Probably the peak of John Waters grittier, rough and ready ‘gross out’ era of film making, I have a long and fond history with ‘Pink Flamingos’. In the UK it was notoriously banned and hard to come by for a number of years, but I secured a copy in my teens and treasured it right up until Criterion VERY kindly restored and released it on UK shores uncut…A release that I cant quite believe ACTUALLY still happened.

It was the film I always went to when my friends said they wanted to see something ‘weird and a bit fucked up’. It was the film I showed my partner of now over 13 years as a ‘first date’ night ‘cuddle movie’. My figuring being if she enjoyed it, she was probably the one for me.

The film marks the beginnings of a clear refinement in John Waters works as a film maker, that rough and ready punky, sleazy B-movie influence is still VERY present and prominant, but unlike ‘Multiple Maniacs’ this entry feels a bit more streamlined, theres the air that lessons were learned from the last shoot and the balance between technical ability and the tone and vibe that endears me to Johns work feels a bit more rebalanced after ‘Multiple Maniacs’ chaotic look and feel.

The film follows Divine as ‘Babs Johnson’ a notorious sleaze fiend who declares herself ‘The Filthiest Person Alive’ who, along with her children and senile Egg adoring mother shack up in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere to lie low while on the run for previous demeanous.

Enter, ‘The Marbles’ a young couple who see ‘Babs Johnson’, see her ‘filthiness’ and want a shot at the title themselves, deliberately antagonising Babs and her family, spying on them while also trying to prove that THEY are in fact the filthiest people alive.

and…thats basically the movie an increasingly disgusting and hilarious game of oneupmanship culminating in arguably one of the most disgusting scenes ever put to celluloid.

And…like I say, this feels like a sturdier work all round honestly, and a lot of issues that I had with Johns work prior to this film seem to be addressed here.

For a starters the script actually feels much more coherent and clear. theres a definite 3 act structure present, while it still does feel a little bit like a series of vignettes and ‘happenings’ it kind of works to the plots favour because we get to see the two families wage war against each other on a one on one basis. the narrative feels much tighter, theres less totally off plot random tangents present here, the act shifts DO ramp up consistently across the runtime. the tone is consistently over the top and manic without losing sight of ultimately what its trying to portray.

The dialogue is TREMENDOUS. an infinitely quotable movie, lines like ‘The Couch! IT REJECTED YOU!!!’ or ‘SOMEONE HAS SENT ME A BOWEL MOVEMENT!!!’ are simply wonderful, and to this day I still cant restrain myself from quoting this thing whenever it enters my thoughts.

The characters are all shallow, base level beings. which is PERFECT because the tone of this movie is excessive and aggressive, this isnt a film that NEEDS deep set, lore driven complexity. This film has a character who’s credited as ‘Pa-pa-ooh-mow-mow’ and is affectionately referred to by fans as ‘The Signing Anus’. I dont believe we need all that much depth here.

Of course the film does trade on themes of excess and chasing the ‘fame’ of notoriety (something that would be further developed in many of Waters later works) But I feel here we have the most crystalized take on that vision.

Honestly? theres very little I dislike about this film from a script perspective. a scene of animal cruelty, and the general feeling that it *maybe* could have had one more pass through on the edit just to tighten up some of the scenes a little more in terms of pacing is about as bad as it gets…which, given how bad this COULD have gotten, really isnt that big of a problem.

The direction too also gets a bit of a refresh. Scenes here feel a bit more considered, both in terms of character placement within the scene, there interactions with the set and how scenes will play out for the camera. ‘Multiple Maniacs’ felt a bit jumpy and french new wave, and im not entirely convinced that was totally on purpose in every instance. This feels much more considered as a work. By studio standards, its atrocious. But to me? this still carries that sense of unpredictability that Waters earlier works had, it still has that raw dirty grittiness I love about his early work. It just seems a little bit better thought out in terms of HOW to shoot whats being shown than previous attempts.

Direction of the cast too also seems to have had an uptick. the cast utilize the set spaces they’re in much more effectively, they use props regularly, it feels like they had a better budget to do more takes, have more locations, and they had the time to actually talk the cast through the scenes rather than just shooting on the fly (which…make no mistake, they still did alongside giving direction) which seemed commonplace prior.

