Tyler Cornack’s Butt Boy is proof that we are living in the most interest era of filmmaking. We’ve lost some of the awe and magic of those early years, but cinema today has made it possible for wild & crazy ideas to come to life. Just a short time ago, movies like Butt Boy would have only existed as a silly joke some friends riffed on over a few drinks. Against the odds, there now exists a movie about a man who’s harmless kink escalates into a dangerous addiction responsible for the disappearance of household objects, pets, and children!
Butt Boy worked best for me when I watched it as a sendup of Dirty Harry-esque police procedurals. I spent less time laughing out loud than I did shaking my head in disbelief but it’s really hard to ignore the absurdity inherent in the genre tropes of the movies Butt Boy is parodying. Our lead detective is a squinty-eyed, gruff alcoholic, who carries a bottle of hot sauce in his shoulder holsters, just waiting for an opportunity to turn in his badge and go rogue. Our villain is a mild-mannered sad sack kidnapping children for his own sick pleasure whose bored, 100-yard-stare is permanently glued to his face. These movies build on themselves, one-upping each other with rougher cops and more psychotic villains, but Butt Boy seems bent on presenting the most unappealing version of that tired old genre- and I mean that in the best (but still uncomfortably gross) way possible.
“It’s absurd. It’s over-the-top. It’s a departure from all conventional storytelling that dives deep into its ludicrous premise.”
Chip Gutchel (played by writer/director Tyler Cornack) hates his job, his marriage, and himself. Nothing about his life is in any way enjoyable until a routine prostate exam introduces Chip to something new and exciting. After failing to get his wife on board with his newfound kink, Chip begins inserting objects into his butt. But here’s the kicker: they don’t come back out. And there seems to be no limit to the amount (or size!) of objects Chip can fit inside him. Before long, Chip has hit rock bottom after “consuming” the family dog and an infant child.
Several years later, Chip thinks he has his life under control. He’s been attending AA meetings regularly and has been “sober” for some time…until the urge returns one day, stronger than it ever had been before. After meeting Detective Russell Fox at an AA meeting (Tyler Rice), Chip‘s goes on a reckless bender, leaving more missing children in his wake. Unapologetic fans of boiler-plate cop thrillers will find plenty of comedic familiarity in the structure of this asinine movie, but I’m hesitant to say “you’re going to laugh your ass off“. It’s not that Butt Boy isn’t for everyone, it’s just a movie that is probably funnier the second time around when you can laugh at the grossed-out, confused faces of your friends.
Butt Boy belongs in that same modern exploitation arena as Lowell Dean’s WolfCop (2014). It’s absurd. It’s over-the-top. It’s a departure from all conventional storytelling that dives deep into its ludicrous premise. It crawls into the butt of its own joke! If nothing else, Butt Boy is brave enough to assume that this is a story that needs to be told. The biggest downside is that the movie is kinda gross. And surprisingly, for a B-movie so concerned with the goings-on of a person’s colon, it takes a good long while for Butt Boy to get really gross. Unfortunately, there is a rinse/repeat quality to Chip and Russell’s fight that wears thin quickly, and comedy is already tight rope walk of patience and payoff at the best of times.
The absurdity of Butt Boy is really brought to life by the performances from writer/director Tyler Cornack as the titular “Butt Boy”, and the tough-as-nails cop on his trail portrayed by Tyler Rice. Channeling his inner Deniro-off-the-deep-end, Rice manages to give us a character we know all too well from crusty cop cinema. A stereotypical lone wolf hero that we sometimes forget is as ludicrous as a villain who has weaponized his backside. Cornack gives an equally committed performance, not just as the man who has to be seen putting bars of soap or board game pieces inside himself, but also as a heartless bastard going through a mid-life crisis. Butt Boy is everything I was worried it would be, but the humor of this silly story was never lost on me. It’ genuinely one of the craziest genre send-ups I’ve ever seen. And anytime I was worried it had gone too far or gotten too weird, our valiant protector Detective Russell Fox would come swooping in with a 1000 yard squint and save the day.
“Butt Boy belongs in that same modern exploitation arena as Lowell Dean’s WolfCop (2014)“
Somewhere out there, a brave theatre programmer is cooking up a double-bill of Butt Boy with Swallow, another film about a character whose only sense of control can be found through the foreign objects she herself chooses to swallow. It’s a powerful film that explores control and mental illness, none of which can really be found in Butt Boy…but I find it hard to believe any movie whose 3rd act takes place inside the cavernous rectum of it’s villain is looking to do anything more than get a few laughs out of you. Regardless of how you feel about it, this movie is proof that we live in an era of filmmaking that knows no limits.
Written and directed by Tyler Cornack, Butt Boy stars Tyler Cornack, Tyler Rice, Shelby Dash, Austin Lewis, and Kristina Clifford. Butt Boy lands on VOD/Digital April 14 and will be available on DVD & Blu-ray April 28. Let us know what you think of this absurd action/comedy/thriller over on Twitter, in the Nightmare on Film Street Subreddit, and on Facebook in the Horror Movie Fiend Club!
