DVD Reviews

Brutal Massacre: A Comedy

I’m going to do something a little different with this review.  For your reading pleasure… this review is going to be done in reverse.  So should you go out and grab this film for your collection… HELLS NO!!!!  And thus is the reason this review is in reverse.  You can either continue reading to find out why or simply move on to the next review secure with the knowledge that you can avoid this DVD.  Short of fanatics who must own every picture from any of the actors in the film, there is no reason to even rent this one. 

The DVD opens with trailers for Malevolence, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and Hatchet. The trailer for Brutal Massacre is available through the extras menu but the other trailers are not. There are 17 extended/deleted scenes running just over 20 minutes in total length.  If you thought the film couldn’t get any worse… they actually cut stuff out.  And like most deleted scenes, these take this bad movie into even worse territory. The final extra is roughly 15 minutes in length.  “Behind the Scenes of Brutal Massacre” is a weird piece.  What you would think would be a behind-the-scenes piece for Brutal Massacre ends up being more like a featurette on Brutal Massacre… the Brutal Massacre in the film not the film itself.  Are you confused yet?  As the featurette put it, it’s “a behind the scenes look at the making of the behind the scenes documentary of the making of the actual film Brutal Massacre.” See this has the actors in character talking about Harry and the film he was making called Brutal Massacre.  So it’s a fictional featurette about the fictional documentary in the… bah!  It still sucked. Where’s the actual film Brutal Massacre that they were making?  You’d think that would have to be an extra right?  Of course not, that would be too clever.

The audio, though coming in DD 5.1, is nothing more than alright.  Because this is a “documentary” it mostly follows dialogue from interviews, etc. so there isn’t much interest in surrounds or even the low end.  When the surrounds do kick in they do help the viewing experience but don’t expect too much. Dialogue is always understandable though sometimes a little soft.

The video is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen.  The image is soft and grainy and contrast is a little light at times. This may be attributed to the fact that they used a “documentary style” to produce the film OR it may be because the film is so low budget that they couldn’t produce a decent looking film if they tried.  I’ll go with a mixture of both personally.  At least the colours are reproduced well enough and the print is free of debris and damage.

What has the world come to when the director of Sasquatch at the Mall can’t get a gig? That’s what horror auteur Harry Penderecki  is wondering. Once considered a horror legend, with a string of hits like Bowel Movement, People Pesticide and I’ll Take the Ring Back and the Finger Too, he now finds himself on the outside looking in at Hollywood. Determined to make his comeback, Penderecki returns to direct what he believes will be his ultimate masterpiece, Brutal Massacre. Follow along with the documentary crew to discover whether Harry will reassert his genius, or remain a relic of the ‘80s.

When you put together a bunch of cult icons into one film you usually end up with something quite enjoyable.  Ken Foree does a good and humorous job portraying his character Carl and Gunnar Hansen steals the show as the crazy home owner. But even with actors the likes of Ellen Sandweiss (The Evil Dead), Brian O’Hallaran (Clerks), Gerry Bednob (The 40 Year Old Virgin) and David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London) this film manages to fall seriously flat.

Review By Robert Harding