In returning to his roots with Jimmy & Stiggs, Joe Begos becomes a conflicting and truly beguiling filmmaker. As a fan of independent music and the punk ethos, a filmmaker who champions those ideals should be right up my street — and for his breakout Bliss (2019), he was. However, his two follow-ups were a backward step: VFW (2019) became notorious for reasons beyond the director’s work, and the Shudder-produced Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022) played like a parody of a “Begos Movie.” But now, circling back with Jimmy & Stiggs — a filthy, splatter-filled one-location two-hander that returns to his core voice — has he finally become the filmmaker he always threatened to be?
All shot within his LA flat (which, I hope his landlord doesn’t see, as the place goes through the ringer), yet credit where due, it’s shot with such nuance by DoP duo Mike Testin and Brian Sowell that it never feels hemmed in like other one-location movies. Part of that must also be credited to the energy with which the movie moves, and production design that ensures the flat morphs every twenty minutes or so.
The story is super simple. Jimmy (played by Begos, he may not be a good actor but he’s exactly what the movie needs) is a struggling filmmaker with drug and booze issues and an apocalyptically inflated paranoia, within which lies a fear of extra-terrestrial life. In an opening POV sequence, we experience earthquakes growing in severity — only they aren’t earthquakes; an alien threat is focusing in on his flat. Jimmy loses control, blacks out, and loses a few hours. Add swearing that would make a docker blush and the aforementioned paranoia, and everything takes a turn. Hours later, his estranged best friend Stiggs (Matt Mercer) turns up, and between them, they fight wave after wave of aliens with a level of splatter that draws clear parallels to Peter Jackson’s earliest work (Bad Taste, Braindead).
Bad Taste might be the better comparison, given the DIY nature of Jimmy & Stiggs. This brings us to the movie’s first sticking point: the aliens themselves. We aren’t talking Henson-level craftsmanship here. When the film debuted at FrightFest 2025, Begos brought one of the puppets with him, and in the cold light of day, they are the most ghetto, homemade-looking aliens I have ever seen — a hurdle that some viewers will be unable to clear.
Begos has reclaimed his punk rock vigour… if it doesn’t offend sensitive sensibilities, it’s doing punk rock wrong.
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However, within the context of the movie, their appearance becomes a moot point given the sheer destruction wrought upon them and how much fun it is to watch them eviscerated. Gunk, slime, and orange blood go everywhere — to the point that the cleaning bill for Begos’s flat may have cost more than the film itself. Sure, I’m exaggerating, but not by that much, and just because it is a DIY project don’t for one second think that it is reigned in in any way: they shoot for the stars. And perhaps that’s another sticking point: this is the sort of movie where, if someone with conservative taste passes by while you’re watching, they will likely be disgusted, thinking you irredeemably weird. And that is the kernel of what makes Jimmy & Stiggs click. As a signed-up fan of the most rebellious wing of rock, if it doesn’t offend sensitive sensibilities, it’s doing punk rock wrong.
Script is a funny issue with a Begos movie, as they often have a raw, semi-improvisational feel — especially in Christmas Bloody Christmas. It’s true here too: half the movie features Jimmy and Stiggs swearing at each other, the other half has them swearing at aliens. That may read as criticism, but I’m more ambivalent. So many movies have actors interact the same way, regardless of culture. People from different backgrounds talk differently, something Begos understands. You could dismiss it as “just swearing,” but to do so would miss the point.
On a more specific note, Jimmy & Stiggs introduces a mythology of paranoid, alien-obsessed media personalities, alongside a self-awareness previously absent from Begos’s scripts. There’s talk about the struggle of indie filmmaking—a subject with which he has intimate familiarity. It’s why I’ve always rooted for him: the industry said no, so he chose to make things on his own back. The other thread concerns his image as the rock ‘n’ roll filmmaker of the LA horror community. The script displays genuine self-awareness regarding the trials of that lifestyle, this is exactly the sort of metatextuality I appreciate.
.Jimmy & Stiggs is absolutely not for everyone—not even close. I’d go so far as to say that even within the horror community it’s a hard recommendation, mainly because the very idea of splatter feels almost archaic at this point. However, if like me you enjoy a punk rock spirit in your movies, love the early work of Peter Jackson, the original Evil Dead, or even something contemporary like Matt Stuertz’s Human from last year’s FrightFest, then Jimmy & Stiggs might just be the gross, horribly toxic male relationship (culminating in questionable self-mutilation) that you’ve been waiting for. Not only that, Begos has reclaimed his punk rock vigour and become the filmmaker he always threatened to be.
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