GRAVY (2014)

GRAVY (2014)

Label: Scream Factory 
Release Date: October 6th 2015 

Region Code: A

Duration: 90 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: James Roday

Cast: Gabourey Sidibe, Jimmi Simpson, Lily Cole, Michael Weston, Molly Ephraim, Paul Rodriguez, Sarah Silverman, Sutton Foster

On Halloween night a trio of deranged costumed misfits enter Raoul's Mexican Cantina and weld the door's shut,forcing the staff to engage in a late night of party games and cannibalism. This dark comedy is a fun mash-up of horror and comedy, a very twisted and strange sense of humor. The deranged psychopaths are lead by Stef (Jimmie Simpson), with cohorts Anson (Michael Weston) and Mimi (Lily Cole), a strange trio of weirdos with a hunger for human flesh, and tonight the staff of Raoul's are what's on the menu, beginning with funnyman Paul Rodriguez as Chuy, the beloved owner of the cantina. 

The staff are forced to play party games like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and such, the losers are killed and eaten while the the others are forced to watch and endure the nightmare carnival of cannibalism. What makes it so fun is that everyone is so damn neurotic, from the staff to the deranged flesh-eaters, everyone is slightly off, some more than others.Jimmi Simpson is the wild-eyed leader, not an imposing figure but clever and witty, his punchlines are deadly, you can see why he's in charge, a charismatic guy with a keen sense of humor and a hunger for flesh, when he tastes the savory human flesh cration is is overcome with delight, fun stuff. I was honestly shocked when I found out that actor Michael Weston was not Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia! The two are so similar, nutty and neurotic, and opening scene with Anson at a convenience store opposite funny lady Sarah Silverman is a lot of fun, unfortunately Silverman is only here in a brief cameo, so don't expect to see her a bunch. Back to Weston, he is delightful in the role, a straight-up loon but somehow very likable. Lily Cole as the lunatic Mimi is fun, she's the most crazed of the three, thoroughly enjoying playing with her food before savoring their flesh. 

The cantina chef Yannick (Lothaire Bluteau) is chained to the kitchen and forced to prepare his coworkers one by one for the consumption of the deranges cannibals,who love his savory creations, beginning with poor Raoul (Rodriguez), who was loved by everyone. The cast is great all-around, a lot of familiar faces who I recognized but didn't know the names of, but we do have Gabourey Sidibe from American Horror Story: Coven appears as a smart-mouthed security guard who adds some flavor to the fun, then there's Bert (Ethan Sandler) who plays a dope in a blue leisure suit who has just been dumped by his girlfriend for another girl, who is a singer in Siouxie and the Banshees cover band. Everyone is spot in this blend of cannibal comedy and deranged party movie, but it is more in the camp of gory comedy than straight-up horror movie, there's plenty of blood and guts for the gorehounds, a surprising amount of it actually. 

Audio/Video: The Blu-ray disc looks solid from Scream Factory, presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) with a nice palette of vibrant Halloween appropriate colors and some atmospheric lighting, looking fantastic in HD with nice with some good depth and clarity, strong color saturation and a good amount of fine detail, the gore looks especially great! The English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround comes through plenty strong with some serious oomph when called upon, crisp and clean through and through. 

Extras are limited to a cast and crew commentary track, two featurettes and a trailer for the movie. Given the comedic nature of the movie and the myriad of gore gags I am very surprised there's not a blooper real of blown takes or a few deleted scenes. The release includes a sleeve of reversible artwork with a slipcover featuring an illustration by Paul Shipper. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With James Roday, Sutton Foster And Jimmi Simpson
- What Is Gravy? Featurette (6 Mins) HD
- EPK (6 Mins) HD
- Trailer (2 Mins) HD 

This Halloween season if you are looking to add something new to your usual classic line-up of Halloween favorites the cannibal-comedy Gravy (2014) should be at the top of your list, I had a lot of fun with this one, the comedy is awesome and the gore is gruesome, this is a very highly recommend, I would dare say this is a new horror-comedy classic. 4/5 

DVD Review: THE PUPPET MONSTER MASSACRE (2010)

THE PUPPET MONSTER MASSACRE (2010)

Distributor: MVD Entertainment Group
Label: Dustin Mills Product
Region Code: 0 NTSC
Rating:Unrated
Duration: 70 mins
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Dustin Mills
Cast: Ethan Holey, Jessica Daiels, Steve Rimpso, Dustin Mills, Bart Flynn, Erica Kisseberth

In Dustin Mills' DIY horror-comedy THE PUPPET MONSTER MASSACRE a
group of five teens receive letters challenging them to spend a night in a creepy old mansion on the edge of town, yeah sure why not, right? At stake is one-million dollars for anyone brave enough to remain in the mansion for the duration of the night. It's a classic horror premise right outta William Castle's THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959). What they don't realize is that mansion is owned by a former Nazi scientist Dr. Wolfgang Wagner (Steve Rimpici) who has bio-engineered a carnivorous creature that he plans to unleash upon 'em as soon as the door closes behind them. That's the very simple set-up to the film, now throw in some kinky Muppet-styled hand puppet fornication, copious amounts of splatter, 400 soldiers battling a Godzilla sized creature and what you get is a splatteriffic horror-comedy that's a great watch.

