Horror Movie Review: Lucky Bastard (2013)

Directed by Robert Nathan, who co-wrote the story with Lukas Kendall, Lucky Bastard is an original take on the found footage subgenre of horror and not for those easily offended by explicit content.

Porn producer Mike (Don McManus) runs the Lucky Bastard website, a website that offers subscribers the opportunity to have sex with their favourite adult-film stars. One such ‘lucky bastard’ is the shy and mild-mannered Dave (Jay Paulson) and Mike wants actress Ashley Saint (Betsy Rue) to sleep with him.

Uncomfortable and unconvinced by the merits of the gig, a ton of sweet talk from Dave gets her to agree to it and it’s from this point on that Lucky Bastard gets good. The group picking up Dave and discovering just how awkward he is, seemingly unaware of the cutthroat business and discovering just how cruel an industry it can be. After all, it’s all about the footage and it all plays to the second purpose of the Lucky Bastard website; the humiliation of the winners.

Which is the perfect reason to have the cameras rolling all the time and for the bulk of the film to take place inside a house that is regularly rented out to filmmakers as it has cameras installed in every room.

All of this works and plays into the ‘reality’ aspect of the found footage angle. Yet, it is Jay Paulson’s performance, alongside Betsy Rue and Don McManus, that holds this film together and truly gives it its edge. Early on, the clues that Dave might not be as mild-mannered and safe as he first seems, appear, and it creates a nice level of uncomfortableness. Him getting too personal with Ashley and being humiliated for it, her changing her mind about the sex, and both being manipulated by Mike to continue is extremely watchable stuff.

The rest of Lucky Bastard plays out in expected fashion, especially as the film does start with an unnecessary flash-forward to a crime scene. Yet, while the dramatic aspects and character detail continues to be interesting, the film never quite manages to hit a performance high when it comes to actual horror. Not only is that aspect, and the violence that goes alongside it, quite tame, it’s also quite bloodless.

Disappointingly so, as the lack of creativity here, alongside the knowledge that most of the characters will die, results in very little tension when things inevitably go wrong.

Lucky Bastard is an explicit film regardless, not just because of the story, but because of its sexual content. Yet, thanks to a decent plot and a focus on the characters over titillation, it never feels egregious and in most regards, any adult content is in service to the story. That’s impressive, but does it make Lucky Bastard a good horror film? Alas, the lack of tangible horror elements within the film hurts it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable regardless.