Calvin's New Friends

Calvin's New Friends

Bruce Von Stiers

Emmett Loverde is a screenwriter, director, editor and producer. I've reviewed three of Loverde's films; Girl's Night In, Good Business Sense and She's Out of His Mind, which features the current First Lady of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Loverde has a new film out. Whereas the three films I mentioned were comedies, this film is a horror thriller. The title of the film is Without A Name. Loverde directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay. The other writer of the screenplay was Larry Maraviglia, who is noted as a playwright whose stage works starred Pat O'Brien and Tom Ewell. Loverde was also one of the producers for the film. The other producers were Eric Leukert and Hayato Mitsuishi. Loverde also edited the film.

Over the years, there have been more than a few films where a kid is recruited into a cult. Many times, there is a parent trying to get the kid out of the cult. Without A Name takes these plot elements and adds a couple of twists that are interesting and disturbing at the same time.

The film opens with some sort of religious ceremony where an act of desperation results in something happening that is either amazing or an extraordinary coincidence. This scene serves as sort of an introduction to things that happen later in the film.

The film then moves to Calvin. He's a twelve-year-old boy. He seems to be angry at life, particularly his mom and her boyfriend or husband. He gets on this website, where they appear to know a lot about him. The messages he receives from the site validate his anger.

Then Calvin sneaks out of his house and gets into a car with a guy. The guy is Darren, Calvin's dad. And they are sneaking off for a fishing trip. Even though this might be a bonding father and son trip, Calvin still acts angry at life.

Darren and Calvin come to the town of Bundy and check into a motel. That's when things start to get interesting, and a bit weird. There's no cell phone service in town and the motel clerk is acting very strangely. A chance encounter between Darren and a café owner ends with Darren being warned to leave town.

Then Calvin disappears. Darren gets no help from the sheriff or any of the townspeople. Except for the café owner, who directs Darren to a youth academy at the edge of town.

It is at the youth academy that things get weirder and even deadly. Darren learns from one of the teachers, Nine, about the cult that is housed there. The cult is all about having pleasure, freedom, and then even more pleasure. The youth can do pretty much anything they want. The name of the cult is Sin Nombre, which translates to Without A Name. Hence the title of the film.

Trying to extract Calvin from this cult and getting him back home safely is not going to be easy. It seems that everyone in town, even the sheriff, is somehow involved with Sin Nombre. And Calvin has met a girl, an older girl who's taken an interest in him.

There are a lot of things to cover about the film. There are strange townspeople. Add in an uncooperative sheriff, a café owner whose daughter is missing, a rule about the cult members who reach a certain age, and some weird, almost satanic rituals. There is a criminal element that Darren seems to be mixed up with. There are several gruesome murders as well.

The film has a huge cast, well over thirty actors. For many of those actors, this is their first film. Dezi Cruz Brooks plays Calvin. He appeared in the film Earlybird and the miniseries Union House Hotel. Jeff Wittekiend plays Darren. He appeared in Small Blue and Behold, A Pale Horse.

The girl, Vee-ex, who takes an interest in Calvin, is played by Elle Coventry. She previously appeared in the horror film, The Nanny. Simon Jon Provan plays Nine. He appeared in several short films and an episode of Chicago Fire. In fact, Provan had to step away from this film for a short time in order to shoot his scenes for Chicago Fire. Cooper Bohn plays Sixty-Five, one of the leaders of the cult.

Other cast members who've been in previous films and television shows include Tony Lee Gratz, Dan Davies, Larry Biela, Eric Leukert, Kip Hathaway, Scarlett Wand, Matthew Alan Porter, Veronica Nelson and Elle Gerber.

Janaah Coates plays one of the cult leaders. She has appeared in films such as The Dark Knight. Tom Reed plays the head of that criminal element I mentioned earlier. He played a police detective in two films. Deborah Johnson plays Abigail, the café owner who warns Darren to get out of town. This is her first listed screen credit.

As for teen members of Sin Nombre, several of those actors have also been on screen before. Katya Ravie has been in a couple of short films and Jaime Swezey starred in the horror film, Queen of Phantoms. Allison Brookens was in the film Murder Lane. Amelia Mahrie co-wrote and starred in Atomic Hearts, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival this past May. Caylin Schwartz appears in the upcoming film, Crunch Time!

Teen actors in the film making their screen debut include Emma O'Donnell, Giana Juidici and Nicole Repka. Other actors in their debut roles are Gretchen DeeDee, Daniel Bach, Emma Sarah Davis and Jennifer Dandy .

The cinematographer for Without A Name was Griffith Mehaffey. His previous work includes the romantic drama Lenore and the horror film Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia.

There was a lot of cool music in the film. Most of the songs were written and performed by friends of Loverde. Those artists included Jon Tompkins, Ritual, Robert Casal, The Rich and Gene Show, David Shepherd Grossman and Eric Izdepski. There is also Karina Gallagher, a New York based vocalist, Eric Din of The Uptones, The Wynona Riders and Fang. One of Fang's songs in the film, I Wanna Be On TV, has been covered by Green Day, Nirvana, Rancid and Metallica.

The concept for Without A Name came from what Loverde says are his and Maraviglia's “strong opinions on the power and influence of religion.” And, as he has always enjoyed rebellious youth tales, Loverde included those elements in the film. It might be that he was one of those rebellious youths he so admires.

I really liked Without A Name. It showed what could happen if a specific incident evolves into a way of life that fully embraces the cult mentality. The film has cultism, ritualistic killings and a distinct and violent way of aging out of the cult. There is a dad trying to reconnect with his son. And the son who is so angry at life that he accepts the first group that accepts him. And he just might get a girlfriend.

My only complaint about the film is the location shots. There are interior scenes that don't match up with some of the exteriors. But I did learn that certain locations became unavailable after the film was halfway through production. So they had to use alternate locations for many of the interior scenes.

But if you just ignore those inconsistencies, the rest of the film was good. The acting was very professional, and the cinematography was done well.

Without A Name has been submitted to over twenty film festivals, including the Santa Monica International Film Festival and the Bare Bones Film Festival.

To learn more about Without A Name, you can visit the film's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WithoutANameMovie .

You can also visit Emmott Loverde's official website to find out about him, this film and others that he's directed and produced. That website is https://www.emmettloverde.org/

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