ANYTHING THAT MOVES
(director/writer: Alex Phillips; cinematographer: Hunter Zimney; editors: Troy Lewis, Alex Phillips; music: Cue Shop; cast: Trevor Dawkins (Ray), Hal Baum (Liam Woodlawn), Jade Perry (Julia Williams), Jiana Nicole (Thea Williams), Paul Gordon (Dad), Jack Dunphy (Dodge, cop), Frank W. Ross (Rick, cop), Ginger Lynn Allen (Rachel), Nina Hartley (Vicky); Runtime: 80; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Georgia Bernstein, Liane Cunje, Edwin Linker; YouTube/Vinegar Syndrome; 2025)
“An erotic stylized thriller shot on Super 16mm.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An erotic stylized thriller shot on Super 16mm with a handheld camera. It’s provocatively directed and written by Alex Phillips (“All Jacked Up and Full of Worms”). The bizarre, non-commercial film, with a chill score by Chicago’s Cue Shop, is set on the streets of Chicago and is a throwback to the exploitation films of the 1970s.
The dorky and kindly Liam (Hal Baum) is a sex worker and delivery boy for the SNAXXX app, whose product is sex and snacks. He and his gf Thea (Jiana Nicole) get around the Chicago streets on their bikes, as they deliver sex and sandwiches to their hungry clients. Liam does it with either men or women, and is gentle, patient and does not judge his clients.
Problems arise when the dad (Paul Gordon) of one of Liam’s clients turns up dead, with a mysterious hole in his head. Two hostile homophobic cops (Jack Dunphy & Frank W. Ross) investigate. It turns out there’s a serial killer on the loose and bodies are piling up, and the killer is suspected of being either Liam or one of his clients, as Liam’s allegedly the last one to see the vics alive. They are all found with similar holes in their head and clues left in their skulls.
The pic wants you to respect how sleaze films were made with love back in the day.
The 60-something Ginger Lynn Allen and Nina Hartley are actors from the adult porn film world, with Ginger in one fun scene paying to get serviced by Liam.
The film has a cult following on the midnight festival circuit, and will probably not attract much of a mainstream audience.
For fans of dirty films, this is an inspired erotic giallo film mixing gore, sex and comedy. It delivers the necessary shocks for some of its viewers to get pleasured by. But it might just be too sleazy for many of the more queasy mainstream viewers to get off on.
It played at the Fantasia Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/22/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com