Tuesday, April 23, 2013

DVD Review: BAD MEAT (2011)

BAD MEAT (2011) 

Label: Jinga  Films LTD
Region: 0 NTSC
Duration: 84 mins
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Video: 16:9 Widescreen 
Director: Lulu Jarmen
Cast: Dave Franco, Elisabeth Harnois, Jennifer Parker Kennedy, Mark Pellegrino


Bad Meat (2011) is a film I remember reading about a while back on a blog I cannot recall, the story went that it was a troubled production, that director Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) was the initial director on the project until financing  evaporated, apparently he even directed a bit of it before stepping down. In steps first-time director Lulu Jarmen to pick-up the pieces, and while I am not sure if any of that is true it certainly caught my curiosity when the DVD showed up that Mausoleum. 


A group of surly teens are sent away to Camp Hardways by their fed-up parents, the scared-straight camp is overseen by a weirdo neo-Nazi nutjob and his three fucked-up camp counselors. The group of teens, three girls and three guys, run the gamut from urban troublemakers and bratty fire-starters to emo fuck-ups - it's nothing too special as far as characters go, it's pretty typical troubled teen fare without a lot of character development. With the sorta film we're watching here that lack of depth is not really a concern, what's important is that they are at least more likable than the counselors, which they are.  

As troubled as these wayward teen at the camp might be the counselors are way more delinquent than any of our teens could ever hope to be, all three are getting it on with each other in ways you just don't wanna think too deeply on, it's pretty depraved stuff, two dudes and a woman with a strap-on. Do the math, it's pretty weird stuff. 

The counselors treat the teens with contempt, exploiting they're fears, pissing on them, peeping on the girls. They're treated like scum, I loved it when the camp director has a counseling session with one of the young ladies, making her believe that he's there to help her, that he wants to get to the root of all her problems... and then he tells her in no uncertain terms he just doesn't give a fuck about her problems, now he's her problem, it's wonderfully twisted. 


When the teens sit down for lunch they dismayed to find out it's a one course meal - a raw potato. Meanwhile the counselors sit down to a meat stew whipped up by the disgruntled cook who himself is treated nearly as poor as the teens. As it turns out the tasty stew was prepared with some unsavory mystery meat infected with some weird virus. Later that night as the employees of Camp Hardway settle down for a pleasant evening of reading Nazi literature, titty-peeping and raunchy, strap-on sex, as you do, they're simultaneously besieged by a wave of chunk hurling nausea and we're treated to a grotesque vomit-spewing deluge, this forced expulsion of bodily fluids is damn disgusting. In the aftermath the counselors collapse unconscious and arise wreaking of vomit, overwhelmed with violent tendencies and an unstoppable lust for human flesh and dismemberment. Now it's game on as bratty teens vs. virus-infected counselors and it's a bloody and perverse 84 minutes of carnage and gross-outs.

If you love gore, if you crave deviant behavior Bad Meat (2011) has plenty of both, so brace yourselves this one is gore-tastic and gross. Mixed in with the gross outs are dark veins of humor, this is pretty funny stuff along the lines of Cabin Fever (2002), both films feature the death of canines, if you're offended by the cinematic death of animals you've been warned, it goes there. 

With Bad Meat we get a decent cast, some twisted antagonists, some believable protagonists and for a low budget feature it's looks great, with some thoughtful shot composition and decent camera movements. At only 84 minutes it flew by, my only beef might be with the ending which sorta just happened and I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing, but even that didn't ruin this for me, a darkly humorous and completely disgusting watch, recommended. 3 Outta 5