It's been said that 90% of
directing is casting, because once an actor is cast, the
director is stuck with that actor's physical and creative range --
limited to that actor's age, height, weight, facial features, voice,
skills, and training.
Every actor has a limited
range, some greater than others. No one actor is right for
every part, though actors may insist otherwise. The
Other Side provides an example of miscasting. In this case,
the miscasting of a popular archetype -- that of the kick-ass,
Amazonian warrior woman.
While the Amazon archetype extends back
to antiquity, modern examples include Diana Rigg's Emma Peel in The
Avengers, Angelina Jolie's Lara
Croft, Carrie-Ann Moss's Trinity in The
Matrix series, and Mila Jovovich's Alice in the Resident
Evil series.
The Amazon archetype has long appeared
in low-budget genre films. Alas, low-budget Amazons are often less
impressive than their Hollywood renditions.
The
Other Side is more of a theological thriller than a horror
film. Like Resident
Evil, The
Other Side is heavily informed by action genre aesthetics.
In the film, a young man escapes from Hell, along with other inmates. Satan dispatches "Reapers" to bring them back. The
Reapers are kick-ass assassins. Their clothes and gymnastic gunplay
borrow stylistically from The
Matrix.
Male Reapers wear long trench coats and
fedoras. They use only guns. But female Reapers are clad in high
heels and black leather. They use guns, swords, crossbows, and
martial arts knives. No logical reason is given for this sartorial
gender disparity. I suppose that director Gregg Bishop simply
selected whatever fashions he thought looked cool.
The female Reapers are played by Lori
Beth Sikes and (very briefly) Amy Lucas. The problem with their casting is that these women appear to be lightweight, petite, and short. The role of a female Reaper can be
better played by a truly Amazonian actress -- tall, strong, ideally even
a bodybuilder.
Why were Sikes and Lucas cast? It's not
as if acting ability was an issue. The Reapers don't have any
lines. All Sikes does is keep her face in a deadpan scowl. (Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. -- I guess
Bishop thought a fixed scowl made Sikes's character look tough).
These petite
Reapers in leather, flailing swords, look silly, thus risking audience disbelief. If the part calls for an Amazon -- cast an Amazon. Someone like the 5'10"
Sandahl
Bergman with her lean and muscled dancer's body. Or the
5'11" Lana
Clarkson.
No, it doesn't matter that the Reapers
are supernatural and thus don't need physical strength. The
Other Side portrays them as warriors, in which case they
should appear as warriors.
Every film requires a certain
amount of suspension of disbelief. The more entertaining a
film is, the more willing audiences are to suspend disbelief. And The
Other Side is fairly entertaining. Its
stunts and special effects are highly impressive for its claimed
$15,000 budget. So I suspect that most viewers will easily suspend
their disbelief, and accept the petite actresses as Amazonian
warriors.
But why should
audiences be made to exert that extra effort, when the filmmaker
could just as easily have cast more appropriately? The further
viewers must stretch their disbelief (already an issue with
fantastique films), the sooner they'll give up, and relegate the film
to Mystery Science Theatre 3000
fodder.
Such miscasting of warriors is not
limited to women. Note the belly on the above "elite" special forces
solider in Santa Claus vs. the Zombies. (And see my separate article on the poor hairstyling in this film.)
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