Starring: Barret Walz, Maurice McNicholas, Tom Lodewyk
Written & Directed By: Robert Cappalletto
Grade: B

Pickman’s Muse is inspired by the H.P Lovecraft stories, “Haunter of the Dark” and “Pickman’s Model.” A major motif in the film is The Church of Starry Wisdom, also the center of Lovecraft’s telling. It is a lose telling of the events with certain similar motifs, it creates its own story, characters, and the forces behind them. Pickman’s Muse focuses on a lost hard artist who unconsciously finds his way to obsession, murder, and lies.

Robert Pickman (Walz) is very to himself, focusing on his art. Lately though, he can’t help feeling like there is something missing even with this one thing that he completely devotes himself to. He visits a therapist and is suffering from depression to an extent, unable to enjoy things in life that seem to come to other so easily. Pickman is far behind on his paintings. His costumers are waiting on him, but he just can’t get himself to paint. Suddenly one night he finds a newfound inspiration. Voices whisper to him, putting images in his head. Pickman paints these images that others are completely horrified and sickened by. This new muse of his gives him something to paint though and Pickman can’t help but listen. He draws one particular church obsessively over and over again.

When Pickman turns his work in, he is told that it looks like a Goodie Hines copycat. Pickman has never even heard of Goodie Hines though. He finds out that Goodie is a famed artist who was obsessed with the same images. Pickman’s doctor, Dr. Dexter (McNicholas), becomes very concerned with the resemblance between the two. Their drawings match up exactly, as if one was traced from the other. Goodie was one of Dr. Dexter’s failed patients who ended up going crazy. Now a piece of him seems to have resurfaced in Pickman and he sets out to destroy this at all costs.

Barret Walz really stood out as Robert Pickman, winning the Chicago Horror Film Festival’s award for best actor. There’s a close offed sense to him throughout, but he also displays a wide range of emotions when he is being influenced by his muse. In some scenes he seems completely composed in a trance like state. Other times he seems shocked and horrified with himself, surprised that he is even capable of the things he is doing and burdened by trying to keep it all a secret. Tom Lodewyk also did an incredible job bringing out the very creepy, Goodie Hines. His insanity is overpowering, yet he still has a hold on his legacy. It’s the only thing he cares for anymore, there is such a desperation for even a pen; anything that will let him translate the images flying around in his head. This overwhelming need and the unconventionally ghastly illustrations that Goodie longs to get out creates quite a thrilling character. Maurice McNicholas does a decent job as Dr. Dexter, but he doesn’t come off quite as genuine or believable in his performance as Walz and Lodewyk were.

Pickman’s Muse takes it’s time with the pacing, but it works. It has a heavy focus on the psychological element. This slower pacing gives time to establish Pickman as a dissatisfied and absent state while building the exploration of morbid inspiration and the murderous capabilities he holds within himself. It would have been nice if we would have been shown some of the more atrocious paintings that were equated with the devil himself. On the other hand, it would be hard to create something like this that met the expectations set by the context the paintings were in. Between the parallel between Pickman and Goodie Hines we are given enough interesting material. For me, the storyline with Dr. Dexter trying to stop him didn’t capture my interest quite as well. Still, I can see its intent to add a bit of tension and escalate the climax. The transitions Pickman goes through are really what make the film so captivating. It offers the question of whether he is doing this for the sake of art, sanity, or simply out of weakness and the inability to ignore the voices.

Pickman’s Muse was made on a $5,000 budget, which is completely astounding. The production values are pretty solid, the on location sets are atmospheric and realistic, and the soundtrack really helps set the tone. Including an actual abandoned church really adds to the creepiness and mystery that the image of the church represents. Shooting for the film lasted over 2 years and it is clear that it has been a passion project of Cappalletto’s for some time, which shows in the film.