On the cine front, shots are much more considered, John seemingly still didnt *fully* understand at this point WHY shots were shot the way they were compositionally, but he knew enough to know how to structure a scene by this point, and his cinematic influences really start to shine through here. i’d say some of his best compositional work appears in this movie. Later films would offer higher quality film stock, lenses and DOP’s to help craft the story visually…But ther image of Divine pointing a loaded pistol down the barrel of a lense is a hard burned image into my subconcious, that will not be leaving anytime soon.

On the whole, the compositions arnt amazing, but that 25% of shots where he DOES land a winner. its an astounding work honestly. sequences are a little rough and ready, sometimes cutting a bit too soon, sometimes, a bit too late. dialogue editing is also a little all over the place. B-roll here seemingly consisted mainly of just ‘filming wide and hoping for the best’ which…is a novel approach, but one that has mixed results here…this isnt a pretty film. But in many ways it really isnt supposed to be. and that rough assembly does lend itself to the brief of the movie, which is to unsettle, shock and disgust the audience.

Performance wise, this is the film that put ‘Divine’ and Mink Stole on the map. Both give probably the greatest performances of their respective careers as Connie Marbles and Babs Johnson. Both have tremendous levels of pent up energy which erupt quite spectacularly and beautifully in the 3rd act. they arnt afraid to throw themselves into GENUINELY disgusting situations. its astounding and its absolutely no surprise they both got a decent share of work off the back of this movie. Thats not to do a disservice to the rest of Johns usual wrecking crew. who all give rock solid, over the top performances that again. are probably some of the absolute highlights of their respective careers. I cnat say there isnt a *bad* performance in this…but thats kind of the point.

As for the soundtrack? its another tried and true 50s and early 60s jukebox selection for the score, and…Im not 100% convinced its a perfect fit for this movie, when it works, it works kind of well. But given John has a thing for this kind of music, and given…’How the hell do you even PICK music for a film like this?!’ I think it comes out pretty decent all being said.

Im really quite bias with ‘Pink Flamingos’ I have a lot of very happy memories watching it with friends and family. Its an imperfect work, but in many ways its imperfections are what really help it to nail the brief. If your into exploitation cinema or cult films. This ones kind of a must, its not for the feint at heart. But I struggle to think of a work that really truely manages to capture filth, quite like this does.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pink-flamingos/2/

One of John Waters first feature length films to achieve something more than a small distribution. ‘Multiple Maniacs’ Is raw, offensive and about as open and honest a film can be about its directors loves and influences…Sometimes to its own detriment.

The film follows ‘Lady Divine’ the operator of a ‘Sexual Circus’ freakshow that travels the nation showcasing freaks, geeks and sexually liberated misfits engaging in all MANNER of gross out awful things, that ramp up as the show progresses. This all culminates with ‘Divine’ herself appearing and basically robbing the audience under threat of mass murder.

After escaping from their latest ‘spree’ divine is informed that her lover has been seeing another woman on the side. This leads to a confrontation, some anal penetration, a resolution to murder her lover with her NEW lesbian lover…and a rape scene that…Im not going to describe here purely for how surreal the entire event really truely is (I dont wanna spoil THAT little encounter).

One of the things I love about this film, is also one of the things I feel holds it back terribly. The script itself is SUPER raw, incoherently raw, the ramblings of several drug addicts (and they WERE drug addicts at this point in time) made cinema.

The plot itself is quite basic, but the film cant keep focus on what it wants the audience to really ‘lock’ into and pay attention to. it’ll jutt off into extended scenes of Devine and Mink Stole talking about the stations of the cross and crucifixtion while divine gets Rosary beads inserted into places they shouldnt.

there are LONG LONG sequences of characters just talking border nonsense while lying in bed nude. it’s almost a certainty that these scenes exist to pad the runtime to feature length. But the script problems here run deeper than that. At times, it feels much less like a movie, and much more like a series of shots that John Waters had basically een stockpiling for debauched or debased things you ‘couldnt do on film’ at the time…presented one after another with about 15 minutes worth of story interconnecting them. As such, the act structuring is all over the place, the tone jumps all over the place between ‘Roughie’ cinema, French New Wave, Experimental art house, and at time, genuine B-movie exploitation.

This film makes a LOT more sense when you know what Waters was watching in theaters at the time, and what was influencing his film making, especially when the drug use is thrown into the mix. But the end result is still a deleriously messy production the likes of which ABSOLUTELY hadnt been seen before this point.

