The Listing (2017)

I had the opportunity to screen a new film by Mario Cerrito, called The Listing (2017). Cerrito has been working hard in the movie industry and has a long list of positions filled when it comes to making movies. Like actor, producer, location management and editor to name a few. So, he has a pretty good idea about all the hard work it takes to entertain the masses. In 2015 Cerrito added the title of director to his workload and launched his first feature-length film called Deadly Gamble. Two years later, Cerrito is back to thrill us his latest project, The Listing.

The Listing is a thriller that was written and directed by Mario Cerrito. It has a seventy-four minute run time and is rated UR (unrated) but does have language. The story is about a realtor named Michael Morurer. Michael is at the height of life, wonderful wife, great family, and work is taking off just like he’d been hoping for. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and Michael is about to see everything he’s cared for crumble right before his eyes. It starts with his son being kidnapped and then he finds a note telling him to kill six people in twenty-four… or his son dies.

The Listing asks a question, we as parents have asked ourselves many times, what would you do? Personally, I’ve never killed anyone, but when facing the same dilemma that the main character Michael does, would I… could I? Most of us will say “Of course I could!”, but when you’re standing nose to nose with a stranger, could you? I think Cerrito picked a great idea for the story and did a killer job showing the struggle that would follow with such a situation.

The playthrough was good, but I had a bit of a problem with the pace of the film. It starts out good and sets everything up, but then slows down and drags a bit in a spot. Once Michael has set his mind to what he’s about to do, it felt like the movie kicked into high gear and it was over before I knew it. It never had a problem holding my attention, I think I would have liked it more if they would have slowed down the ending a bit and stretched things out more.

Now, the movie’s budget was like $25,000 so that’s not a lot to work with, but I really liked how they pulled everything off with what they had. Instead of seeing a bunch of people killed off, Cerrito went will the old-school pan away and let our imaginations do all the work as we heard the victims die. Now, some people may not be a fan of that style because they what to see all the horror happen. Don’t get me wrong, I like watching people get hacked to pieces also when I’m in the mood, but I grew up with the old-school films so the pan away holds a special place in my film heart.

Some of the cast is Benard Glincosky (Brotherhood of Silver), Julie Stackhouse (They Are Strangers) Kieran Boyle (A Dark Place Inside), Jen Ndini (Victim), John DiRenzo (Deadly Gamble) and Jessica Cameron (Truth or Dare). At the beginning, Glincosky came off kind of flat with his character but then showed great emotion during the struggle of dealing with the blackmail. I thought DiRenzo did a killer job with his role. Unfortunately, you don’t see much of her, but it’s always cool seeing Cameron show up in a movie.

I thought the special effects work that Angie Elwell did looked really good. Yeah, you’ll see blood, but that’s it the movie never gets gory.

Side note. Keep your eye out for The Listing because it’ll be released later next year (2018) in the USA and Canada on Blu-ray, DVD and on VOD through Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes Movies and More via SGL Entertainment and their partners MVD Visual and Indie Rights Movies. Also, here’s a link to The Listing’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/TheListingMovie so you can keep up on what’s going on.

Summary : If you've got the time I'd say The Listing is worth checking out.

It's rated UR (unrated) but does have language and violence.


Rating


Average

3