Jimmy and Stiggs (2025)

 

“Homemade Insanity”

It’s worth saying right at the start of this review that if you’re a fan of the films of exploitation auteur Joe Begos (VFW, BLISS, CHRISTMAS BLOODY CHRISTMAS) then you might like JIMMY AND STIGGS which, after its UK premiere at Frightfest last year, is getting a digital release from Blue Finch. If you’re not then you won’t, and if you’ve never seen a Begos film before this definitely isn’t the place to start. 

        Mr Begos comes across as the kind of person who, a little like the great Jess Franco, only feels comfortable when he’s making movies. Unfortunately also like Franco, it means some of those movies are borderline unwatchable, which you may well find is the case with JIMMY AND STIGGS.

Started during lockdown, the action of the film is confined to the flat of Jimmy (Begos). An out of work film-maker, Jimmy drinks a lot, swears even more, and takes a titanic amount of drugs. He’s also very into his exploitation cinema with nods to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, porn director Alex De Renzy, and even the 1978 film SEX WORLD playing on the TV. 

Coming out of a massive bender (and soon to plunge into another one) Jimmy becomes convinced that aliens have invaded his flat and may have put an implant into him. When his friend Stiggs (Matt Mercer) arrives and the exits to the flat get mysteriously bricked off it’s time for a no-holds-barred neon lit showdown with a bunch of rubbery blue melon-headed monsters, despatching them in the most splattery ways imaginable.

JIMMY AND STIGGS last 83 minutes, and that’s with a couple of amusing fake trailers at the start as well. It still feels overlong. As you can see from the stills, much of the film is lit in gaudy pinks and blues and that, plus lots of flashing lights, may well get wearing pretty quickly depending on your tolerance. If your subtitles have a censoring facility for bad language switch it on and be astounded at the quantity of asterisks on the screen. It’s all loud, it’s all intense, and even with an effective Steve Moore score it’s all a bit much. But like I said, if you like, or rather if you love Joe Begos’ movies this one takes particular aspects of his film-making pretty much to breaking point. Here’s the trailer:

JIMMY AND STIGGS is out on Digital from Blue Finch Releasing on Monday 16th February 2026