And of course, that isnt to say that the scripting is entirely awful. The debauched scenes Johns come up with here are hilarious, strange, deranged, and often quite cinematic and watchable. the dialogue feels incredibly strange andis hilarious for the most part…But given almost EVERYONE involved in this film WAS deeply troubled or strange. its always delivered so naturalistically and real. These people arnt actors in the traditional sense. Which again, only adds to the rawness and realness of the production.

Because of its rather ‘thrown together’ nature, it makes it a pitted film of peaks and troughs. the highs of this film are utterly delightful fun and exactly what I expect from a John Waters movie. The lows, had me drumming my fingers waiting for the fun to start again.

The direction is frantic, manic and high energy. The inexperience from Waters at this point lends the film a whole new dynamic, a sense of unpredictability, which in 1969/1970 must have been INCREDIBLY thrilling. Even now the sense of having NO idea what the hell is going to happen next is wonderfully compelling, and I imagine for people unfamiliar to ‘Waters’ Ouvre (Or people coming to this who’d only previously seen ‘Hairspray’) this must have been like having the switch flipped on an electric chair.

That being said, the gritty rawness of Waters directional choices does backfire at times, with some fairly long tracking shots causing a crashing pause to proceedings here and there, and the lack of understanding of framing resulting in some very interesting compositional choices, Some absolutely inspiring as an experimentation on the layout of a shot…But a lot of it feels ‘off’, and not in an intentional way…In a ‘not knowing what your filming or the point’ kind of way.

Direction of the cast is stiff. But thats a trait that carries through ALL of Johns movies. and its one I love quite dearly.

The cine is a mess, a vipers nest of quick cuts, mixed ability editing and badly composed/cropped sequences. Like I said earlier. When he gets onto a good thing, its an astounding work that pushes the boundaries of taste and decency to its limit resulting in some genuinely compelling cinema. When it misses. It feels like French New Wave cinema directed by Ray Dennis Steckler. That being said, Waters does nail the lighting for about 90% of this movie, getting a decent even coverage and exposure in most of his shots and some really nice natural light work makes the cast and locations really ‘pop’

The performances are 99% of the reason to watch a John Waters movie and this ones no exception. Divine RELISHES the opportunity to star in this thing, giving 110% from her first frame on scene to her last, something that would only ramp up even further as her career progressed. She’s a tinderbox in this film and as the movie goes on the fire only gets higher and higher. A fab performance both physically and in terms of her delivery.

Edith Massey delights as the local bar owner…it wasnt much of a stretch for Massey, given…she worked in a bar around this time. But its always delightful to see Miss Edie on screen. and I think her work heres great. The usual Waters ‘wrecking crew’ of Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller and David Lochary are all great fun here, though a little more subdued than their later appearences would be. they’re all still larger than life here, very animate, very vocal and very physcially keen to really get into the set space of the movie. Any movie this gang appear in almost always gets a BIG boost as a result.

And finally, the soundtrack. Which I cant really comment on here because the original score has had to be replaced with a ‘copyright friendly’ version for the criterion Bluray…But…its fine, its basically a jukebox mix of 50s and early 60s bops. It helps act as a nice ‘squeaky clean’ contrast to this movies darkest perversions. I had a soft spot for it.

I adore ‘Multiple Maniacs’ enthusiasm and utter relishment for the disgusting, the depraved and the morally questionable. However, it really does feel like a film where the film makers had waited so long to make a ‘go’ on the whole ‘get a film out there’ thing. that they just…threw EVERYTHING they possibly could at the screen without even pausing for a second to review and refine the work they were making. As a result it feels more like a disjointed series of events rather than a coherent work. a test run of things that do and dont work in the medium of film.

While I do have a soft spot for the film overall, its a bit TOO incoherent for me. and I found myself just kind of waiting for a point to arrive…which it never did…leaving me just kind of bewildered in a good way…but ultimately non plussed.

Absolutely recommended if you like the works of John Waters, This one isnt one I regularly revisit. But I still kind of dig it all the same.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/multiple-maniacs/1/

The ‘B-feature’ on a dollar tree ‘Elviras Movie Macarbre’ double feature I grabbed recently ‘The Werewolf of Washington’ doesnt really do anything *too* new or original with the ‘wolf man’ subgenre…But its a somewhat robust (if not a tad slow) watch that kept me hanging around till the end.

