Decampitated

Title: Decampitated
Rating: 2.5/5
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Mike Hart, Jonathan Scott, Bethany La Voo
Director: Matt Cunningham
Duration: 90 mins

"Advil won't help you now... KA-CHANG!"

For the most part, horror comedies have been given a bad name by those that fall under the "horror spoof" category. Scary Movie was a sad attempt at bringing back the Airplane-humor we all love, as was the knock-off Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th. The recent torture-porn spoof, Otis, was also a let-down. Horror spoofs may have had a humble beginning with Student Bodies, but if you learn anything from me it's that 99% of them suck (exception being Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers). When horror comedies are not satirizing sacred slasher icons, they usually fail at combining horror and comedy (exceptions here are Hatchet, Dr. Giggles, and Evil Dead II). So what are we to do? Well, luckily there are some "splatstick" comedies out there that completely eliminate the horror element altogether and ride on gags alone. Enter Troma's 1998 film, Decampitated.

Garrett, his girlfriend, April, and their buddies decide to hike up to a cabin to spend a happy camping trip together (a personal favorite premise of Yours Truly). When they get lost in the woods, they are split up (in more ways than one!) when they encounter a skipping maniac wearing a beekeeper mask. They must find a way to civilization without being slowed down by infighting, flesh wounds, or a horny transvestite.

First of all, let me say that there is a LOT of duct tape used in this film. It is the running joke throughout the whole picture when our campers mend any wound, no matter the severity, with a stretch of duct tape. The gags and jokes are many, and while most of them will not have you laughing out loud, they do find a way to keep the movie interesting and charming. The humor is like that of Airplane, Naked Gun, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and, yes, Scary Movie, but it predates the latter so a comparison shouldn't be hastily made. On a budget of under $15,000 and featuring a cast of no-names, Decampitated actually has the look and feel of a much larger production and fits in perfectly with the rest of Troma's catalog. Lastly, the soundtrack can be rad, if sometimes uneven. There is swing music alongside songs from hardcore bands such as Sheer Terror, Hatebreed, H2O, and Strife, and they all often drown out the dialogue.

The ensemble have a few things going against them. Mike Hart, as Garrett, has an obvious Jim Carrey worship going on. Now, most critics compare any physical comedy actor with Jim Carrey, but here I'm being fo'real, right down to the mannerisms and Dumb & Dumber quotes. The rest of the characters are pretty stereotypical: the bitch, the bimbo, the nerd, the dickhead, the jock, the normal girl. Seeing as these people are the only things worth watching in this film, it gets disappointing. Fortunately, the movie is fast paced and interesting enough to engage the viewer for the entire running time.

If you are like me and can't stand the crude humor for crude humor's sake attitude of the Scary Movie series or the snobby, tongue-in-cheek winks at the audience in the Scream series (and their wannabe spawn), then I suggest that you take a break and watch a completely retarded flick like Decampitated.

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QloB77HDOo

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Female Prisoner: Scorpion

Image
Title: Female Prisoner: Scorpion Rating: 4/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Rie Yokoyama, Isao Natsuyagi Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese It was the 70s that saw the rise in Japanese grindhouse cinema (also known as ‘Pinky Violence); tired of the very ‘traditional’ style of many local films, and with the rise in success of Hollywood titles such as ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Great Escape,’ a new wave of daring and experimental directors came to light. Armed with a low budget and all the influences of the early Western grindhouse cheap gore flicks, they combined it with traditional Japanese film-making sensibilities to create a style that somehow succeeded in being both artistic in style whilst retaining those cheap traditions such as gratuitous nudity and violence to result in something rather unique. And it was with this, the first instalment in the ‘Female Prisoner’ series, that would influence a wave known as ‘Women in Prison’ films; with a strong the...
Read more

Slasher Hunter

Image
Title: Slasher Hunter (2011) Rating: 3/5 Genre: Horror, Comedy Starring: Chad Phillips, Derek Rothermund, Ryan Sullivan Director: Steve Rudzinski Duration: 35 mins Four pals are planning to have a great weekend of sex and brews in an old cabin in the woods. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “this is the exact set up to every slasher movie from ‘79 to ‘99; this can’t end well.” Well our group of campers have thought of that, that’s why they brought sci-fi nerd Lee along for the ride who carries within him the so-called “survivor gene.” This special gene helps prevent him from being the unfortunate victim of any slasher maniacs that may be lurking about. Unfortunately this gene is also highly coveted by a group of the most dastardly slashers around: Frank, Larry, Jay, Charles, Pleatherface, and Puzzle (I didn’t say their names were very dastardly, did I?). It’s up to a renegade, federally-employed Slasher Hunter to thwart the slashers’ plan and save Lee and his friends before it’...
Read more

Chinese Erotic Ghost Story

Image
Title: Chinese Erotic Ghost Story Original Title: Yuk lui liu chai Genre: Comedy, Exploitation Rating: 2.5/5 Starring: Ben Ko Chu, Chun Chung, Siu Wan Hung Director: Kin-Nam Cho Language: Chinese It's always a little tricky to think how these sort of films should be rated; from the title it's apparent that they aren't perhaps the most creative when it comes to titles, though if nothing else it certainly is an accurate one, with perhaps some mention of how batshit insane the bizarre events of the actual film are being the only thing missing. It all kicks off rather normally; Chu is introduced as the debt collector working for an asshole of a King with a beautiful mistress, two beautiful daughters and an even prettier wife, whilst he's stuck with a woman who sleeps 20 hours a day and spends the remaining four awake eating. Caught in the embrace of one of the King's daughters he's punished with the task of entering Satan's Temple and stealing the statu...
Read more