Get a couple more in before we run out of year.
BLOODY BLOODY BIBLE CAMP – This slasher homage is full of pretty yucky humour, the kind I usually can’t stand, so I was surprised that I liked it. You can tell what happens from the title alone – some kids go to a bible camp plagued by a past full of mystery slashings, then find that history repeats itself. After a graphic curtain raiser, we’re forced to put up with an hour’s worth of irritating pricks and priestly Reggie Banister before a splattery denouement with Ron Jeremy as Jesus. It works because of its relentlessly nasty attitude and obsessive vulgarity, kind of like John Waters on an off day doing a Troma movie and somehow everything working out. And a slightly weird thing is that, even though it’s a modern day HD cheapie, there are points when somehow the look and feel of a genuine shadowy eighties slasher come through, with accompanying nihilistic tonal shift.
MUTANT HUNT – Ignorant Frankie Teardrop recently misattributed a Tim Kincaid flick (the awesome ‘Breeders’) to David DeCocteau in one of his typically sloppy write-ups, so, if you’re out there Tim, I’m back, ready and willing to compensate with a glowing appraisal of your pile of trash, ‘Mutant Hunt’. I mean that as a sincere compliment, because ‘Mutant Hunt’ is wild. There’s almost too much giddiness to even make a start, but let me try to summarise – a hot Judith Hann imitator decked out in what resembles a kinky suicide vest wants to ignite an uprising of homicidal cyborgs whilst another villain does something else and a guy with a Pat Sharp hairdo tries to stop them both. That’s the skeleton, but the meat on this turkey is beyond ripe. Lines full of bad poetry spill from every mouth before their owners end up in fight scenes that look like they were choreographed by the residents of a retirement home. People run around and do the same things over and over as if they’re in an endless bad dream, one full of gloopy android melt-downs, stiffs in shades and the world’s most pointless special effect, an arm elongation you could probably do yourself with a cardboard tube and a rubber hand. The film looks as cheap as f@ck and yet its scumminess is awesome, deriving as it does from the dereliction of eighties New York, a harsh place to be no doubt but so atmospheric when captured on equally grotty celluloid. And despite the complete shoestring, there’s an undeniable aesthetic driving it – the sets, abandoned warehouse interiors decorated with mannequin parts, are flooded with primary hues, as if a foundation art class were trying to imitate Bava. Awesome – there, I’ve used that word three times in one write-up, it must be good. Actually it’s awful, but you know that already, and you know whether it’ll hook you or whether you’ll just toddle off and put on another Halloween sequel. Yet another film that’s an acquired taste, but that’s what it’s all about. The Blu ray from VS looks impeccable, vivid and swarming with unhealthy grain (in the best possible way).
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