Fantasia International Film Festival (FIFF) – By its title alone, it’s safe to guess that All Jacked Up and Full of Worms is a wild ride. Indeed, it is. Writer/director Alex Phillips‘ film is a special kind of hallucinogenic horror, where the next scene is even stranger than the last. This is one indie genre film not afraid to push the limits, creating a reality-bending trip.

There’s not necessarily a clear narrative. A bunch of weirdos takes hallucinogenic worms, sending them deep down the rabbit hole, where they experience one bizarre and sometimes terrifying vision after another. We have Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello), who works as a janitor at a one-star love motel. It’s there where he meets Benny Boom (Trevor Dawkins), a horny and lonely dude who’s gifted the worms by a woman he meets. Oh, and Benny is obsessed with having a kid, to the point he orders a sex doll that also looks like a baby. He talks to it as if it’s his offspring, and that’s not even the weirdest aspect of the movie. There are also Roscoe’s roomies, Jared (Noah Lepawsky), and Samantha (Betsey Brown), who make him the third wheel when they start sleeping together and tell him they want the house. Most of these characters bond over their freaky trips.

This is a film where it’s tough to discern what’s real and what isn’t. It opens with a flickering TV and a woman who interviews a pagan. The interviewee talks about his experiences tripping on the worms. In the next shot, we see Roscoe on the floor, drugged out of his mind, with his roommates beside him. Most of the characters are so over the top, too, especially Benny and Biff (Mike Lopez). Biff, whose facepaint resembles a member of ICP, is so desperate for worms that he assaults Benny and Roscoe. There are really not many likable characters in this film, other than maybe Roscoe. Every character is so detestable in their own way, be it Biff the drug addict or the sex-crazed, baby-obsessed Benny. This is one strange cast of characters indeed with their own wacky habits.

So many shots ooze filth and grime. It looks like this could have been filmed in NYC in the 1970s or 1980s, and it adds to the film’s overall aesthetic. People have sex in allies. They hook up in cheap hotels, and they snort or inhale the wiggly worms in their living room with friends. This movie has a schlock factor that harkens back to 70s and 80s genre films.

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms revels in the sleazy and unreal with its dream-like qualities. Despite how abnormal of a film it is, the feature never feels too nasty that it’s a turnoff. It’s just…strange. Buckle up and experience some uncanny visions in this unique brand of hallucinogenic horror. At the very least, give this one a watch for the gnarly effects in one of the sequences.

The film played at the Fantasia International Film Festival, happening July 14-August 3.

7 Out of 10

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms
RATING: NR
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms | Official Trailer

Runtime: 1 Hr. 11 Min
Directed By:
Written By:

About the Author

Brian Fanelli loves drive-in movie theaters and fell in love with horror while watching Universal monster movies as a kid with his dad. He also writes about the genre for Signal Horizon Magazine, HorrOrigins, and Horror Homeroom. He is an Associate Professor of English at Lackawanna College.