LIGEIA

What to do when you're caught in a loveless marriage and your ex-boyfriend pops up out of nowhere? Start an affair, of course. But what if your ex has undergone a sex change and he is now a she? Well, change sexual orientation and still have an affair of course!

That is the premise behind Legeia, a no-budget movie no doubt filmed on camcorder starring the director's buddies. However, unlike most movies of this sort, Ligeia is actually kind of fun, even though it does start losing steam halfway through its relatively short running time.

More literary types might know that Ligeia is actually the name of an Edgar Allen Poe short story. According to one web source it is about ?a woman who becomes ill and dies, though she has great desire to live. After her husband marries a woman he does not love, Rowena, Ligeia's powerful will to live brings her back into the body of Rowena.?

So sue me, I haven't read it, but I wished that the film-makers also haven't read it because Ligeia (the movie) kicks off as a promising and funny sexual black comedy and starts losing direction when the whole ?possession? theme of Poe's story comes in. In fact, the whole concept seems to be poorly thought out that it feels tacked on almost as an afterthought in-between the film's general mayhem.

Still, Ligeia is pretty funny stuff and there is loads of sex if the particular brand of black humour doesn't appeal. The cast is spirited, if not particularly professional. With some more money, another script rewrite, and Legeia would be ready for the big time.

Indie Film Threat magazine is now in business of film ? or make that DVD ? distribution. It makes sense to be honest: one would always be reading about this or that promising cheapo movie on their website knowing that one will probably never get to see it. Now you can actually get to see the movie in question by simply ordering it from their site.

This is a brave step for Film Threat and I hope one which will prove rewarding.

Reviewing fare like this also puts them in the position to separate the wheat from the chaff ? and believe me there's a lot of chaff in the zero budget indie universe (I know because sadistic film-makers would often send me their movies to review). On the disc there are some trailers for other promising upcoming fare. Keep checking

WORTH IT? Hell, yeah. Ligeia is flawed, but nonetheless fun viewing. And there's some gratuitous nudity, something sadly lacking in most of today's Hollywood fare.

RECOMMENDATION: Buy it today and support your local amateur film-maker . . .