(CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER)
I was going to write about SLAMMED, but it’s not released until next week (Sept 5) so I’ll wait until people have seen before sharing my notes. Instead, here are some thoughts on the trailer. It went online August 18th and the feedback is split between wild praise (thanks) and thundering chastisements (sorry)
Those in favor say: the men are hot and the sex is awesome.
Those against say: drugs are dangerous and ruin lives.
Obviously, both are right. The sex is hot and drugs are dangerous. What to do? Part of growing up is learning to negotiate life’s complex pleasures. How to do that is up to you, and it’s usually pointless to bitch at others for not making the same choices.
This is why I’m not waging a flame war on the “haters” who say SLAMMED is irresponsible and I should be ashamed of it. I can’t resist reading what they write, even though I never get around to giving a fuck. None of these people have seen the video yet. However, some have made very detailed study of the trailer, and I love that.
For example: one genius at TheSword states that SLAMMED is a video, “in which young men have bareback sex after shooting up crystal meth”. I won’t confirm or deny that, because I hate spoilers. The point is, he makes his (speculative) claim based purely on watching the trailer closely. Very closely, given porn’s supposedly throw-away superficiality.
His post contains an image from the SLAMMED trailer, showing a muscular man holding a hypodermic. He must have gone through frame-by-frame to get this. It’s on-screen for less than one-thirtieth of a second and is barely perceptible at normal speed. Probably I should be angry that he’s making un-substantiated accusations about the guys in SLAMMED, but they’re big lads and not easily offended. Personally, I’m just stoked that someone is intrigued enough by my trailer to forensically dissect it. Maybe because I’m a fan of The Conversation and Blow Up (look them up, youngsters).
Let’s indulge in more trailer analysis.
THE AUDIO: If your wife and kids are in the next room and you’re watching on mute, here’s what you’re missing:
00:01
Keiran: “I’m going to do fucked up things with you”
Jon Phelps: “Mm-hm?”
Keiran: “Yeah boy.”
Jon Phelps: “Yeah? … Arrgh … Ohhh fah -”
00:30
Unidentified gang-bang guy: “- slammed him –“
(this is the only time the word “slammed” is spoken in the trailer or video)
00:09-onward
Various rumbling noises which remind me of the blood rushing in my ears.
01:00
Keiran: “Aw, I feel that now.”
Me: “What, the fullness?”
Keiran: “No, the … drugs.”
Clearly this is unscripted. I could never write anything as sexy or funny as Keiran simply being his hot fuckin’ self.
THE VISUAL: 99% of the trailer is intense sweaty fuelled sex between nice-looking genuinely horny men. That accurately reflects the content of the video.
Don’t be fooled by rumours, SLAMMED is not a video guide to getting high. It’s a sex tape. Okay, at 00:17 of the trailer you see Jon chugging something and washing it down with Coke, but it’s not explained and you’re never going to know for sure whether that’s G, a vodka shot, or a nice mineral water. When you see what he does next, you’re not going to care.
The other 1% of the trailer is a montage (00:56) that flies by so fast it’s almost subliminal (vague homage to the boat-ride in Mel Stuart’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) but those few seconds have provoked so much disapproval that I feel like unpacking one of the more obscure references in there: an almost forgotten exploitation movie about a 1930s p’n’p session gone wrong, titled Narcotic (1939).
Within the SLAMMED trailer montage, there are three blink-and-you-miss-them flashes of Narcotic:
1: A young man snorting powder into his nose.
2: An extreme close-up of a hypodermic injecting into an arm (for a moment this is over-laid onto a
group-sex image from SLAMMED so that the barrel of the syringe overlaps with the writhing bodies of three men and the needle appears to inject directly into one of their brains).
3: A text page, difficult to read because it’s over-laid with more male flesh from SLAMMED. It says,
“The weird and revolting behaviour of addicts while under the sinister influence of drugs is authentically presented throughout this picture.”
This moralizing text is a shameless piece of hyperbole, typical of exploitation cinema, which thrived on showing audiences “outrageous” sub-cultural behaviour while simultaneously claiming to disapprove on their behalf. With SLAMMED I have tried to do the former, without the latter. Watch if you want, and make up your own mind.