There's a small cast of fun  characters here which perfectly suit the film's 80's inspired cartoonish carnage and splattery mayhem. Our main character is an Jesse Eisenberg type wimpy kid by the name of Charlie Hawkins (Ethan Holey) who is joined in the scary mansion challenge by his best-friend Gwen, a Brit-punker named Iggy (Bart Flynn), his girlfriend Mona (Erica Kisseberth) and an awesomely pervy horror nerd appropriately named Raimi (Dustin Mills) named of course after EVIL DEAD 2 (1987) director Sam Raimi. It's perhaps a sad reflection upon myself  that Raimi was definitely the character I could most relate to here. Also thrown into the mix is Charlie's ultra-ornery WWII vet Gramps (also voiced by Flynn), he's the second most quotable character after Raimi. Our antagonists are the aforementioned Nazi scientist Dr. Wagner, his evil-penguin sidekick Squiggums and the flesh-crazed toothy creature.

The director keeps it fairly simple with a pretty well familiar set 'em up and knock 'em down creature feature/slasher narrative. The unwitting teens arrive at the mansion, meet the mysterious Dr. Wolfgang Wagner and the bio-engineered creature quickly begins slaughtering puppets one by one right from the get-go, it's inspired in it's simplicity. The kills are not only surprisingly bloody but very well executed as puppet massacres go anyway, it's pretty crazy fun stuff.

I love the medium Mills has chosen to work with, it seems a completely novel and gimmicky conceit to use hand puppets set against 3D digital backgrounds and some South Park style animation flashbacks to WWII but it mostly works. The potential for disaster here would seem overwhelming, there are so many shitty DIY horror films and a hand-puppet splatterfest doesn't immediately spring to mind as horror-comedy gold but the film is well-written with some snappy dialogue and well executed right down to some great atmospheric lighting and shadowplay.


Like some of the best 80's horror film's this is deeply infused with a strong comedy element but it's character driven and not too absurd, it's really spot on. Probably not the best parenting decision I've ever made but I watched some of this with my 11 year old and we were both in hysterics, like we were watching The Three Stooges, there's no small amount of fart humor here but it complements the film's sensibilities as well as my own.

The major drawback to the film for me was that I just didn't care for the films main protagonist Charlie, he was very weak character in my opinion and my man Raimi was slighted to early on in the film, I just wanted more of the pervy horror nerd.
 At only 70 minutes the film flies by in a flurry of fuzzy carnage, it's the perfect length, not too short and not long enough to wear out it's welcome. Mills obviously poured his 80's horror loving soul into this project and it oozes awesomeness at every turn.

DVD: THE PUPPET MONSTER MASSACRE is presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen and looks mighty good upscaled to 1080p on my screen. Colors are vibrant, black levels are strong and overall it's a very slick looking feature that one wouldn't assume cost $3500 to make. The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track suffices, it's not fantastic or particularly dynamic but it's clean and the dialogue sounds crisp.

The disc's special features include two scrapped ideas for the creature design presented in short video clips, what Mills decided to go with in the end is definitely the right choice for the film. There are also two commentaries, one with the director and another with both director and assistant direct Brandon Salkil. I only listened to the director's commentary thus far but it was quite informative with lots of talk about his love of 80's horror, making the film, the voice actors, creating the puppets and even critiquing the film a bit.

Special Features:
- Scrapped Monster 1 (0:10) 16:9
- Scrapped Monster 2 (0:30) 16:9
- Audio Commentary with Director Dustin Mills
- Audio Commentary with Director Dustin Mills and Assistant Director Brandon Salkil

Verdict: THE PUPPET MONSTER MASSACRE is pure 80's splatter inspired puppet carnage with some fun kaiju elements. If you dig TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, Peter Jackson's MEET THE FEEBLES or Bill Zebub's DOLLA MORTE there's definitely something here for you to enjoy, worth a rental at the very least, recommended.
 

 http://www.puppetmonstermassacre.com/

DVD Review: Ding Dong Dead (2010)

DING DONG DEAD (2010)

Label: MVD Visual
Region Code: Region 0 NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 70 mins
Video: Widescreen 16x9
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
Director: Creep Creepersin
Cast: Luke Y. Thompson, Julia Boyd, Nicole Sienna, Tara Strand, Julie Rose, Destiny Rodreguiez, Shannon Freyer, Dolce Death, Tara Cardinal, Vanessa Moreno, Megan Francis, Devanny Pinn, Chaile Wall, Elina Madison
Tagline: You Wanted a War? You Got One!

