Stitches (2012 film)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Stitches
File:Stitches 2012 movie poster.jpg
UK and Irish theatrical film poster
Directed by Conor McMahon[1]
Produced by Julianne Forde
Brendan McCarthy
John McDonnell
Ruth Treacy
Written by Conor McMahon
Starring Tommy Knight
Ross Noble
Gemma-Leah Devereux
Shane Murray Corcoran
Thommas Kane Byrne
Eoghan McQuinn
Roisin Barron
Hugh Mulhern
John McDonnell
Tommy Cullen
Lorna Dempsey
with Jemma Curran
and Ryan Burke
Music by Paul McDonnell
Cinematography Patrick Jordan
Edited by Chris Gill
Production
company
Distributed by MPI Media Group
Irish Film Board
Signature Entertainment
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • 26 October 2012 (2012-10-26) (UK)
Running time
 86 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Ireland
Language English
Budget $2 million
Box office $63,995

Stitches is a 2012 British-Irish psychological horror comedy fantasy film directed by Conor McMahon and starring Ross Noble, Tommy Knight and Gemma-Leah Devereux.[2] The plot concerns a birthday clown returning from the dead to exact revenge upon a boy and a group of children who contributed to his death. Stitches was produced by Fantastic Films and Tailored Films in 2012 and marks the movie debut of Tommy Knight and stand-up comedian Ross Noble.[3][4] McMahon began working on Stitches after receiving a €600,000 grant from the Irish Film Board, also utilizing funding from MEDIA Europe.[5] Filming for the movie took place in Ireland.[6] Stitches premiered in Dublin, Ireland in September 2012.[7]

Plot

Richard Grindle (Ross Noble), a clown with the stage name "Stitches", makes out with a woman in his van. During sex, the woman notices an egg encased in a glass tube with a face painted on it. Stitches explains that "they" made him do it when he signed up. Stitches arrives late at Tommy's (Ryan Burke) eleventh birthday party. He attempts to entertain the children, but they instead ridicule him. Tommy's best friend Vinnie (Gerald Ahern) ties Stitches' shoelaces together, causing him to trip and land on a kitchen knife. Stitches stands up and attempts to attack the children, but instead he slips on his own blood and the knife flies above him. Stitches falls onto the floor as the knife falls onto his eye, killing him. Tommy visits Stitches' grave and finds a group of clowns performing a ritual. The group's leader, The Motley, threatens Tommy.

Six years later, Tommy (Tommy Knight) is preparing for his seventeenth birthday. He is still haunted by the memory of his past birthday, and begins to have frightening hallucinations, such as a teacher turning into a clown and ripping off Vinnie's testicles before tying them to a party balloon. Hesitating at the idea of throwing a large party, he considers instead inviting only a few friends. Ultimately, he settles on a large gathering, and Vinnie secretly distributes many more invitations over the internet. Tommy, Vinnie, Richie (Eoghan McQuinn) and Bulger (Thommas Kane Byrne), all of whom had been present when Stitches died, prepare the house. As the guests, including Tommy's childhood crush Kate (Gemma-Leah Devereux), arrive, Stitches comes back to life and leaves his grave.

Tommy, startled by Paul dressed as a clown as a joke, injures his head. Bulger takes Tommy to find a first-aid kit, and Tommy retreats to his treehouse with Kate. There, Tommy discusses his memories of the ritual he encountered as a child. Meanwhile, Paul is attacked by Stitches, who rips off his ear and one of his arms and pulls a live rabbit out of his throat before kicking his head off. The clown then finds Bulger, opens up his skull with a can opener, and removes his brain with an ice cream scooper. After serving up three perfectly round scoops of brain in a glass bowl, Stitches adds blood as a topping to complete his grisly ice cream sundae. Sarah, (Roisin Barron) Paul's girlfriend, enters the attic to look for him. There, she is attacked by Stitches, and manages to fight back. As she escapes, Stitches drives an umbrella through her skull, killing her. Through his telescope, Tommy sees Stitches in the house, and goes to warn Vinnie of his presence, but is at first unsuccessful, due to Vinnie's desire to have sex with a formerly overweight classmate. Tom asks Kate to leave, but her boyfriend Dan (Tommy Cullen) stops her.

Outside, Stitches attacks Richie. Richie attempts to flee but trips and falls. Stitches rips out his intestines and fashions them into a balloon animal before stabbing him with a bike pump and inflating him. Stitches manages to pump enough air into Richie to cause his head to explode. Vinnie, on discovering Tommy to be telling the truth, attempts to leave, but Stitches attacks them. Tommy stabs him, Vinnie covers him with a blanket, and they escape. Tommy and Vinnie rescue Kate, but Stitches knocks her unconscious as they attempt to escape. Tom tries to resuscitate her, and Vinnie leaves them behind, and Stitches attempts to drown Tommy in a sink that Vinnie had previously vomited in. Kate awakens and throws a knife at Stitches, while Tommy deduces a manner in which to defeat the clown; to kill him, they must destroy the egg he kept in his van. Tommy and Kate, pursued by Stitches, make their way to the den in the graveyard. There, Tommy searches for Stitches' egg among a collection of them. Stitches arrives, and while deciding which of the two to kill, Vinnie ties his shoelaces together again. He trips, and drops his egg. Tommy forces Stitches to smash the egg, and Stitches explodes in a mixture of magic trick supplies and yolk.

Six months later, Tommy has moved to a new house, and he and Kate are in his treehouse. Kate gives Tommy a new telescope, and his old one is positioned so as to focus on the den in the graveyard. There, The Motley is attempting to piece Stitches' broken egg back together while receiving a blow job. The egg is now fully restored indicating that Stitches will return. After the film cuts to black, Stitches' catchphrase, "Everybody happy?", is heard.