The plot follows a congressman by the name of Jack who’s having an affair with the presidents daughter who, while trying to find help after his car experiences difficulties, finds himself cursed to the ‘Wolfman’ life. Seemingly this doesnt effect him too much to begin with, but eventually he claims his first victim, causing the feds in DC to go into high alert thinking a serial killer may be on the loose. Jack is semi aware of whats going on and the rest of the plot is basically him trying to find a cure to his lycan habits while trying to hold down a day to day government office job AND keep his murdering down to a bare minimum.

And…its a bit of a frustrating watch really, because in my mind with a pitch like ‘The Werewolf of Washington’ I was envisioning a kind of ‘Troma by way of Mark Pirro’ with a wolfman running for office and murdering the competiton…or something to that effect.

Instead? this is actually just a kind of pedestrian speed ‘wolfman’ movie that just so HAPPENS to be taking place around government officials…Which…y’know…thats FIIINE. it means the film does what is says on the tin…But in terms of creative asperations, its pretty lacking.

The scripts a bit of a crawl at around 85 minutes. its act structuring is a bit sluggish, it hangs in one gear and pace through the whole runtime and its act shifts arnt particularly clear. most of the film is pretty repetative, its spent following Jack to conferences, business meetings and date nights, with only the occasional mercy break for the audience where he’ll transform and kill a couple of people in fairly over the top ways…

tonally, its a bit all over the place as well, its a horror comedy predominantly. But i’d say the mix was 75-25 horror to comedy…which isnt a great balance because it left me wondering just how much of the comedy was planned from the start, and how much was from Dean Stockwell realizing this was a VERY dry script without at least a couple improved zingers. its humour really is more from a lightened tone than actually penned jokes. Stockwell manages to rework some deliveries to help aid that, and I feel it does help give the film a bit more character than it was originally intended to. Without the humour, this would have been an INTERMINABLY dry watch.

The dialogue is lengthy, dull and trudging, this is a film that is VERY much into telling rather than showing. and while I do think they give the characters just about enough depth to make me care about them, I cant honestly say they left much of a lasting impression.

As for the direction, its…fine too. it (mostly) follows the traditional rules of studio grade direction, shots mostly felt like they had some thought put into them, considerations were clearly made for B-roll footage and the transformation sequences for Jack and the wolfman, while VERY dated, were at least clearly considered and well handled.

Direction of the cast too was fine. I do wish there’d been a bit more physicality in this thing, at times it feels like a wake. But its clear that the cast were well informed about how sequences were to play out, and it seems they were encouraged to experiment with the set and props at hand…which is always a nice thing to see.

The cine is a bit beige honestly, while planning for the sequence structure was clearly a consideration, the film really struggles to ‘wow’ me outside of the wolf man ‘hunt’ sequences…and even then, that didnt ‘thrill’ me, it just stood out more than the many MANY office, and living room seqences in this thing.

The edit seemed a little rushed too, im not sure if its because it was the ‘Elvira’ version and they had to make cuts to fit into the TV schedule, but there were some noticable cuts where the scene was cut either WAY too early or WAY too late. Composition is acceptable, though again, outside of the transformation sequence and a couple of the wolfmans ‘hunt’ scenes…its all a bit drab and lifeless. just wides and mid wides occasionally cut into with no really passion behind the eyes.

As for the cast? Honestly, Dean Stockwell is about as good as it gets. he’s giving a belivable and fairly grounded performance, but he’s surrounded by cast members who clearly just wanted the paycheck and a go at the craft service. He’s great. Everyone else? dead eyed deliveries, dry dialogue performances and physicality thats comparable to rigamortis.

I cant recommend ‘The Werewolf of Washington’ its not bad, its just *too* average to really be worth your time. If your a sucker for wolfman movies and havent seen this one, MAYBE give it a go…But if your not totally enthralled by the genre, you really can do better elsewhere. This is fine…but FAR from ‘great’…or even really ‘good.’

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-werewolf-of-washington/

NOTE: This is a review for the ‘Theatrical’ cut of this film, and is really more of an addendum to my main review for the film which can be found under the ‘Producers’ cut.

Its got to be approaching 2 decades since I sat down and watched the theatrical cut of ‘Halloween – The Curse of Michael Myers’…and having rewatched it tonight, I can see why.

The film is basically the inverse of the ‘Producers cut’, neither particularly make much sense, or hold much coherency. But at least the ‘Producers cut’ bothers to try and give us a story, TRIES to give the audience something resembling a 3 act structured piece that TRIES to pay something of a tribute to Donald Pleasence and his portrayal of doctor Loomis.

