LEGEND OF THE HILLBILLY BUTCHER (2012)

LEGEND OF THE HILLBILLY BUTCHER (2012) 

Label: Whacked Movies

Release Date: September 23rd, 2014
Region Code: ALL

Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 

Director: Joaquin Montalvan

Cast: Paul E. Respass, Theresa Holly, Ron Jason, Suzanne Rick, Chris Shumway

Enter the backwoods domain of Carl Henry Jessup, a simple man who spends his days swilling homemade moonshine and carving-up tender vittles sourced from the unfortunate trespassers on his wooded property. 

Carl was orphaned when his demented father sliced up his ma before taking his own life. Despite the fact his father was a demented turd of a man Carl would do just about anything to have both his parents back, to that end he makes a blood sacrifice to the demon Sam Bakoo - offering his own soul in exchange for his parents return. 

Carl's taken care of by his half-sister Rae Lynn who visits often to clean and cook meals but she has no idea that the meat she's frying up is of the human variety. However, when she discovers her brother's nightmarish slaughter room she better run for her life!

I loved the aesthetic of the film, a sweaty image that appears to have been put through the Instagram toaster filter approximating the look of a well worn VHS tape, it suited the retro vibe of the film quite nicely and appears more natural and authentic than a lot of the grindhouse type filters I've seen on recent indie films. 

Paul E. Respass as the cannibal redneck does a pretty decent job getting across the murderous delirium of his character and manages to give a character, which must be pretty flat on the page, some small amount of depth. The supporting cast is less effective in my opinion but his half-sister played by Theresa Holly is not without her white-trash charms and she's the only sympathetic character in the entire film. 

The carnage is decent with a solid body count with some blood and guts but the film certainly doesn't quite live up to the promise of butchery the title implies. At the end of the day we have a decent set-up with an odd occult detour but not much story to speak of, just a series of gruesome events with long pauses in between. 

While I enjoyed the vintage grindhouse aesthetic and retro electronic score the film suffers from a deathly sluggish pace that proved quite a chore to sit through at nearly 100-minutes. 

It would be hard to recommend this across the board unless you have a fondness for vintage SOV horror or willing to trudge through the muck of lo-fi film making to get your backwoods horror fix. There's definitely a sub-sect of horror fans out there who will appreciate this one, it's just not gonna be for everyone. 

EXTRAS:

- Making Of Documentary
- Short Film: Straight Razor
- Horror Happens Interview
- Trailers
- Press