Following the story of an Eastern European girl who escapes the horror of losing her boyfriend in her own country for an LA vacation with friends, she faces the reckoning of the trauma she left behind….and the rain she unearthed coming here.
“It starts to rain, and people get weird and weird things happen,” a character states in David M. Parks’s “When It Rains in LA.” Weird things certainly happen in this unexpectedly pleasant, lo-fi little gem. At no point did I have any idea where the plot was going, which in itself is quite the feat. Sure, the budget cracks are sometimes obvious, but the music by Faïs alone is worth the price of admission.
The opening scene instantly grips. Nate (Eric Roberts) receives an ancient mask that purportedly belonged to a god; soon after, he dies in a tragic accident. His widow, the much younger Sasha (Monroe Cline), meets the dashing and overbearing pilot, Harry (Leslie Stratton), on a flight back to LA to see her friends, Tatia (Natasha Stricklin), Alice (Taylor Brianna), Leese (Paris Simone), and the super-angry/angsty/prone-to-violence Mark (Felix Merback).
It’s raining heavily in LA, an unusual occurrence for the normally sunny city that tends to send people into panic. She reveals her affection for Harry to her friends; he soon reenters the picture. Things start to speed up. Our heroes get weird calls from a creepily voiced stalker. The same stalker appears with a knife. Then there’s the duo of Anna (Leslie Stratton) and William (Mike Ferguson), up to no good. The characters all end up in a house without power, followed by a showdown in the rain.
As campy as some of it is, there’s a genuine camaraderie between the central friends. Cinematographer Preston Weaver captures pretty shots of the titular city in rainy distress. Parks generates some inventive scares, one particularly memorable death taking place in a toilet. The music by Faïs — including a live performance! — is fantastic, making the frequent B-roll interludes seem like mini music videos and submerging the entire narrative into a borderline surreal vibe.
Plenty of scenes are either intentionally or unintentionally hilarious (does it matter?). Sasha is getting stalked by Harry early on in the plane. “Shouldn’t he be in the cockpit up front?” she wonders. In an undistinguishable accent, the highly opinionated flight attendant responds: “He’s being mischievous. He likes you.” During a non-eventful hangout sesh, one of the friends inquires, “What’s up with the rain thing here?” “I heard some things on the radio,” another says. “More like the occasional shower,” the third one contributes.
I will not point out the film’s flaws — such as characters sometimes being clearly dry in the supposed rain — as that’s not the point of a movie like “When It Rains in LA.” The fun the crew and cast clearly had making this is infectious, as is the soundtrack. It’s the definition of a midnight cult classic, containing just enough laughs and scares to ensure a fun time.
“When It Rains in LA” will get a Limited Theatrical Release on Friday, December 13th
