- Release year: 2024
- Director: Doug Rao.
- Producers: Giles Alderson, Sarah-Anne Grill, Marek Lichtenberg, and Doug Rao.
- Screenplay by: Doug Rao.
- Cinematography by: Ross Yeandle.
- Music by: Matthias Jakisic.
Synopsis: a young man tries to escape the cult he is in while battling his mental health and trying to figure out his real origins.
Shotgun Commentary: trippy, acid, hella fun in a twisted way.
Review
Dirty Boy is the religious critique one expected from Shaman (2024) in this year’s Raindance programme. A story of unhinged Christians doing unnerving things, and someone having enough with it and enacting revenge. Shaman will take you on a very different path, but this feature does tap into the darkness of religion itself.
Gods and goblins
Criticising religion, Christianity in this case, is nothing new. It has been done since the Inquisition stopped interfering and quietly even before that. So it is incredibly hard to find a new approach or a new complaint to add. Sadly, most have been covered over and over, making the subject repetitive and tiresome.
The fashion now seems to have turned to cults, which offer a lot more versatility, especially for the horror genre. Some great examples of this subgenre are Midsommar (2019), Azrael (2024), The Surfer (2024), and this year’s Opus (2025). Dirty Boy combines both concepts by presenting a Christian cult, with all the necessary deprivations to make their message clear.
You might be wondering whether this film is worth watching since the main themes have already been mentioned so many times in the history of cinema. Well, good news: it is. This indie film not only covers itself from the Church’s hate by inserting its critique into an imaginary cult, but also offers a new perspective altogether thanks to its more than imperfect antihero.
The edge of morality
The protagonist, Isaac (Stan Steinbichler), is a blond man with mental health problems who has a hard time remembering who he is. Amidst a cloud of drugs that do more harm than good, he fights himself and the cult he grew up in to figure out the truth about his past and about the reality around him. If you’ve ever watched Legion (2017-2019), you might be familiar with the concept. Furthermore, much like David Haller (Legion), Isaac is far from a victim or a hero. He is a deeply troubled man with lots of disturbing tendencies that have only been worsened by the cult that determines what’s right or wrong in his life.
It would be easy to say that there are not heroes or villains in this film. To pull from the thread of mental health and discover that all the characters’ behaviours can be explained and most even justified. But the truth is, the character creation is so beautifully complex that it leaves it completely up to you to determine who is guilty of what.
Despite the constant talk about good and evil, the feature manages to remain completely impartial in its storytelling. It lays down the facts, and it leaves you to digest them in your own time, thus breaking with the annoying cinematic tradition of cutting and chewing the content before feeding it to an audience. For once, you are treated like an adult capable of understanding a story and drawing your own conclusions from it. A type of respect that is easier to find in indie films than it is on mainstream content.
Night and day
Another delightful detail in Dirty Boy is its use of time. Usually, horror films take place in the dark, for obvious reasons. Very few features in the genre have used well-lit settings. And even less have managed to create terrifying situations during daylight. The Omen (1976) and The Woman in Black (1989) come to mind, but modern films tend to rely on daylight for the resting periods between scares.
However, Dirty Boy finds daytime just as good of a backdrop as nighttime, a formula that works well for cult-themed horror. Still, it never ceases to amaze and, most importantly, to bring joy to all those spectators who will have to watch the film on streaming at home. Few things are as annoying as being incapable of watching a horror film because the sun hasn’t quite set yet. This movie will free you from that pesky affair.
All in all, Dirty Boy is a great horror film that features some stunning character creation, an engaging chain of events, and the perfect amount of eeriness in the atmosphere to have a fantastic experience. Fans of cult-themed horror will be delighted to know that there is a new player in town, and its odds to amaze and thrill are looking good.
Dirty Boy is part of the Raindance Film Festival 2025 programme, taking place in London now. Find all the info here!
Advice to take from this movie:
- Don’t do things you don’t want to just because someone tells you to do them.
- Daytime can be just as terrifying as nighttime.
- A few dirty jokes here and there can lighten up the darkest narratives.
What’s your take? Have you watched Dirty Boy? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