BHFF: DIY Mayhem & Friendship Fuel Joe Begos' Neon-Drenched Alien Invasion in JIMMY & STIGGS

Joe Begos in JIMMY & STIGGS

By Tom Milligan

Like many of his contemporaries, filmmaker Joe Begos was restless during the COVID lockdown days of 2020. For him, the only way to scratch that creative itch was by shooting a movie almost entirely within his apartment. Utilizing a 16mm film package he had acquired through his previous work, he recruited his good friend, Matt Mercer, and a host of other LA-based creatives to handmake the riotously satisfying JIMMY & STIGGS.

At its core, JIMMY & STIGGS is a tale of friendship at the end of the world, or rather, the end of the world for our titular duo. Joe Begos himself plays Jimmy Lang, a down-on-his-luck filmmaker. Kicking things off in the first person, Jimmy learns he has lost out on a directing gig and washes his troubles away with booze and cocaine. Shortly after, he is attacked and abducted by aliens during the bender.

These aliens, brought to life by puppeteering, are close in resemblance to the “grey” alien archetype but are a shade of blue and bleed neon pink. After the attack, Jimmy frantically researches any and everything about these aliens, believing that they’ll come back for him. He contacts his old friend Stiggs (Mercer) for help, and once he arrives on the scene, the two are ostensibly sealed inside as they prepare for the next imminent invasion. 

The film is set over 24 hours, but that fact doesn’t matter by the end. It’s decidedly light in terms of plot, instead interested in using its setup as a connective tissue to tie together a series of “how did they do that?” set pieces. The presence of drugs, alcohol, and alien technology effectively distorts time and space for our leads. Jimmy and Stiggs periodically blackout, another obstacle between them and the alien invaders.

Meanwhile, tensions are heightened due to past grievances, leading to a midway one-on-one brawl with some seriously impressive fight choreography on display—a memorable moment in a movie full of them. The duo brings their real-life friendship to great effect here, bouncing off one another organically and with considerable energy. 

Anyone acquainted with a Begos flick before will find themselves in familiar territory once again. He wears his influences proudly but has, over the years, improved when it comes to filtering these influences through his now distinctly druggy, dizzy, neon-drenched analog aesthetic. Lending his talents as a Production Designer on the project, what starts as a moody apartment soon transforms into a house of horrors, illuminated by generous portions of glow-in-the-dark paint, fog, and alien guts. 

If VFW was his Assault on Precinct 13, this is very much Begos’ ode to 80s DIY horror favorites such as Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead and Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste. Taking on the role of Jimmy, Begos channels the manic physicality of Bruce Campbell, throwing himself over furniture, suplexing aliens, and wielding both a shotgun and chainsaw. The spirit of those films lives on in how resourceful this is with its low budget. Coming off the $2.5M price tag on Christmas Bloody Christmas, JIMMY & STIGGS cost a mere $150K.

For a project that first began in 2020, it was shot on and off over the past 4 years. Taking much longer than anticipated due to limited resources and pausing to shoot Christmas, the team liberally added new scenes to the script, pushing it as far as their finances and imagination would allow. It’s frankly inspiring, considering the production value on screen. Nobody’s aiming for realism here, so the overall package is sold on sheer conviction, passion, and craftsmanship.   

By placing himself, his best friend, and his home at the center of the mayhem, Begos has made arguably his most personal work to date. And while it could’ve been nice for the film to more richly explore the relationship between these two knuckleheads, it’s a joy to see friends coming together over a shared purpose. Hopefully, this passion will inspire other weirdos and their friends to make that movie they’ve dreamed of. 

JIMMY & STIGGS had its East Coast premiere at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.