Making its world premiere at Popcorn Frights, DO NOT DISTURB follows a Canadian couple honeymooning in Miami who, after an ill-fated choice to take peyote, quickly become a “Florida Man” story. Though they attempt to save the relationship by getting married, Jack (Rogan Christopher) and Chloe (Kimberly Laferriere) do not work well together and it becomes clear that no amount of drugs will fix that abusive relationship. As they indulge in a seriously strong strand of hallucinogenic cacti, their hotel room becomes a blood-stained lair for sex, violence, and cannibalism. Visceral and grimy, DO NO DISTURB mutates so many Florida stories into one horrific week-long nightmare, but writer/director John Ainslie also uses the film to show a daring look at the emotions and abuse which come from drug addiction.
The film immediately establishes the dysfunctional connection between the two main characters with their first interaction. Hardly an interaction at all, every time Chloe tries to talk to her husband, he abruptly stands up and walks away. Only later in the hotel room do the couple confront each other about their annoyance, and soon the blame-game leads to shouting and digging-up painful memories. And this is just day one of their honeymoon. Through a couple brief moments of exposition, the audience learns that Chloe used to be pregnant, but she lost the child, and she still struggles with not having a baby. Jack shows his charming side by telling her to get over it and to stop crying every time she sees a kid. We see Jack’s controlling and uncaring behavior and Chloe shows us how she stays because she feels she has to. She dedicated so much time and emotion to Jack, she feels she simply cannot walk away.
Chloe wants to connect with her husband and make this marriage work, but Jack looks for any excuse to not soberly interact with his new wife. In fact, the pair seem to attract strange people willing to give them illicit drugs, which only helps to distract from the intentions of the vacation. First a pair of swingers gives them ecstasy laced cocaine, and the following day Florida Man throws peyote and coke at them. Jack wants to get messed up and avoid any kind of emotion or serious talk, so he pressures Chloe into partaking in the drugs. And since she has become so used to giving Jack what he wants, she gives in. Both of the leads play their roles perfectly as they embody abuse, mental anguish, and strung-out addiction. Jack is coded as former (or possibly current) military with his buzzcut, macho attitude, and PTSD-like response to the drugs. He exudes selfishness and also does pretty well with the physicality of an all-body high. And while I applaud Christopher’s depiction of an absolute bastard, Leferriere steals many of the scenes as she depicts her own array of emotions and traumas.
The drugs at first provide a fun, albeit strange night as the two participate in some fairly rough sex. Jack enjoys the high and sees no problem in spending their entire vacation stoned in their hotel room. Chloe on the other hand wants to see the beach and spend quality time with her husband. Not wanting his boring other half to ruin an enjoyable time, Jack resorts to force and even trickery to continue the peyote-fest. The film relies on the central theme of “Consuming Each Other” both metaphorically and literally. The couple want to emotionally control and destroy each other, but cannibalism also plays a very real role.
As the newlyweds become more reliant on their new addiction, they also begin to display far more violent behavior. Jack does not welcome the bloody results of their high-moments, but he prefers to live in a clouded-stupor than to actually deal with any kind of consequences. He uses the drugs as an escape even though with each use his problems multiply. Chloe on the other hand, starts to embrace the stoned version of herself. She begins to stand up to Jack and enjoys the primal activities the drugs encourage her to perform. The filmmaker does not put an exact amount of time on their relationship, but Chloe continually stresses they have been together for a while. Over the years subjected to Jack’s abuse, she adapted to living under his control. He pushes her into addiction, but then the addiction gives her a false sense of security. She thinks she holds power when on the drugs and since she lived as an abused woman for so long, she now welcomes the feeling of control. However, once the drugs have opened her mind, how does she expect to close it?
Jack and Chloe both find themselves swept away by the cannibalism-inducing drug for the same reason: avoidance. Jack wants to avoid his wife and her issues, and Chloe wanted to avoid going back to a life of abuse. Both live a very unhealthy existence and are stuck in their respective roles of the abuser and the abused, which pushes them into addiction. Once under the control of the peyote, their roles almost switch as Jack now becomes an emotional wreck afraid of the outcome, while Chloe turns to increasing levels of violence to assert herself. DO NOT DISTURB takes some horrific Florida headlines and places them inside a hotel room with an already dysfunctional couple to present a narcotic nightmare that takes a primeval look at abuse, depression, and addiction.
Tags: Addiction, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Do Not Disturb, Film Festivals, Gory, John Ainslie, Kimberly Leferriere, Popcorn Frights, Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2022, Rogan Christopher
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