The theatrical cut is hideous frankly, an incoherently arranged mish mash of half baked ideas hastily recut together, with very little rhyme or reason. Honestly? it feels like they started editing it, got about a third of the way in, and then they were told the money had run out and that they had to recut the whole thing to make it make sense within their means.

The main plotting, which just about makes sense in the ‘producers’ cut, here? is non existant. We get introduced to characters in the first act, who’ll basically dissapear till about 10 minutes off the end, and then even when they do return, its only briefly before they get lost in the mix. Michael in this cut is seemingly just popping in and out of existence depending on what the editors needed him to do. Sometimes he’s under the control of a cult, sometimes he’s stalking people who are in his house, sometimes…he’s just…there…with no real explanation.

Loomis is the same, they basically bring him in in this cut, almost exclusively to have him sit in Tommy Doyles house, say one, maybe two plot progressive things…and then he’s written out till the last 10 minutes of the movie more or less. His ENTIRE reason for being in the film is cut from this version.

When they cant decide how to transition the end of one scene into the next, they’ll play super slowed down, bit crushed audio cues and flash cuts of stuff that was cut out of this version of the movie to disorient viewers into not quite realising we’ve transitioned to a new location briefly. which is an AWFUL way to move your film along and has essentially left me with a ‘flash’ headache.

there isnt really any kind of act structuring here, it literally just feels like ‘happenings’ hard cut together…you get a vague sense that its something involving runes and it may possibly be tied into some kind of bloodline cult. But its just, so badly assembled I dont know how anyone took ANYTHING away from this thing when it first came out.

The direction here is pretty decent, it has a distinctly mid 90s feel to it (given…that WAS the year the thing came out) I quite like the visuals here, it feels especially halloweeny, something that is missing from some of the later entries in this franchise. I will also say, the one good thing this film has that the producers cut is SORELY missing is the deleted scenes and gore sequences.

There were seemingly reshoots between the ‘producers cut’ and the theatrical release, and as such, the theatrical cut gets some pretty nice and gory kills that are 100% missing from the ‘producers’ cut. They’re really well handled, particualrly the main ‘electrocution’ sequence.

In an ideal world, those gore reshoots would be reinserted into the ‘producers’ cut to create a best of both worlds situation…but unfortunately, currently thats not the case.

Direction of the cast is a little slapdash, everyone feels a bit awkward and delivery isnt as confident or naturalistic as i’d like.

The cine is solid enough, but that horrendous edit really does burn any goodwill I could have had towards it.

As for the performances, well…having seen the other cut, I know Donald Pleasence really puts in a good turn here as Loomis…But you wouldnt know that from the theatrical cut, because they removed all his better moments. an intro credit for Paul Rudd here yeilds similar results which is a real shame.

Probably the most dissapointing aspect of this is the soundtrack, because this film is seemingly ashamed of using the ‘Halloween’ theme tune…preferring instead to embrace experimental screeching noise and alternative/grunge music. this is one of the few Myers led Halloween entries to not have the Halloween theme in the intro or credits…which is frankly just bizarre to me.

The theatrical cut, to me? is hideous. its an aggressive, noisey, badly edited, badly sequenced, poorly executed cut of a film that was struggling to begin with. quite possibly the worst outcome of a bad hand it was possible to get.

I’ll be sticking with the producers cut going forward, but I really would love to see a version of this that takes the strengths from both and slams them together, we may then finally get a cut of this thing that isnt frustrating.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/halloween-the-curse-of-michael-myers/1/

As the last dying gasps of 80s culture wheezed out of the mouth of 1990, the death rattle that was ‘Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue’ was the yellowish chunk of phlem that passed the lips of the decade that gave us ‘Cola Wars’.

A blatant act of Propaganda, its actually quite the curiosity to see this piece of ‘Just say no’ history in an age where, for a not insignificant chunk of the globe, Marijuana isnt just decriminalized, its celebrated. This 25(ish) minute short (bookended by ads for the ronald mcdonald childrens charity which almost CERTAINLY wouldnt be made today) isnt here for nuance or discussion…it’s here to say ‘Weed bad, Crack bad. Dont do it.’ and thats it.