Cast

  • Tommy Knight as Tommy — The birthday boy whose tenth birthday party became the cause of Stitches' death when the children made fun of Stitches. Because of Stitches' traumatizing death, Tom was under medication. He's had a crush on Kate since they were children.
    • Ryan Burke as Young Tommy, who is only ten years of age.
  • Ross Noble as Richard "Stitches" Grindle — An irresponsible and boring clown victimized by the children at Tom's tenth birthday party, resulting to his death. A black magic clown cult made it possible for him to rise back from the dead and avenge his sudden death.
  • Gemma-Leah Devereux as Kate — Tommy's childhood crush who also attended Tommy's tenth birthday party. She has a boyfriend, Dan, whom she doesn't like very much.
  • Shane Murray Corcoran as Vinnie — Tommy's closest friend who has an interest on Mary. He was the one who tied Stitches' shoelaces, causing him to trip with his face landing on a kitchen knife.
  • Thommas Kane Byrne as Bulger — Tommy's gay friend who arranged and decorated his sixteenth birthday party. During Tom's tenth birthday party, he threw an ice cream scooper on Stitches. Stitches killed him using a can opener and scooped his brain out with an ice cream scooper.
  • Eoghan McQuinn as Richie — Tommy's friend who likes photography. During Tom's tenth birthday party, he asked Stitches to make a balloon with the shape of a Stegosaurus. Stitches said that balloons for dinosaurs are extinct and that he should have a dog-shaped balloon; he also popped the balloon, shocking Stitches. He was killed by Stitches by pulling his intestines out and shaping a dog out of it and pumped his head with an air pump until it exploded.
  • Roisin Barron as Sarah — A girl who picks on Tommy. She has a boyfriend, Paul, who also picks on Tommy. During Tommy's tenth birthday party, she threw an umbrella on Stitches; she was killed by Stitches by throwing an umbrella going through her head.
  • Hugh Mulhern as Paul — Sarah's boyfriend who was also invited for Tommy's tenth birthday party. Back then, he put a drink in Stitches' hat as Stitches was about to do a "Hat of Mystery" trick. During Tom's sixteenth birthday party, he peed on his clown costume and was killed by Stitches by kicking his head off.
  • John McDonnell as The Motley — The leader of an unknown clown cult performing some black magic ritual in a small underground den. He led the ritual to raise Stitches from the dead. After Stitches' second death, he tries to raise Stitches from the dead once again by putting his broken egg back to its pieces.
  • Tommy Cullen as Dan — Kate's boyfriend.
  • Lorna Dempsey as Mary
  • Jemma Curran as Jenny

Production

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Development

McMahon began working on Stitches after receiving a €600,000 grant from the Irish Film Board, also utilizing funding from MEDIA Europe.[8]

Filming

Filming for the movie took place in Ireland.[9]

Premiere

Stitches premiered in Dublin, Ireland in September 2012.[10]

Reception

Critical reception

Critical reception for Stitches has been mixed to positive,[11] with entertainment.ie giving it three stars and commenting on the influence of "80s slasher flicks" on the movie.[12] Of the film, many critics praised Stitches for its inventiveness and Nobles' performance, with Bloody Disgusting writing that the movie was "destined to become a cult classic" and carried "heavy replay value".[13][14] Dread Central in particular praised the movie's kill scenes, calling them "brilliant" and remarking that they were done "with such a rigorous sense of care and detail".[15] Criticisms for the movie revolved around the film being "an incredibly low budget production" and the plot being "nowhere near as fun as it sounds on paper".[13][14] The Screen Daily commented that the "horror stuff is obvious, but staged with showstopping flair and buckets of blood".[16] McMahon began working on Stitches after receiving a €600,000 grant from the Irish Film Board, also utilizing funding from MEDIA Europe.[17] Filming for the movie took place in Ireland.[18] Stitches premiered in Dublin, Ireland in September 2012.[19]

Awards

List of awards and nominations
Award Category Nominee Result
Fright-Fest 2012 and Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival 2012 Best Death and Midnight X-Treme Conor McMahon (Director) Fantastic Films (production company) Tailored Films (production company) - Conor McMahon Won

Soundtrack

Song for the film

Music

International releases

  • France - 19 May 2012 - (Cannes Film Festival)
  • UK - August 2012 - (Frightfest)
  • Germany - 28 August 2012 - (Berlin Fantasy Filmfest)
  • Austria - 21 September 2012 - (/slash Filmfestival)
  • USA - 5 October 2012 - (Mile High Horror Film Festival)
  • UK - 7 October 2012 - (Grimmfest)
  • South Korea - 7 October 2012 - (Busan International Film Festival)
  • UK - 26 October 2012
  • Ireland - 26 October 2012
  • France - 17 November 2012 - (Paris International Fantastic Film Festival)
  • Germany - 21 February 2013 - (DVD premiere)
  • Australia - 13 March 2013 - (DVD & Blu-ray premiere)
  • Russia - 16 March 2013 - (Moscow Irish Film Festival)
  • USA - 1 April 2013 - (limited)
  • USA - 2 April 2013 - (DVD & Blu-ray premiere)
  • Belgium - 7 April 2013 - (Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival)
  • Finland - 12 April 2013 - (Night Visions Film Festival)
  • Netherlands - 14 April 2013 - (Imagine Film Festival)
  • Netherlands - 4 June 2013 - (DVD premiere)
  • Sweden - 27 September 2013 - (Monsters of Film, Stockholm)
  • Denmark - 1 October 2013 - (Blodig Film Festival)
  • Japan - 26 October 2013
  • France - 6 May 2014 - (DVD premiere)

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Stitches_(2012_film)&oldid=715471566"