Doug (Luke Y. Thompson) is a recently unemployed schlub of a man, a bit of a loser in fact. A stocky little fellow whom refers to himself in the third person and obsesses over his sexy MILF neighbor Claudia (Elina Madison, SOMEONE'S KNOCKING AT THE DOOR, CORPORATE CUTTHROAT MASSACRE) while mumbling suggestive innuendos to himself like "you like it when I water my yard, do ya?" and then imagining her seductive response "I do, I like it when you water your lawn, I like it is so much. You know what it makes me wanna do to you?"until she overhears him and then he freezes up, like most of us would I guess.

Now unemployed Doug is left to wallow in his own crapulence and starts going a bit nutty left to his own devices without a menial job to keep him from entering the abyss of insanity. He sings songs to himself while cruising the internet for job listings, he talks back to the television set, y'know, the usual home alone stuff. He just seems like a sad little dude, this is something Creepersin seems to know quite a bit about and is touched upon in nearly all his films that I've seen.

After a late night run for a fast food Doug has a strange encounter with a mischievous girl gang known as the Ding Dong Ditchers, a group of gothy girls dressed in black who terrorize the neighborhood by ringing doorbells in the dark of night and running away leaving the homeowners dumbfounded, not exactly hardened criminals, yet. Doug calls the police over this annoyance and they intervene on his behalf. The triple D's are incensed by this and step-up their game from petty pranking to some low grade assault which quickly escalates to the point of no return.

Reservoir Bitches

The problem is that the DDD's don't realize how unstable Doug is; he's unemployed and a bit nutty, anyone who refers to themselves in the third person is not to be toyed with in my experience and the pranks are shredding his frayed sanity. During an egg raid on Doug one of the DDD's dies accidentally leading to an all out war between the  homeowner and the pranksters.

The girls not realizing one of their own has been killed launch an all out suburban assault on Dougie's home in search of their friend but they are unaware that Doug is having a mental meltdown. When the killings begin they come fast and furious and in quick succession; a choke-out, suffocation, cleavings a shovel to the throat and some dismemberment. The special effects in the film are quite minimal, not bad, just not focused on. While it's not a gore-soaked bloodbath there's a body count here that would do either Jason Vorhees or Michael Meyers proud. Something that made me laugh was that at one point during the invasion one of the gals decides to take a dump and Doug catches her on the toilet, quite a vulnerable position, which leads to a lethal swirly. Nice. This was quite an entertaining watch, Luke Y. Thompson's comic portrayal of a suburban schlub's descent into madness whilst dealing out some revenge is a recommended watch. 

Dougie's got a gun - and a sweet VHS collection!

DVD: DING DONG DEAD is presented in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital stereo, there are no subtitle options. As with all Creepersin films it's a micro-budget feature, $1500 all told according to the commentary, and it looks pretty good, on par with CORPORATE CUTTHROAT MASSACRE though the night scenes are quite dark and grainy. I noticed the film is a bit brighter and has a more vibrant color scheme than his previous films which was appreciated.  I think some proper lighting might have gone a long way here but it's quite watchable. Creepersin handles cinematography himself and you can see his form improve with each film. The stereo audio adequately handles both dialogue and effects plus Kenneth Hampton's quirky score sounds great, definitely the best score on any of the Creepersin films, fun stuff. Special features include two fun commentaries and a behind-the-scenes featurette with cast and crew interviews wherein Creepersin talks about the inspiration for the film.

Special Features:
- Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (8:55)
- Audio Commentary with Director Creep Creepersin
- Audio Commentary with Star Luke Y. Thompson and Creep Creepersin

Verdict: It's been an interesting journey following Creep Creepersin filmography and he's come quite a ways from FRANKENSTEIN. This is a very quirky comedy with some nice horror elements. Much like Creepersin's last film CORPORATE CUTTHROAT MASSACRE the comedy is the strong suit here, the violence is not particularly gruesome but it is fun stuff. I would love to see a straight comedy from Creepersin minus the horror, his comedy writing is pretty great. 3.5 outta 5

http://www.mvdvisual.com/

http://www.creepersinfilms.com/

www.twitter.com/creepersin