Essentially its a play on ‘A Christmas Carol’ with a teen called Michael getting into weed as a preteen and slowly being led towards crack by his pressuring peers. His Sister finds his stash box and then…for some reason…a load of cartoons come to life and try to convince Michael to give up his wayward life of smoking a joint every few days (OH MY GOD) while Whinnie the Pooh tries to convince Michaels sister Cory to rat Michael out to his parents. Its…a jarring watch to say the least.

The scripts honestly kind of bland…once you get past the VERY surreal moments this special has, such as Bugs bunny talking about joints, Whinnie the Pooh knowing what drugs are…and possibly the most jarring thing IN this special…the fact that Michelangelo from the teenage mutant ninja turtles and Daffy Duck are both staunch ANTI drugs…when in ANY other reality they would be stoned off their arses. This things actually just kind of dull.

It uses the ‘Christmas Carol’ framework of showing Michael his past, present and future to try and scare him straight…but it doesnt quite work, because…the idea with the ‘Christmas Carol’ setup is that its supposed to show the ‘scrooge’ of the piece that his life was good before the change, not great in the present and dire in the future…but here? the past and the present arnt really distinct enough to stand apart…and the future goes WAY to the extreme having him injecting heorin into his eye sockets and looking for a visible vein that doesnt have track marks.

This isnt to downplay the terrible problems with addiction, But I feel the propaganda of ‘Just dont start’ probably did more harm than good in society. Because it created a layer of mystery, particularly around weed which…once kids of this generation actually DID smoke it, and found out it DIDNT turn them into snake headed drug dealers or zombies. Made them question what else the government and these charities had been lying to them about, potentially causing them to ACTUALLY get onto hard drugs because they were lied to about how bad weed was.

This special tries to use scare tactics, when in reality a more frank conversation about what it is, its usage and how, like smoking, it can be a bad habit that doesnt really do you any favours…rather than ‘IT’LL KILL YOU IF YOU TAKE A PUFF!!!’ (which is what they went for) probably would have deflated the whole thing a bit more.

Outside of that framework…there just isnt a whole lot going on, the cartoon characters all feel a bit out of place and weird, almost like they’re ‘off brand’ bootlegs of the characters we know and love. They all get to do a couple of signature tropes, but non of it is funny or interesting. I think its probably down to the fact that its a crowded cast, and they had to reduce all these characters down to their base elements just to be able to squeeze them all in and make them look/sound vaguely authentic…it doesnt work. half the characters vanish for most of the runtime after the 5 minute mark (where on EARTH do the smurfs go?!)

The dialogues stiff, you can tell when the character script writers left the room, and the charity ‘just say no’ script writers stepped in.

Its biggest flaw? misunderstanding its audience. It spends most of the runtime split between talking to teenage Michael about how drugs are ‘whack’ and will turn him into a zombie man, but we also spend a significant portion of time with Cory getting a more surface level introduction to drugs as a concept…the problem is, Michaels a teen, Cory is supposed to be 8-10 years old, and 90% of the cartoons in this special were from shows aimed at 4-8 year olds. It feels like they wanted to do a more YA special about the dangers of drug addiction AND a more kiddy friendly version thats more of an introduction to why drugs are bad…But you cant do both of those things in the same special successfully, because the YA stuff will ostracize the kids, and the younger kid stuff is common knowledge to your average ‘Beavis and Butthead’ watching 13 year old…

as such it tries to do both, doesnt really deliver anything meaningful for either side and then starts trying to shill you into donating to disabled childrens charities. Its trying to do too much in not enough time. had they JUST focussed on Michael, or just followed Cory watching Michael deteriorate from the outside, it could have been more meaningful…as it stands it achieves neither and feels very hollow.

The majority of my positive thoughts really come from the art direction and animation…Which isnt amazing, but is fairly solid and just about does the job. its colourful, creative and while it maybe cuts some corners on the animation itself to save some money. There were WAY worse attempts in the 80s…Oh and the soundtrack, while fitting, is about 7 years too late to be cool or relevant…its cringey.

All in all? I went into ‘Cartoon Allstars’ hoping for a crazy and surreal time watching some much beloved childrens icons taking on a subject that REALLY is above their paygrade…and…while that IS what happens…its not nearly as entertaining as you’d expect. its a lazily put together extended PSA that felt like an old drugs PSA from the early 80s that they’d just decided to slap some cartoon characters onto…I came away somewhat dissapointed and really kind of hoping there had been more to it.

