soto) getting into a nighttime confrontation with a carful of joyriding punks. The punks run over Paul and leave his corpse at the side of a road, attracting the attention of a mad doctor (Chuck Speta). Taking Paul back to his laboratory, the doctor resurrects him as a bloodthirsty zombie—and as such Paul wastes no time killing the doctor and screwing his own feet to his skateboard. Paul then tracks down the punks (how he knows their precise whereabouts is never explained) and brutally dispatches each of them.
This film was initially intended as a documentary about the Gainesville punk scene. It ended up as, essentially, an anthology whose various segments were written by different people (with Chuck Speta, Jennifer Canal and Andrew Entner making script contributions in addition to the credited screenwriters), which explains the lack of narrative cohesion (how is it that Paul screws his feet to his skateboard in one scene yet in the very next is seen running around sans screws and board?). Pinion seems most interested in padding his 80-minute running time with TV news montages and poorly filmed concert footage of various Gainesville punk bands (the film’s true raison d’etre), as well as a woman advising us of our Miranda rights should we ever be stopped by a cop.
The sound design is marked by distractingly noisy background ambiance, interspaced with crummy synthesizer music and ever-present punk tunes. The gore effects by David Peck are passable, with Pinion being quite partial to reaction shots (a telltale signifier that he lacked the funds for proper effects), with endless close-ups of blood spurting on people’s faces that only point up the ineptitude of the performances (by the director’s friends).
At least there’s an attempt at style in the green and red tinged lighting (which might have been more evocative if the camcorder visuals weren’t so muddy) and occasionally innovative editing that juxtaposes different time periods and actions (such as Paul killing a guy with extreme close-ups of the pixilated images on Charles’ TV). It’s just a good thing TWISTED ISSUES was made back in 1988, as I guarantee it wouldn’t receive a fraction of the attention it enjoyed were it released today.
Vital Statistics
TWISTED ISSUES
Twisted Films
Director/Producer/Editor: Charles Pinion
Screenplay: Steve Antczak, “Hawk” (James C. Basett), Charles Pinion, Chuck Speta
Cinematography: Charles Pinion, Lisa Soto
Cast: Paul Soto, Steve Antczak, Lisa Soto, Sam Gough, Michelle Gould, David Peck, Rachel Guinan, Jorge Cervera, Chuck Speta, Jennifer Canal, Hawk