‘Pro God – Pro Gun’ Review
Stars: Chase Bloomquist, Joseph Camilleri, Ana Isabel Rosso, Chelsea Evered, Michael Jarrod, Tony Jackson, Keely Dervin | Written by Rene Perez, Leia Perez | Directed by Rene Perez
Writer, director and musician Rene Perez has carved out a career in the mainstream as a genre filmmaker whose sensibilities air on the side of “guns, gore and boobs” – his films don’t shy away from the violence, nudity and plenty of blood and guts. He found success with genre fans with the Playing With Dolls films and then hit more of the mainstream with Death Kiss – the Death Wish homage that starred Charles Bronson lookalike Robert Bronzi. However, Perez has also focused on films that have heavy Christian/right-wing leanings but still throw in plenty of violence etc. unlike the stereotypical “preachy” nature of typical Christian movies; films like the recently released The Legend of Hawes, which mixed faith-based filmmaking with Texas Chainsaw Massacre style backwoods horror.
Perez has also taken things to the next level and released what many have termed “conservative exploitation” filmmaking, anti-woke, audience-baiting films like The Insurrection, Only Fans Allowed… and now this, Pro God – Pro Gun. And when I say audience-baiting, there is an audience for films like this, it’s just that streaming providers – the very woke companies Perez is seemingly provoking – won’t host these films, so much so that Perez has had to set up his own website, RebellionFlix, to allow audiences to rent/buy/stream these particular slices of right-wing exploitation filmmaking!
Pro God – Pro Gun is essentially First Blood, set in 1974 as Vietnam veteran Joe Colton (Chase Bloomquist; Rowdy & Kane, The Dragon Unleashed) turns up at the home of Priest (played by producer Joseph Camilleri) to return a locket entrusted to him by his best friend and fallen soldier, Emilio, to the family and in particular Emilio’s sister Alma (Ana Isabel Rosso). His arrival coincides with four criminals turning up in town, with Colton mistaken for one by the local Sheriff. The criminals eventually find their way to Priest’s home whilst Colton and Alma are busy having a picnic, listening to 8-track tapes (yes I did just say that?!), and dancing to a Bee Gees-esque disco tune that apparently features the vocals of Perez himself!
Eventually Pro God – Pro Gun turns into a home invasion movie, with the four criminals – led by a terrifyingly creepy performance by Chelsea Evered and featuring Michael Jarrod as a bizarro-universe version of blaxploitation hero Shaft – holding Alma, her father, a bank teller and Colton hostage. Of course Colton isn’t “just” a soldier, he’s a damn good one – so good that he takes on the criminals single-handedly as Pro God – Pro Gun focuses more on the latter half of its title… guns and violence aplenty! It also descends into a weird “Christians versus atheists” battle, with Colton saving the Christians of the film from the criminals who’ve abandoned God. How much have the criminals abandoned their faith? So much so that Evered’s leader is more than willing to serve up Alma to her men, chloroforming her and chaining her to the bed in some sadomasochistic act of power. I did say that Perez wasn’t afraid to get exploitative with his faith-based films!
I’m not going to lie, despite the pro-Christian, sometimes right-wing leanings of the film you can’t help but think that Pro God – Pro Gun does at least have interesting things to say about politics, economics and the REAL reason we go to war these days – money! Not only does Alma proclaim that wars only benefit politicians and money tycoons but Evered’s criminal leader also puts her father’s death in Korea firmly at the feet of Wall Street. But don’t get me started on everyone’s hatred for Colton after they find out he was discharged for cowardice – good god, talk about pro-Christian sociological debates around soldier’s behaviour during wartime and how they abandon their faith under orders from superiors… Or the conspiracy theorising, anti-vaxxer, anti-government epilogue that features the kind of talk that pre-Elon Musk, would’ve got you banned from Twitter!
Clocking in at just over an hour, Pro God – Pro Gun doesn’t squander much of its running time of filler – something that has been a factor in some of Perez’s other films – even if, and this comes from someone whose religious beliefs don’t quite fall into atheist territory and who’s more liberal than the target audience for this film, a little TOO much time is spent on theological debate. Instead, this is a tight, taut, action-packed thriller that hits all the right notes when it comes to violence, blood and boobs. Making this as exploitative as it is religious. But the big takeaway from Pro God – Pro Gun is Chelsea Evered. For someone with such as diminutive stature, she plays one of the best exploitation film villains we’ve seen in ages, with an instability to her characterisation that makes her the most memorable part of Perez’s entire film.
Pro God – Pro Gun is available to stream on RebellionFlix.com