Also; seriously, you’re telling me Daffy doesnt smoke? get outta here.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/cartoon-all-stars-to-the-rescue/

The cinematic equivilent of being trapped in a rough hotel reception overnight. I am honestly struggling for words as to exactly what I sat down to tonight as part of a double feature with some friends. Im only vaguely familiar with the works of Scott Shaw, and this really was an unfamilliar ‘dipping of the toe’ into his works…Honestly; I dont really feel like I understand his methodology any better for having seen this.

The broad BROAD plot follows a being who is sent to earth by an alien race to take out a great evil known as a ‘Chupacabra’. In the opening moments of the film, he’s warned that he’ll face ‘Angels and demons’ who will both try to aid, and halt his mission. And that it’ll be down to him to decide which are truthful, and which are there to decieve.

That however is a 15 minute plot stretched VERY thinly over an 80-90 minute long film that predominantly consists of people running around semi and FULLY nude in the desert firing guns, people chasing each other in small towns and subway networks and lots and LOTS of border incoherent monologues both in the back of cars and in the desert too.

Both Shaw and director Donald G. Jackson subscribe to an art known as ‘Zen Film making’ basically they’ll maybe start with a VERY basic idea, and then they’ll just film and film and film anything and everything that comes to mind until they feel they’re ‘done’…No matter how incoherent the end product.

And thats basically the best way to sum up this film. It doesnt feel like there was much in the way of planning or a script present here. Instead, its more a series of ‘happenings’ that are largely all unrelated VERY rarely cutting back to that 10-15 minute plot I mentioned earlier. By the 3rd act, the whole things gone meta and we’re watching the film makers filming and making the opening half hour of the movie.

Chracters have almost no backstory, no depth, no reason even BE in the movie, but they waddle on, say there adlibbed lines and then things move on to something else with almost ZERO physical presence.

The tone is inconsistent, its clear this was supposed to be light hearted for the most part, but there are long stints of semi serious dryness that means your never entirely sure as to what the intentions of the film are.

Theres no planned pacing present here, nothing resembling an act structure, and no indication of a beginning, middle OR end. the film starts in the middle of a scene, and ends in the middle of a piece to camera.

The dialogues messy, full of flubs and border incoherent (because theres no planned plot and the cast members come and go depending on how available they were to shoot the damn thing) you find yourself in situations where stuffs mentioned in detail, and then abandoned never to be spoken of again.

The directions basically non existent. they set the camera up for a mid wide in almost every scene, do an adlibbed take, and then shoot B-roll (if they remember to) for bits they enjoyed. there are little to no retakes, if an actor messes up the delivery…tough. and because of the crews reliance on ‘Zen film making’ to produce the goods, your constantly in the ‘vibe’ that no communication was being made between the cast and crew.

The cine is a mess, apart from the HORRENDOUS framing issues which render about 75% of the film an unfocussed, non traditional slurry. someone forgot to do the colour balancing on set for a significant chunk of the footage. Meaning to compensate they’ve cranked up the saturations levels making everyone look an ill shade of ‘Gammon’ pink and the desert positively satsuma orange. its sickly, motion sickness inducing and really lacks any kind of personal touch.

The edit feels poorly constructed, badly planned and almost like it was cut together simply by grabbing what footage ‘felt right’ between beers 5 and 6. theres not rhythm, no structure to the squences. theres random ‘flash’ breaks which were distracting and cuts are 99% of the time too early or too late. Equally, whereas most edits help refine the footage into a decently paced end product. here, it feels like every single scrap was used without ANY kind of pushback. resulting in a film that felt like it ended 20 minutes off its ACTUAL end point, but somehow had just kept on going.

The performances are stilted, stale and uninteresting, theres a few campy moments here and there, but theres almost no physicality in the performances with most of the cast just kind of standing about, a bit confused, delivering whatever their heads conjur up…usually nude.

and the score consists of 3 songs that are played on a near continuous loop that made me long for the sweet release of death at the 30 minute mark…letalone the 70 minute mark.

DESPITE its flaws, ‘Guns of El Chupacabra’ has an oddly compelling vibe to it. Not a GOOD vibe by any stretch. but there are moments pitted throughout this that I feel, in the right mindset, with a beer and some friends could be actually quite a fun time. I could (in theory) see myself watching this one again sometime. But definitely not solo and DEFINITELY not without abusing some substances before hand.

