Being an independent artist is a tough wrap. You need to have a day job, a pretty good work ethic and a Rolodex of excuses to legitimize your artistic aspirations. As the rough cut of Marc Boggio’s Fear the Reaper came to a close on the screen in front of me, I realized that making his vision coincide with reality was a damn sight tougher than most.

Fear the Reaper is a kung-fu/slasher/superhero film shot guerilla style over the course of about three years. Because of the disparity between having virtually no budget and having genres that necessitate special effects, blood work etc., the capacity for the film to come out looking like a cheesy attempt at something with a bigger budget was astronomical. The result, however, is a gritty look at post-feminist masculinity through the guise/guys/eyes of a self-appointed serial killer.

While the concept of this character-type isn’t new, Fear the Reaper strives to uncover new depths by reconstructing an archetype: “…it’s about a vigilante serial killer who targets bad guys, but the way we go about it is a lot different… there’s a darkness that is fun to explore in extremes. What I tried to do is create a character that has a psychological basis that is grounded in the reality of person who grew up reading comic books and playing video games, who then decides to go out and be a serial killer.

But he views it as being a hero, I guess.” As is always the case with vigilante movies, there’s a running commentary throughout the film on what exactly it means to commit a crime: “Every character works in grey areas of morality in regards to how they abide by the law.” The narrative takes a solid look at the nature of crime through the eyes of petty thugs, drug dealers (and the difference of their product), murderers and the police. While most of the main characters are male in Fear the Reaper, there’s a conscious effort to reveal the effects of socially constructed heroism and sexuality in the minds of both men and women throughout the film.

Whether from the perspective of three (ass-kicking) activist schoolgirls with delusions of adventure and responsibility or from the Reaper himself, so tied up in the idea of sacrificing his life to the act of murder that he can’t have normal relationships, the characters weave a complex web of confusion and nobility. You’ll have to see the movie to decide whether the perspective of the movie is a rewrite of heroic masculinity or another contributor to the problem it critiques.

Whichever is the case, the social and moral perspectives of the film are as mosaic as its genre. Boggio and his team’s influence are far reaching: “[the movie] pays homage to zombie movies and video games and Jean Claude Van Dam films from the ‘80s. Also, movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas…”

He also cites Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” as his handbook for guerrilla film-making: “Don’t get around your problems with money, get around them with creativity. There are a lot of great-looking blood effects in the movie that myself or a member of the crew just threw on in thirty seconds with some corn syrup. You can get away with that if you don’t show too much. If you’re going to make a guerrilla film, spend more time getting better with your hands then worrying about renting dollies and cranes.  You’re the thing that you always have with you.”

And indeed, Boggio’s DIY special effects and camera work are what lend Fear the Reaper much of its gritty style. POV fight sequences and neo-realist pauses on seeming mundane splatters add an artistic element to the film that, at least from this writer’s perspective, seems to be lacking in many horror-influenced films. “It’s like when a comic book has a full page photo after a sequence of smaller frames. You accentuate one your images to tell the story better, to drive the emotional point of your story home. Raven Ink started out as a comic book company, but none of the people involved for the vast majority of it could draw. So now we make movies, and we’re pretty good at it.”

Fear the Reaper will be available in Summer 2010. To get your fix for the time being, check out www.ravenink.net .