A Villainous Parody

A Villainous Parody

Bruce Von Stiers

In the cinematic world, there are great films of superheroes and villains. And there are bad films featuring them. And then there are films that skirt the edge of the realm and slide into parody.

One such parody film is Owlman. It takes a villain, Dr. Misfortune, and his evil henchmen, and pits them against a superhero named Owlman. This all takes place in the fictional town called Stark City.

After an initial scene where Dr. Misfortune yells that he'll get Owlman yet, the film introduces Biggie and Sean. They are the henchmen. They begin their day by going to a warehouse/ lair and suiting up in orangish coveralls, villain masks and do-rag head coverings. And, of course, employee name tags.

While waiting for Dr. Misfortune to appear, Biggie is practicing bad-guy swings with his baseball bat. And then Sean berates him because, apparently, Owlman is constantly taking Biggie's bat away from him and beating him up with it.

As this is all unfolding, I'm thinking to myself, this is kind of silly. But then I remembered that this is strictly a parody. The film was never intended to be mistaken as a hardcore action-adventure film. So, I kept an open mind about the film.

You see flashback scenes where Biggie and Sean put items at various locations as clues for Owlman. But the clues are a ruse to lure Owlman into a trap. After Dr. Misfortune goes over a checklist of the clues and such with the guys, Sean has a separate meeting with the doctor. He is being put on probation. On a previous assignment, Sean was supposed to kill someone. But he didn't understand, or misinterpreted, the assignment.

There is a lot of conversation between Biggie and Sean. We learn about lack of compensation for their work and insufficient health care coverage provided by Dr. Misfortune. Just like your average everyday worker. But they're not average workers, are they?

Because of their sub-par henchmen skills, you just know that Biggie and Sean won't succeed in nabbing Owlman. And that Dr. Misfortune will have to come up with a new, and more devious, plan to capture and do away with his archenemy, Owlman.

John Szura played Dr. Misfortune. He had previously starred in the drama, Remembering Maria. Tom Bailey played Sean. This film is his only IMDB listing. Bill Hagy played Biggie. He was seen in multiple episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Szura, Bailey and Hagy were all executive producers for the film.

The film was directed by James Carey. He has directed films such as the horror short, Love Potion and the drama short, Divorce During Pandemic. Carey also directed the short romance film, Come Walk With Me. That film starred Elizabeth Gibbs, who appears with Mark Wahlberg in his new film, By Any Means.

The director of photography was Aymae Sulick. Her credits include being a camera operator on all the episodes of The Pitt and second unit director of photography for a couple episodes of The Lincoln Lawyer.

The film was based on the play Owlman To The Rescue, written by Tom Fox and Jeff Michael. Fox and Michael wrote the screenplay for the film, along with James Carey.

For context, Carey provided some history of the film. It was a small, independent project that began in 2001 and was completed in 2005. At the time of completion, there didn't seem to be a film festival or distribution mechanism to accommodate the film, which Carey considered to be an “cult, absurdist, superhero parody.” So, Carey shelved the film. But, in today's world, there are many film festivals of all shapes, sizes and varied content. Carey decided to shake the dust off the film and submit it to a few of those newer film festivals. It seems to be garnering a bit of attention at these film festivals.

Borrowing a little bit from Carey, the film is kind of absurd. Who would think that a henchman would be put on probation for not killing someone. Or that the henchmen would approach their duties just like a regular job. About the only thing normal type of thing that Biggie and Sean don't do to start their work day is to punch in on a time clock. They even have employee ID badges. But that is part of the fun of watching the film. That is, knowing that it shouldn't be taken seriously. And that Biggie and Sean are very inept henchmen and that Dr. Misfortune is nothing more than a third-rate villain.

Owlman has been submitted for consideration at these upcoming film festivals: Wyrd Underground Film Festival, Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival and the Tulsa Underground Film Festival.

The film has also been submitted to festivals for next year. They are the LA Underground Film Forum and Dam Short Film Festival in January of 2027, Festpro Film Festival in March of 2027, ConCarolinas Film Festival in April, 2027, Lit Laughs International Comedy Film Festival in May of 2027 and the Underground Indie Film Festival – Horror Cult Sci-Fi Fantasy in June 2027.

Owlman did receive an Honorable Mention at the recent Boobs & Blood International Film Festival.

You can also watch Owlman on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P50Hk71q8t4

Back to the BVS Reviews Main Menu

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _