''The Scarlet Worm'' is a 2011 American Revisionist Western film directed by Michael Fredianelli. The film was first released on January 7, 2011 at the Riot Cinema Film Festival. It stars Aaron Stielstra as a young

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

who is sent to assassinate a cruel

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

owner. Funding for ''The Scarlet Worm'' was partially accomplished through a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign.

Plot

Print Harris works as a bounty hunter in early 1900s America. He has a flair for conducting his killings in a theatrical or "poetic" fashion to give his profession more meaning and legitimacy. A wealthy ranch owner Mr. Paul hires Print to eliminate a Dutch immigrant brothel owner Heinrich Kley who allegedly aborts the unborn children of his prostitutes, as well as to train a young ranch hand named Lee in the art of killing. Print decides to use Lee to infiltrate Kley's business and work for Kley as protection, purposefully luring a posse of cowboys into the brothel in order to murder them, and show off his usefulness. Kley immediately enlists Print to cover a wide variety of duties while entrusting him with his unique philosophy regarding business, religion, and the necessity of prostitution. Matters become complicated when Lee falls in love with one of Kley's prostitutes and informs her of the plan to murder him.

Cast

* Aaron Stielstra as Print * Dan Van Husen as Heinrich Kley *

Brett Halsey Brett Halsey (born Charles Oliver Hand; June 20, 1933) is an American film actor, sometimes credited as Montgomery Ford. He appeared in B pictures and in European-made feature films. He originated the role of John Abbott on the soap opera ''T ...

as Mr. Paul * Kevin Giffin as Hank * Derek Hertig as Lee * Eric Zaldivar as Gus * Rita Rey as Annabelle * Mike Malloy as Mathis Reed, Love Cowboy * David Lambert as William Hardtmuth, Cattle Rustler * Robert Amstler as The Rifleman *

Michael Forest Gerald Michael Charlebois (born April 17, 1929), better known as Michael Forest, is an American actor who provides the voices for many animated titles, and played the god Apollo on Star Trek. Early life Forest was born in Harvey, North Dakota ...

as Judge Hanchett * Ted Rusoff as Print's Attorney *

Domiziano Arcangeli Domiziano Arcangeli (June 10, 1968 – July 13, 2020) was an Italian actor, producer and writer best known for low-budget independent, and particularly exploitation, films.Daniel Reynolds"''Brides of Sodom'' Star Domiziano Arcangeli Brings Hom ...

as Love Cowboy Leader

Release

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on April 24, 2012 by Unearthed.

Reception

Bill Gibron from

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

wrote, "While a bit long-winded in the exposition department and in need of a few dollars more, production-wise, ''The Scarlet Worm'' is still an intelligent and entertaining fringe experience." Adrian Halen of ''HorrorNews.net'' praised the film's direction, script, and Stielstra's performance, calling it "a shining achievement".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarlet Worm, The 2011 films 2011 independent films 2011 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films American independent films Films about abortion in the United States Films about prostitution in the United States 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language Western (genre) films English-language independent films