All Jacked Up and Full of Worms (2022) d. Alex Phillips (USA) (72 min)
Motel mop-boy Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello) is introduced coming down from a trippy tantric experience involving Samantha (Betsey Brown) and third wheel Jared (Noah Lepawsky). “I think I just killed my own childhood,” he breathlessly proclaims to his giggly, gurgling girlfriend, followed shortly by “I think that’s enough hippie stuff for today.” Meanwhile, across town, the schlubby, unkempt Benny (Trevor Dawkins) thrills at the arrival of his mail-order infant sex doll, intending to lovingly nurture it, excited at the prospect of finding a partner with whom to share his bundle of plastic joy. His initial choice, Henrietta (Eva Fellows), is a gentle, groovy prostitute who, unflapped by her would-be client’s inability to perform sexually, offers up a box of hallucinogenic worms as an alternative means of pleasure. Initially repulsed by the notion, Benny later returns to discover Roscoe tidying up and, upon consuming the creepy crawlers, the two strike up a surprisingly warm if twisted friendship that leads to encounters with strange, dark places and stranger, darker people.
