‘The Rise And Fall Of An American Scumbag’ (2017) Film Review

Colorado indie filmmaker Dakota Bailey returns with his fourth feature, The Rise And Fall Of An American Scumbag. Expanding further on his his last film, American Scumbags, Bailey brings back most of the same cast to go another round of down and dirty dealing, double crosses and abject behavior. Although American Scumbags was shot in black and white, Bailey chose to go with an interesting color scheme with this one, while still dwelling in a lot of darkness and night scenes.

The Rise And Fall Of An American Scumbag features five stories woven together featuring several characters involved in different, bottom dwelling activities involving drugs and despicable survival tactics. First up, we are introduced to a character named Billy (Darien Fox), a low life in the worst gutter-dwelling form. Billy likes to watch videos of dogs getting beaten to death in bags, getting his prostitute girlfriend high on blow and weaseling his way through life. With an absolute disdain for his parents, including a scene where he literally defecates on his mother’s grave, Billy has a plan to further himself by inheriting his father’s insurance policy by any means necessary.

Addict/hit man Johnny, played by director Dakota Bailey, works for female drug kingpin Pat (Alaskan Cinder). Johnny is called into play when a wheelchair-bound vigilante who goes by the name of Wheeling Deals (L.G.) executes one of her scumbag dealers. The paths of Darien, Wheels, Pat and Johnny will cross and result in death and destruction for some of the parties involved. I think the character of Darien is probably the best thing about The Rise And Fall Of An American Scumbag. He plays this horribly sleazy role, but at the same time, is deliciously entertaining residing in the bowels of repugnance.

There’s some great punk hardcore music in this one by the band Skullcrack, and director Bailey keeps carrying the torch of putting out some great urban-based. low budget films. Bailey has that knack of bringing horror to real life scenarios, such as from the streets and the people who exist there, in a quest for survival. Movies like this rely on reality as horror and the caricature of the people that actually exist in such a reality, like drug dealers, hit men, prostitutes, alcoholics and others from the underbelly of society. Nothing in film is quite as scary as watching the daily news, and it never will be. You can purchase The Rise And Fall Of An American Scumbag here.