THE CHAINSAW SALLY SHOW: SEASON ONE (2009)
2-Disc DVD
LABEL: Troma
RATING: Unrated
DURATION: 275 Min.
DIRECTOR: Jimmyo Burril
CAST: April Monique Burril, Azman Toy, Lilly Burril
TAGLINE: A Story of Blood, Boobs and Family Bonding
PLOT: Are you fed up with the philistine who takes a full shopping cart through the express checkout lane? What about the one who parks in handicapped spaces? Sally (April Monique Burril) is and she’s not going to stay quiet! With the hum of her trusty chainsaw to announce her return, she is picking up where the movie of the same name left off, repurposing the use of power tools for every disgruntled member of society!
THE SERIES: The Chainsaw Sally Show follows the continued exploits of the titular Sally Diamon (April Monique Burril) from Troma's CHAINSAW SALLY (2004) film. She's living in the small town of Porterville and is exacting her own slasher-tastic justice on those who've done wrong by her own twisted sense right and wrong. One of her first orders of business is to take out the town's librarian who refused to let her check out some books. Assuming a day job as a quiet librarian at night delivers some gut-strewn justice alongside her brother Ruby (Azman Toy). Along the way she befriends a young goth girl who works at the library Poe (Lully Burril) and evades the long-arm of the law in the form of a mysterious man called Cowboy (Bill Price) all under the nose of the town two oblivious deputies Earl and Zeke who would've been right at home alongside CABIN FEVER's Deputy Winston (Guiseppe Andrews).
When this showed up in the mail I'd never heard of Chainsaw Sally but I slapped it in the DVD player pressed play and there I sat for the next 3 hours pouring through all the episodes and bonus features, this is fun stuff. The shows production qualities are that of a well produced public access show with home brewed gore effects, it's a warts n' all production but it's definitely a spirited shit-ton of blood n' guts fun. The kills are good fun and inventive including a terrific hand to hand battle that has sally plunging her first straight-up someone ass and ripping their spinal column right out the sphincter leaving them a spineless mass of jelly. The character of Sally reminded me of Sherri Moon Zombie's Baby character from THE DEVILS REJECTS (2005) - just a fun and twisted chic that knows how to have fun. April Monique Burril is obviously having a blast in the role. Her brother Ruby (Azman Toy) was not so much fun. A bit of whiny goth character that you'd run into at a Hot Topic, but not ruinous to the show - just annoying to me. I love sally's house. It's always lit like a technicolor Texas Chainsaw Massacre by way of an Argento nightmare. Each episode runs in the 15-20 minute range, just long enough to be fun but not grate on your nerves. The series touts a Hershell Gordon Lewis connection, I'm not sure what that might be but this is definitely in the tradition of his gore classics.
DVD: The eleven episodes of The Chainsaw Sally Show - Season One are presented in 16x9 enhanced 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack on a 2-disc set. It's a low budget affair but the picture is well represented with a decent soundtrack that's punctuated by some kick-ass music, great theme song by Brian Huddell. The image is a bit murky in places but nothing to complain about. There's is an optional laugh track and commentary for select episodes. The canned laughter was off-putting, it's too corny for a show that's so inherently campy to begin with. The Lloyd Kaufman intro is typically self-deprecating and fun. The best bonus feature is Chainsaw Sally short film called "Grindhog Day", a particularly gory affair as Sally and Ruby deal with a group of student filming a documentary a bit too close to home for comfort. Nice packaging with clear DVD case with double sided sleeve featuring a nice blood-soaked Chainsaw Sally pin-up on the inside, good stuff.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Bonus Movie: "Grindhog Day" (52:47)- Behind-the-scenes Featurette: “21 Weekends in Porterville” (18:43)
- Behind-the-scenes Featurette: "Anatomy of a Kill" (4:09)
- Sexy Slideshow (4:38)
- Season Two Sneak Peak (3:41)
- Theme Song Music Video (3:41)
- Introduction by Lloyd Kaufman
- PSA: "Can You Here Me Now?" (4:50)
TROMATIC EXTRAS
- Troma T+A (2:07)
- Troma Trailers:
Father's Day (1:27)
Dark Nature (2:03)
Poultrygeist (3:16)
Tromeo and Juliet (2:12)
VERDICT: Troma's got a winner here with The Chainsaw Sally Show, it is simply blood soaked fun, each episode is packed with dark humor and gore-tastic kills. Sure, it's a rough round the edges, the acting is spotty but it's winning spirit and campy, over-the-top gore is a winning formula. *** (3 out of 5 stars)
