Glorious

This bloody little horror film is a prime example of creativity and imagination overcoming a limited budget, somehow making a two-character gabfest feel visceral and dynamic. Glorious -- the title refers to the cosmically decorated "glory hole" in the bathroom stall -- is set almost entirely inside the men's room at a rest stop, with just a few, brief exterior scenes and some jagged flashbacks to Wes' broken relationship. Director Rebekah McKendry keeps her camera moving, as if pacing nervously around the room, changing colors and tones, and, in a sequence in which Wes tries to escape through an air duct, does loop-the-loops.

She also relies heavily on her two stars. Kwanten plays a very unlikable character, a man who's clearly suffering, but also one who makes bad choices. The actor manages to sustain him and make him watchable throughout. Simmons, however, is the key. As the actor has proven throughout his celebrated career, his voice contains rich tones of kindness, authority, and threat, all intermingling with the precision of a chess master. Admittedly, this movie isn't able to have something going on at all times during its 79-minute running time, but Simmons is able to stall (pun intended) beautifully, keeping viewers off-balance and wondering. It's too bad that the movie's lone Black character meets with a cliched death, but that significant flaw aside, Glorious is delirious, gory fun.