FAMINE (2011)
Label: Unearthed FilmsRegion Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 77 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Ryan Nicholson
Cast: Karyn Halpin, Nathan Durec, Glenn Hoffmann, Christopher Patrick Donoghue
Ryan Nicholson, who sadly passed away late in 2019, directed the slasher-comedy Famine (2011). He was a Vancouver-based make-up FX technician who worked on a lot of big-budget films, stuff like Deadpool 2 (2018) and The Predator (2018). He also had another gig, for years he directed low-budget exploitation and horror films, stuff like Collar (2014) and Gutterballs (2008), indie productions that were typically trashy, visceral and dripping with copious amounts blood and gore.
I've only seen a handful of Nicholson's films and this was not one I'd watched previously, as it is a film that had never has a proper physical release here in the U.S.. Now it does thanks to the efforts of Unearthed Films who have picked-up several of Nicholson's Plotdigger Films catalog for distribution, with Famine (2011) being the first of the bunch.
Famine (2011) is a highschool slasher comedy, with the emphasis on Troma-esque humor, set at the Sloppy Secondary High School, a name which should immediately warn you what sort of sophomoric hijinks you're in for.The new smoking hot-teacher Ms. Vickers (Michelle Sabiene, Truth) has coordinated the 24-hour Famine, a charity event wherein students student lock themselves inside the school for a 24-hour period and deprive themselves of food for charity. It had been an annual event for years at the school until five years ago when teacher/organizer Philip Balszack (Nathan Durec, Star Vehicle) had a bottle of acid fall onto his head and melt away his face, after trying to seduce his painfully weird student Cathy (Beth Cantor, A Safe Place) in a classroom. Now Ms. Vickers has brought it back, much to the chagrin of the school's strangely German-centric Principle Nielson (Glenn Hoffman, Star Vehicle).
The turnout for the event is small, with only and handful of students participating, and they seemingly only showed up for the extra credit, and judging by the low IQ of everyone in attendance they sorely need all the extra credits they can get! The students are uniformly unlikable people, but that's not to say they're not fun in a trashy sort of way. Aside from creepy Cathy I found most of the young ladies, and teacher Ms. Vickers, to be very attractive, with Jenny (Christine Wallace) being a particular slice of sweet eye-candy, her character is the only half-way likable person in the film, sort of dim and clutzy, that's she's a leggy and a rather voluptuous hottie in a low-cut t-shirt didn't hurt either.
As soon as the doors to the school are locked things begin to go sour for the highschoolers when someone disguised as the schools mascot, The Nailer, a demented Bob the Builder type carpenter with an inflatable hammer begins murdering teenagers in a myriad of bloody ways. The highlight of the film are the gory kills, we get a bloody throat slash, gut-spilling, a scalping, a knife to the skull, and eyes gouged out among others, with my favorite being a student who is scalded to death inside the industrial dish washing machine in the kitchen. Other memorable non-kill stuff include Jenny being sprayed with an errant spray of cum after interrupting a couple having toilet-sex, a kid seemingly having sex with a Little Debbie Swiss Roll, and a creepy janitor who is constantly fingering his vaginal looking facial scar.
With the teens being murdered by the Nailer the survivors must come together, if they can stop fighting with each other long enough that is, to figure out who wants them all dead and why. A clue arrive when the teens realize that all the kids attending the event this year were also present at the ill-fated Famine five years earlier.
Famine is a very goofy film, the scripted humor is bad, real bad, and the only real laughs to be had are at the expense of the actors and how annoying their characters are, with the most irritating of the bunch being Nick (Christopher Lomas), who has the sort of smug-ugly face you just want to punch over and over again, but the same can be said of nearly all the character's in the film, there's no good guy to pull for. The kills are the best part of the film, everything else is pretty tedious, making this 77-min campy slasher feel much longer than it is.
Audio/Video: Famine (2011) arrives on Blu-ray from Unearthed Films framed in 1.78:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The digital shot film looks uniformly sharp and decently detailed throughout. Colors looks solid and the black levels are decent looking. Audio on the disc comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo which handles both the awful dialogue and aggressive metal soundtrack (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Fake Shark - Real Zombie!) without any issues.
Extras include a 2-min trailer for the film plus a handful of Unearthed Films trailers, plus a still image gallery. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork.
Special Features:
- Still Gallery
- Unearthed Trailers: Famine (2 min), Nightwish (2 min), Collar (2 min), The Dark Side of the Moon (2 min), Song of Solomon (2 min), The Unnamabale (2 min)
I was not a big fan of Famine (2011), the comedy and the acting are bad, but at least the kills are pleasingly gory, and there's even a a bit of nudity, so it at least has that going for it. Of the Ryan Nicholson films I've seen this was my least favorite of the bunch, but it still has some low-brow, appeal for lover's of trashy indie slashers. While I was not a big fan of this film I am pleased to see it finally get a U.S. release on Blu-ray, and there's more Plotdigger releases on the way from Unearthed Films who have already announced they will be releasing Big Fucking Monsters, Gutterballs (2008), Gutterballs 2 (2015), Hanger (2009), Live Feed (2006), Star Vehicle (2010) and Torched (2004) at some point.