– Liam Cole
you have gone to far with this and you will pay the price! you are
disgusting
STFU your the one who’s disgusting!
I just simply love this film very much. Porn has to have some fantasy coming in real. Maybe I can’t be one of them, but I can overlap myself for their roll. This fil is not for meth addict. Meth addict is totally OUR personal issue of self responsibility and independence for our own life, and should not be by porn. Thank you to make this film
I know that look in John’s eyes and that’s all I’m going to say about that. I sat here for 15 minutes reading the comments and thinking about how I wanted to respond. I watched SLAMMED and it is what it is….or not 😉 Why do some people bring their personal issues into everything? It’s so annoying. I’m sorry for your whole life. Can we move on now?? I thought I would have more to say, but I’m over it. This is life.
if the real life pnp scene was like this even for a moment many of us would get lost in it….gays who pnp and build into addicts do so because they are letting go of power and maybe ever finding power in giving life over to meth; one should never do drugs based on past present emotional issues and its best to probably not ever let anyone know you are doing them anyways but society has always used drugs as a scapegoat when in fact alcohol is just as destructive and makes the nation/world billions upon billions and whatever does or does not happen in this movie it sure makes you want it to be just as the title says….no apologies here but i wanted to see them slammed….cause they looked slammed to me anyways in a good way 🙂
the trailer is priceless in itself and when a man creates such an iconic image that you have then you go one and fight the naysayers it seems you are trying to prove a point or make us believe something we already do but may not be the right one; you achieved your goal just like President Obama using Change and Hope in 2008 you have us talking about this movie and the men are hot the sex some of the best i’ve seen pnp sex is supposed to be like this but in the real world there is way to much drama thieves and tweakers who ruin it all so this by far is a pure reference but again it porn our sex lives won’t be as good nor would we want them to be we’d never go to work, school or need TIM.
kudos to such a great movie now i’m going to go online and read about Narcotic because that shoule be ones biggest fear is it all going wrong
SLAMMED has arrived || http://treasureislandmedia.com/cart/slammed
Eff ’em. The video looks hot and sexy. Can’t wait to watch it.
tomorrow cant get here soon enough! might hold a special party just for its release
celebrated the release the best way i knew how…amateur remake!
Surely one of the most fantastic things about porn is that you can watch a FANTASY situation, and get off on it, without actually having to experience it in real life. This film purposefully appears to leave blanks for us all to fill in as we wish. Enjoy the fantasy. The argument/theory that watching something illegal in a film, will make us mindlessly copy what we view, evaporated with video nasties in the 80’s didn’t it? I managed to watch Child’s Play 2 without killing anyone so I’m sure I’ll manage to enjoy this without spiraling into a world of drugs and despair…. lol
Having had lived a life FILLED with PnP for a quite few years, my hope is that this film IS in fact about twirling, tina and toxic raw breeding because it will be fun to re-live some of the most wild moments. I have been a huge fan for a long time … and this will be just a nother reason why I am!
Oh… I can’t support your studio anymore. Meth fuck up my childhood, and I refuse to associate my sex with addictive poison. Shame, I was a huge fan.
There’s no mention of meth in this trailer. You’re projecting on to this, filling in the gaps with your own experience. I’m not complaining – that’s the point of me leaving those gaps, to leave something to interpretation. I just don’t understand why some people assume that their interpretation must be the only one.
because they are mental midgets, of course!
Oh Please! Because you use ALL the language associated with meth: Slammed, Get to the Point, needles, syringes… c’mon, you know exactly what you are saying/doing… stop with the fake “I just don’t understand….” nonsense, for that is exactly what it is… This is really difficult for all of us who LOVE TIM films AND work in the field of addiction. Liam, have you ever accessed drugs counselling services yourself? Have you ever seen any of your friends/models/actors/associates so spun out on drugs (not just meth) that it scares you? This blog/trailer just makes me, personally feel sad. I will watch your film though, as more and more gay men are coming through the doors wanting a life FREE from the slavery of drugs and addiction. Ok… yeah I sound like Mother Teresa, believe me I’m not… but this does nothing to project a fun, sleazy, enjoyable image of gay men and gay sex.
