For a microbudgeted movie ‘Bit Parts’ wasn’t so bad.  Just so you know, a micro budget movie, or a no budget movie is NOT a low budget movie.  A low budget movie can range anywhere from a half million dollars, to say 10 million dollars depending on who you are talking to and who is making the film.  Microbudget films usually use actors who aren’t getting paid, and the main costs of the film are the supplies and materials required to make the film.  If you’re lucky you can afford to take the minimal cast and crew out to lunch.  ‘Bit Parts’ is obviously a microbudget film, but don’t let that stop you from watching it though.  I’ve seen my fair share of microbudgeted features and I’ll have you know some of them are the absolute worst pieces of garbage that you will never want to see.  Understand that the price of entry to being a microbudget filmmaker is simply owning a video camera.  Any kid of video camera.  Also recognize that even in the worst professionally done Hollywood level budgeted movie, one takes for granted things like actors remembering their lines, a relatively stable camera, a halfway competent edit, decent sound with a stack of boom mikes, and no crew reflections in mirrors and the like.  These things aren’t always the case in the micro world.  Director Dave Reda has managed to avoid the vast majority of these pitfalls and subsequently has delivered perhaps the best microbudget film I’ve seen to date with ‘Bit Parts’.

Playing on what I’m sure is the desperation of young actresses landing in Hollywood and desperate to get any kind of role, ‘Bit Parts’ opens with a young actress sitting in a dark room being interviewed by an unseen ‘director’.  The guy is rather abrasive and abusive and eventually he chloroforms the girls and carts her off before she can flee.  Next enter young Melissa (Molly Fix) who has flown in from Phoenix answering an

ad from director ‘Robert Evans’ who is searching for somebody to fill a lead role with the only requirement being the possession of perfect lips.  To an aside, actress Molly Fix does have a decent pair of lips on her, but they are far too thin to be considered ‘perfect’.  After helpful cabbie Bobby DuMont (Reda) drops her off at a place that doesn’t look a joint where anyone would hold an audition, Melissa disappears as well.

The next day, Melissa’s sister Sarah (Brenda Martin), worried that baby sis hasn’t checked in arrives in town and is able to contract the help of Bobby the cabbie to track down Melissa.  Seems Melissa has fallen into the hands of mad plastic surgeon Dr. Cranston (Christopher Page) and his equally mad young daughter Maggie (Michelle Angel).  Tragically, Maggie’s face was destroyed in a car accident caused by her father, and he has been putting ads in the trades, meticulously picking out the best parts so that he can properly restore his daughters face with Melissa’s lips being the final piece of the puzzle.  Well the challenge is will Bobby and Sarah be able rescue Melissa before Maggie’s previous surgery heals, or will the evil Dr. Cranston succeed in his diabolical plan?

Admittedly, ‘Bit Parts’ isn’t the smoothest or most refined production I’ve ever seen, and it suffers from some of the rough edges that is common in microbudget features, but it did entertain me, and I can’t say THAT about an awful lot of ‘Bit Parts’ way more expensive, way slicker counterparts.  Director Reda has taken something I’m sure he has some knowledge of, which is going to numerous auditions, and ran with that rather benign concept and turned it into a rather effective horror movie.  The acting in the film is pretty good with Christopher Page being particularly good as the crazed plastic surgeon, and the film is fairly efficient and streamlined, which I greatly appreciate.  This is something I have to shout out to ALL filmmakers, blockbuster creators on down.  If it doesn’t need to be in your film, then cut it out.  We don’t want to see what you can do, we just want to watch a movie. 

There weren’t too many scares to be had in ‘Bit Parts’, but then I’m beginning to think I’m impossible to frighten.  There was decent gore to be had though, which in itself is an achievement considering the meager budget of the film.

Like I said, this may be best the microbudget movie I’ve ever seen.  Here’s hoping Mr. Reda can get some notoriety with this film and get the opportunity to start producing big budget Hollywood studio, over produced garbage that we’ve all become accustomed to.