“APSK3: THE FINAL CHAPTER” (2008)

Starring: Regan Reese, Shane Ryan, Jayden Green, Krystal Star, Deserae Struthers & Samantha Joy
Written & Directed by Shane Ryan
AlterEgoCinema.com

Polly Staffle Rating: **

On first glance at “Amateur Porn Star Killer 3: The Final Chapter” - the last and weakest movie in the underground trilogy about rapist, murderer and snuff-making boy next door Brandon - it appears Shane Ryan didn’t fully think his project through. The order and structure of the film seems random with no rhyme or reason. However, it’s not that Ryan under thought the close to his successful and highly praised cult series, the problem appears he actually over thought it.

Instead of crafting a film that, like the first and second, stands on its own that also helps piece together the mythology of its killer, Ryan seems to have focused mainly on closing out the franchise in a way that brings his character full circle. And by full circle, I mean a vicious never-ending merry go-round that continues well after the ending credits of “Final Chapter.” It’s almost as he is saying, “This is the end of my series, this is the end of myself as an ‘Amateur Porn Star Killer,’ but the Brandons of the world will never stop.” That’s a perfectly fine way to complete his trilogy; it just leaves a lot to be desired in judging this as a singular film that comes off as the rawest and most abstract of the three “APSK” projects.

Oddly, I think most of my complaints with this film could be resolved with a bit of retooling of his footage. Ryan opens “Final Chapter” on an extremely high note - too high. We get bombarded with three victims before the opening credits are even finished. A brunette, played by Deserae Struthers, opens the film. Brandon pulls her out of the trunk of a car in the middle of nowhere. It’s here at a location that looks straight out of “The Devil’s Rejects” that Brandon makes his victim strip, perform oral on him, before raping her and then killing her. Before we are able to catch our breath from the effective opener, Brandon moves on to two more victims that play out at the same time. One is a seemingly willing participant. She is a blonde girl on the beach, played by Samantha Joy. Brandon stumbles across her sun tanning and then takes her back to a hotel. The other is a shy girl (Jayden Green) that Brandon picks up off the street. He attempts to make her fellate him, she fights him and he murders her in his car.

Then the film settles into a long one-take between Brandon and an internet porn star which makes up most of the film’s 78-minute run time. The victim, played by real Porn Queen Regan Reese (“Scurvy Girls,” “Bad Girls,” “Bitchcraft 4,” “Chop Shop Chicas”), is waiting for a friend or the city bus, which ever gets there the fastest, to drop her at the train station. Brandon gets there first and it goes without saying that she never makes it to her ride out of town.

Though Ryan graduates from “amateur porn star killer” to “professional porn star killer” casting Reese as his lead, the scenario between Brandon, or John Lee as he sometimes goes by, starts off very reminiscent of the original film. So after blasting his audience with full frontal male and female nudity, explicit sex scenes and several depictions of violent deaths, Ryan places the brakes on and attempts to deliver a slowly building, tense encounter. But for me, it just didn’t work. “Final Chapter” is just too explosive early on and because of that the film feels extremely off balance.

The original film was as effective as it was because I didn’t know what Brandon was capable of exactly. I knew from the title that sex and violence were to be delivered. When they were in a very sleazy and non sensationalized way it made me feel ashamed and empty inside.

In the second film, Brandon was given a chance to charm his victim and audience. There was a fun exchange between the killer and his victim before the dread. There was also consenting sex before the rape and murder. Ryan also gave his audience background on his character by sandwiching snippets of other victims with subtitles that detailed the earlier crimes, while the main encounter played out. The end result was like a channel-surfing nightmare of sex, violence, pornography and crime.

But then there is “Final Chapter,” which is so inaptly named. It delivers more nudity, more humiliation and more detailed secondary victims than the first two, but what is missing is a message. The opener with three fast kills seemed to desensitize my viewing experience. Once the meat and potatoes of the film kicked in, I was bored with Brandon. I didn’t want to hear any of his chit-chatting with a victim; I wanted answers and I wanted him dead. I got none of these things and then the whole thing comes to a, no pun intended, very anti-climatic finish.

In ending this review, I wanted to disclose that I am a huge fan and also a friend of Shane Ryan. I’ve been both basically ever since I saw his no-budget film “Amateur Porn Star Killer” back in June of 2006. In the end credits of “Final Chapter,” like the second one, I was given a “special thanks.” I also served as an executive producer on “Amateur Porn Star Killer 3D: Inside the Head.”

These things being said, I was really hoping I would like the close to his Brandon trilogy. I think Shane Ryan is a brilliant filmmaker. I believe strongly in most of the work he does. I wish I could say these things for “Amateur Porn Star Killer 3: The Final Chapter.” Sadly, I can’t. Where as the first two hit the bull’s eye with very disturbing, thought-provoking pieces of cinema, this one misses the mark. Though it has its moments, as a whole it doesn’t feel complete.

There is a scene near the end of the film where we see Brandon at home playing with a video camera by himself. He looks bored. He looks tired. Perhaps these emotions aren’t Brandon’s at all, but actually Shane Ryan’s. Having helped re-popularize the found footage genre and pioneered snuffumentary, Ryan has seemed to have taken Brandon as far as legal limits have allowed him. With the “Final Chapter” now complete and his 3D film on the way, hopefully Ryan can put this scumbag in his past and move on to new exciting territory.

- CCF, December 2008