All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms (2022): Grossout horror about hallucinogenic worms

Arriving on Screambox/Fandor, Amazon TVOD, and Vudu on November 8, 2022 (election day!), the IMDb summary of Alex Phillips’s film All Jacked Up and Full of Worms reads: “…Follows Roscoe, a seedy motel maintenance man. After discovering some powerful hallucinogenic worms he meets Benny, They fall in love, making worms together before embarking on an odyssey of sex and violence.” Confusing? Sure, but not wholly inaccurate. What could really be said about a film like this?  You’ll really just need to let the gore and worms wash right over you, without trying to dissect the plot or the characters too much.

In fact, the characters end up dissecting each other and themselves anyway, so you can basically just watch this and see just how weird, disturbing, and simply gross it gets. Granted, this is another exploitation flick that pokes and prods at drug culture, and maybe there’s some vague messaging about sex, violence, and birth buried beneath the worm-infused madness.

After all, every worm addict in the movie becomes a zombie-like wounded character, even more than they were pre-worm consumption. I guess the movie also involves freaky kinks, as no character is content to just say “I just want to get it on”; there is always some freaky fetish dynamic going on that may very well turn off some viewers. Still, I think any fair-minded person will admit this movie at least has a memorable title, right?

What is “All Jacked Up and Full of Worms” really about? Mind-altering, murder -fantasy-inducing worms?!

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms will not be nominated for the best-supporting actor award at the Academy Awards. However, it is a hit among horror fans and has made the rounds at the international film festival circuit. And hey, congratulations on that! Personally, I think it’s a reminder that gross-out movies don’t need to make perfect sense in order to have fans. Sometimes being gross and weird is the point.

This movie reminds me of something quirky creators like John Waters, Harmony Korine, and even Hunter S. Thompson wrote. It is seedy and unseemly AF.

I also think All Jacked Up and Full of Worms is a better representation of the USA than many would think, as so many of the characters are driven by selfish, crazed, and euphoria-based motives (assuming they have any clear motives at all). The movie is also funny and, thankfully, never has the feel of a pseudo-documentary found footage thing, which might distract from what precious little story there is.

Not another boring American movie

Given there’s no end in sight for superhero movies and Disney fare, I am happy that somewhere out there, people are still creating movies like this. I’m not even saying this movie’s particularly good, mind you, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s just refreshing to see something that isn’t a superhero movie, or Star Wars. It also lacks the aura of a pseudo-independent-feeling venture ⁠— the kind of project focusing on the economic and cultural potential of niche markets and hidden gems but still playing by the rules of mainstream, big-budget films. No, this one legitimately feels independent, and (perhaps) not just as some gimmick.

It feels like early Mike Judge, back when Beavis and Butthead were even more untamed, only if he had made a bizarre, worm-infused horror movie. My main critique: This movie could have used a bit more chemistry between two of the main characters, Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello) and Benny (Trevor Dawkins).

Then again, this is not Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2013) or one of those American Pies. The awkwardness of the characters is perhaps one of the points. This is a movie about hallucinogenic worms, unsettling sex dolls, spilled intestines, and nudity (mostly courtesy of Eva Fellows). All Jacked Up and Full of Worms also stars Betsey Brown, Mike Lopez, Carol Rhyu, and Sammy Arechar.

What are your thoughts on All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms? Or have the worms eaten up your brain? Let us know in the comments!