• Straight to Video
• Director: Martin Rutley
• Written by: Andrew Rutley
• Running Time: 119 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: UNRATED
• Cast: John Stoils, Frank Devlin, James Sarsfield , Noel Forsythe

"Meeting Tetty Dee Dee", the debut effort from brother-team Martin and Andrew Rutley, starts out promising enough, but quickly gets bogged down in too many long-winded and trivial scenes (a result of its nearly two hour running time, I’m guessing) and sadly, it never recovers.

After losing his infant child, an out-of-work documentary filmmaker (played by Frank Devlin) seeks solace amongst the dead in the local graveyard. He likes to film his visits, seeing it as a form of therapy. It’s while on one of those jaunts to the cemetery that he stumbles upon a rather eccentric fellow who calls himself Tetty Dee Dee (John Stoils). The charming Dee Dee, who dresses like a highwayman, proclaims himself a sort-of sentinel to the dead -- a keeper, who watches and protects all those who dwell inside the cemetery. The filmmaker is at first frightened by this strange fellow, who dresses in a white top hat and dances atop gravestones, but he is also, strangely, drawn to him. Against his better judgement, he agrees to meet with him the next day. The filmmaker senses beneath his loud, blustery exterior, Tetty Dee Dee might actually have some genuine psychic ability. After mulling it over, the filmmaker suggests to Tetty that he film all of their visits. Dee Dee reluctantly agrees.

Despite his showy flamboyant talk, Dee Dee is actually pretty pathetic. He’s unemployed, homeless, and a thief. When he’s not out stealing food from the local petrol stations, he’s breaking into homes in upscale neighbourhoods. When asked about the whereabouts of the previous tenants, Tetty mutters, simply, "They’re away." The filmmaker grows perturbed by his subject’s criminal activity, and increasingly irrational behaviour, but at the same time agrees to stay with him, feeling that Dee Dee has some genuine connection to the spiritual world. He wants to know more about his dead child and he sees Dee Dee as that link. Eventually Tetty’s eccentricity gives way to something much darker and we eventually get the impression that Dee Dee might actually be a serial killer. "I’ve killed three people today," Tetty jokes to the filmmaker, who simply brushes it off as another of Dee Dee’s screwball ramblings. Later, however, when he discovers a newspaper headline detailing the murder of an elderly woman in the neighbourhood by a fellow wearing a highwayman’s outfit, the filmmaker begins to suspect that his subject might be more than eccentric, he might be very very dangerous. Regardless, he agrees to stay. It isn’t long before Dee Dee recommends the filmmaker join him in his twisted game, suggesting that he help him kidnap an old protégé of his named Duncan Baines. "You want me to abduct someone?" The filmmaker laughs, in disbelief. The request, which seems unreasonable at first, slowly begins to make sense to the filmmaker, who is unknowingly being manipulated and drawn into Tetty’s dark world. He eventually agrees. Following the eventual kidnapping of Duncan Baines (James Sarsfield) from a gas station, we are left with a lengthy interrogation session that does little to reveal anything of great importance. It only works to further point out how unhinged Dee Dee is from reality. But, hey, we already knew this. The conclusion in the woods, with Dee Dee challenging Baines to kill the filmmaker, is actually quite disappointing considering that so much of the film is spent building towards something much greater.

"Meeting Tetty Dee Dee" has an interesting premise that gets bogged down in so many tedious, long-winded scenes that eventually go nowhere that it‘s hard to stay focused. There’s a laughable sequence titled "Ninja Night", which is just so totally inane that it had me checking my watch. It involves out-of-shape Tetty trying to teach the filmmaker ninjitsu. There’s another scene where Tetty is challenged to a duel by a neighbourhood lunatic named Freans Gaviscon (Noel Forsythe). The scene is both impractical and not fitting with the rest of the film. Another piece that doesn’t work is Tetty’s preoccupation with major Hollywood actors -- from Ben Affleck to Mel Gibson -- and how the culture of stardom has had a detrimental impact on British culture. Tetty sees them, especially Mel, as the epitome of evil. One of the film’s biggest drawbacks is that it doesn’t follow through upon some of its more interesting ideas, namely the supernatural quality that made Dee Dee so engaging upon his introduction. Early on in the film, we, like the filmmaker, sense that Tetty might have some unique paranormal abilities. In fact, we get the feeling that he might actually be a ghost. At least the possibly existed. Sadly, this intriguing concept is tossed aside at about the midway mark of the film, and by the end, as the whole hostage nonsense starts to materialize, it is completely forgotten.

"Meeting Tetty Dee Dee" is not a complete failure, however. There are aspects of the film that must be commended, namely the way it brilliantly charts the manipulation, and eventual submission, of the filmmaker to the whims of a madman. It’s interesting watching how Tetty uses his unconventional behaviour to isolate, detach, and, ultimately, control, the filmmaker. At first, Devlin’s character is repulsed by Dee Dee’s behaviour, but as he grows increasingly more dependent on him, he can’t help but identify with him. The pressure to conform to Dee Dee’s way of thinking eventually consumes him. There’s almost a father/son dynamic at work here. His decision to facilitate Dee Dee’s abduction request marks a crucial turning point for his character, and the picture.

Another thing to note is the explosive performance of first-time actor John Stoils as Tetty Dee Dee. In a script that calls on him to cover every emotion, as well as be very physical, Stoils delivers completely. Stoils has a magnetic, uncontainable presence that draws the viewer to him. In every scene he‘s in, you never know what is going to happen because he‘s so totally unpredictable. At times, he’s gentle and nurturing and at others, he’s an explosive, imposing brute of a man capable of great violence. There’s a scene early in the film where he retreats to a bathtub for no apparent reason, and begins sobbing like a child. A few minutes later, after the filmmaker suggests he might be a ghost, he rages into the camera, ready to kill. This scene is truly frightening. The film’s other actor, Frank Devlin, who plays the filmmaker, is never actually shown on camera, except for a brief shot of his mouth. Devlin plays his character like a cross-pollinated version of documentary director Nick Broomfield and porn journalist Luke Ford, and his transition from a thoughtful pseudo-scholar to dim-witted follower isn’t entirely believable even though a great amount of time and energy is spent making it so. It just doesn’t work.

"Meeting Tetty Dee Dee" marks the auspicious debut of micro-budget filmmakers Andrew and Martin Rutley. Although not great, the film is an interesting study in how to make the most out of very little. Shooting mostly indoors, with virtually no money, the brothers are limited to what and where they can shoot but they manage to pull it off quite convincingly. Stoils chews the scenery so well that it matters very little where he is stationed because he always works it to his advantage in the end. I also loved their technique of ratcheting up the sound in order to heighten fear and dread. It’s very effective, especially in scenes where Dee Dee flies into a rage. I’ve seen it used in other movies, but never this well. Kudos to the original music by Joe Schusset also. It is both haunting and powerful in all the right places.