A man in the hood, Rufus, tells five disturbing dark stories to his family and friends against his wife’s will that includes a mortician working on the wrong night, a singer who learns about entertainment corruption, the future of adoption, medical malpractice and the cost of war.
Starring Freeway Ricky Ross (Rufus), David J (Serg), Debra Haden (Emily), Rah Digga (Louise/Clarisse), Jim Sclavunos (Roger), Spookey Ruben (Dr. Saul), Monique Parent (Linda), Verona Blue (Alicia), and Jennifer Drake (Ruth), the film explores the dark side of storytelling, community, and human obsession.
Who doesn’t love a good horror anthology? Rufus is both the titular character—our storyteller, so to speak—as well as a really clever acronym for the film’s true title: That’s ‘Really Unusual Fucked Up Shit.’ Rufus plays the role of the Crypt Keeper, telling random stories of horror and urban legend to the local kids, riffraff, and anyone else who passes the hood’s local corner.
The film’s shorts actually start off on a high note, with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek horror story about a cop and a mortician who shoot the shit back and forth while chatting about an infamous killer-turned -corpse sitting on the dissection table. Sure, the budget isn’t exactly all that, but the concept is very idle hands are the devil’s playthings. It’s an adequately acted, fun-filled, mischievous short film with a wicked score and a body count befitting its runtime. A good start to what, unfortunately, is a downward slope; they saved the best for first.
The second short is a self-reflection and introspection on Hollywood, acting, and the personal sacrifices that actors and actresses make when searching for fame. It’s been done a hundred times and—sadly—it’s been done much better. Against the backdrop of a relatively catchy tune is a handful of subpar actors playing even more inadequate actors rehearsing for some production that is more avant-garde than it is sensical. The narrative, while followable, is barely comprehensible, especially with the nonsensical rehearsal lines spewn arbitrarily by the cast. The twist was unexpected, but it does complete the metaphor for what is a mostly forgettable short.
Rufus’ little intermissions are a nice break between the shorts: a reprieve and a bit of normalcy from the madness. The third short is probably the laziest of horror shorts that I have ever seen and after doing these reviews for a decade, I have seen pretty much everything. The premise of our third short is two seemingly comatose patients sharing a hospital room while doctors search for brain activity. Although they are able to telepathically communicate, the medical staff are unaware and unable to detect this irrefragable miracle.
This short annoyed me the most due to the fact that—while every broke-ass film student is kicking themselves for not thinking of this first—it is pure hubris. The writer/director was so confident in their own inner voice that they deemed their own contrived inner monologue worthy of a ten-minute short film. It wasn’t even clever; the back and forth between the patients being nothing more than petty vitriol. It was neither funny nor philosophical and had no place in a horror film. Things just get worse when the Mexican nurse appears and it turns into a telenovela. Let’s move on.
Then there’s Korean Dog Boy…yeah. That’s enough about that one.
Then there are the exploding baby dolls…
Then we circle back to the telepathic vegetables and the rest of the film seems to round out with this being the focal short, taking up probably about half the run time, which was really disappointing as it was easily the weakest of the lot.
In earnest, the best part of Rufus was Rufus himself and the acting, script, editing, and the decision to have half the film voice-over two actors in a bed staring at a ceiling ultimately made me dislike it as a whole. There was very little in the way of horror, making far more of a slapstick comedy than the promised unusual fucked up shit. I had to force myself to sit through to the end and I am one who can really enjoy a good B-horror when done well. How this won awards is beyond me. Rufus is streaming now and was released on digital platforms on November 25th. Recommended if you like horror-comedies, B-grade humour and anthologies and have nothing better to do. Trailer and artwork below.