“you use ALL the language associated with meth: Slammed, Get to the Point, …” Even if you take it purely as drug slang, that language refers to injection. It has no specific connection to meth. At least not in London.
how did meth mess up your childhood because of family friends then guess what if you are now an adult the only one harping on that issue is yourself I was born a heroin baby thanks to my moms she was told i was underweight would not develop and I showed them all wrong i graduated with a double masters in law school own my home an love TIM and i never look back as if my mother is to blame cause i got out real fast and in a hurry…..time to do some hypnosis man and lose that monkey on your back
Well, its been done before, this doesn’t look like anything original – see Slammin’ Perverts which was out years ago. Search for any sites like NastyKinkPigs or others and if you want to see guys getting high on camera and you don’t have to pay absurd prices for it either. The “actors” in your trailer are pretty mediocre looking This isn’t cutting edge, just a bit sad really.
A. Shaw as in Aiden Shaw?
I watched Slammin’ Perverts. It was truly pitiful.
Very well put Liam, hugs anton
You are just telling a story and how some gay guys are behaving right now
I absolutely love your films and I decided not to watch the trailer … I prefer to wait and watch the whole film … To those who want to be judgmental about the actions of the performers I say, subscribe to a vanilla site …
I am not ‘offended’ by the trailer or the concept- I just don’t care to watch men who are fucked up on heavy drugs. It’s annoying enough to deal with them in real life (and they are usually lousy fucks to boot).
If you don’t have it in you to be a filthy pig without the aid of meth, G, K, etc., then you should put on your clothes and go home.
Keep documenting how real men fuck, Liam. If these pruds don’t want to see hard core all stopped pulled out fucking, so watch something with condoms. No one is making anybody do anything they don’t want to do here. Thanks for all the BIG wads of cum your work has pumped out of my nuts and cock.
The pleasure is all mine.
Meth is extremely pervasive in our culture and is a terribly destructive drug–just ask my parents both of whom are recovering meth addicts. That said, people do have sex under the influence. Porn is a depiction of a fantasy and people like to play out in their fantasies what they would not do in reality. I don’t bareback, but I enjoy TIM because I can indulge my fantasy. I do no drugs, but the characters I write sometimes do and I’ve been around drugs enough to know what it looks like. I have seen guys shoot meth and bang like beasts. I am not offended by the trailer. Whether it’s real or not, it is an accurate depiction and as such allows guys like me to play out a fantasy. Decades from now TIM’s stuff will likely be lauded as groundbreaking work.
Thanks Matthew, this is a great comment. I had a look at your other comments to our blog, and they’re all really interesting. Good to have you here.
Thing is Liam, you can dress up your movie any way you like, great camera work, some hot models, some fancy references to past films but in the end .. you and Treasure Island Media/Paul Morris etc. know exactly what you are doing and what/who you are exploiting for money. Sure, of course not having seen the final product opinions can only be passed on the trailer. Reasonable assumptions are made because of the language you use. Legally, once again, I am sure you have been smart enough for this not to be banned or for you/TIM to end up in criminal proceedings.
You say you can’t resist reading what people write but you don’t get round to giving a fuck. Kind of confirms to many what the porn industry is about. You seem stoked that people have gone through your trailer frame by frame – well I guess that is better than being ignored isn’t it.
Some of the people that have watched your trailer closely because they work in the field of addiction, because they see wonderful people come in to clinics utterly broken, mentally emotionally and physically – mainly these days because of crystal meth and GHB/GBL. Indeed you must be aware of some high profile deaths of adult actors recently. People who bother to watch your trailer are not easily offended but are concerned about the messages that get through to gay men.
Whatever you say, this movie is about getting high having sex and nothing about the consequences. That is sad and disappointing to many. I hope one day when you might get around to using drugs counselling services you will think about this. But then again maybe you don’t give a fuck.
Omg awesome
Thanks MK. I wasn’t sure if anyone would actually read to the end.