Not for the feint at heart. this was a bit of a challenging watch even for myself (and I’ve seen some rubbish in my time) I think if you go in KNOWING this thing is gonna drag from around the half way point till the end, you’ll probably have an okay time. But GOD help you if your approaching this thing blind.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/guns-of-el-chupacabra/

Totally barmy in EVERY sense of the word. ‘G.B.H’ (as described by the people I watched it with tonight) feels like ‘Roadhouse’ meets ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells’ though, this predates both of them.

A quirky picture following the misadventures of a recently released from prison ‘fixer’ who’s put in charge of running security at a string of Mancunian pubs and clubs. The film works more as a series of ‘Scenarios’ stitched together rather than a coherent work. But I feel this works SO much better in the films favour than a traditional narrative. we basically just see our lead character engage with thugs and mobsters from rival factions, give them a good kicking, and this is intercut with him seducing anything with a pulse that walks through the doors, and in a particularly notorious scene, he appears to have sex with a stuffed teddy bear…I have no idea why that happens.

The script is SUPER lightweight, clocks in at approx 73 minutes, the tone is supposed to be heavy and gritty, but comes off as ramshackled and campy. the pacing is non existent, this is ADHD addled cinema at its finest, and as an ADHD riddled individual I was utterly won over by its total lack of coherency or an attempt at a vision.

The characters are all cockney gangster stereotypes, the ending is bizarre, the film continuously jumps all over the place trying to find a thread which it never really manages. the opening act is pretty coherent in setting up the base scneario. but it gets SO lost in the 2nd act as to what its actually trying to say or do. That when it bizarrely finally PICKS a lane in the last 10 minutes…I had all but given up on trying to follow the thing, and was purely costing on its enjoyable ‘Vibes’ for lack of a better descriptive.

The dialogue was clearly written to sound ‘Hard’ but is delivered softer than pudding. resulting in some WONDERFUL deliveries that made me laugh multiple times.

The directions poor due to the lack of coherency on the script, I believe this is quite possibly the 2nd dullest car chase i’ve ever seen ina movie. the cine is incoherent with shots barely composed, beige colour palettes and no real tolerance for ‘The Line’ or cinematic planning.

The edit is ROUGH, with cuts happening 2 seconds to early across the entire runtime and an epileptic level of cuts happening during the fight sequences making it almost impossible to figure out whats actually going on. they also use Slow motion capture…but not on the scenes slow motions really inteded for…its a weirdly put together movie, I could fully believe the editor was paid in watered down whisky.

The performances range from genuinely fun and menacing villains to people who clearly have never acted or read a script in their lives. and the soundtrack sounds like stock music throughout…presumably because Director and producer Cliff Tremlow was a music library scorer as his full time job.

Despite its total TOTAL incoherency. I really quite enjoyed ‘GBH’, its ramshackled ‘Thrown together’ nature makes it perfect ‘Booze and friends’ viewing fodder and its unintentionally hilarious assembly had me grinning multiple times throughout. im really looking forward to Severins upcoming release of this, and it’ll very likely be a day one pre-order! be sure to check this one out when it gets released!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/gbh/

One of those movies that im surprised MST3K didnt get around to riffing (though ‘Cinematic Titanic’ certainly didnt waste the opportunity!) ‘The Doomsday Machine’ is a SLOG. and a fairly unpleasent and mean spirited one at that.

The plot? Its the not to distant future (I believe the far off year of 2010) and China has invented a doomsday weapon thats capable of destroying earth. In the opening of the film we see a covert agent sneaking into a compound to photograph the weapon inside a cage that ‘Only Chairman Mao has the key to’. Oh…this film gets a bit racist in places too…so…BUCKLE UP FOR THAT!.

Photos of the weapon arrive back on US soil just in time for a united global mission to Venus. men and women from all around the world have been selected as the first people to colonize the planet, with a not insignificant portion of the film dedicated to them getting ready to go into space.

Once the launch itself happens, things almost immediately start going wrong, first and foremost being that some of the men are irresistably horny and IMMEDIATELY try to bang the women on the mission…whether they consent or not (and again, this film gets VERY SA in places…so again…BUCKLE UP!)

This is then shortly followed by a break in transmission where its revealed that the Chinese are either about to, or already have detonanted the ‘Doomsday Machine’ which is then followed by COMPLETE confirmation when the planet becomes a magma filled slag heap after a chain nuclear reactor failure. Leaving the astronauts trapped on board.

Its at this point that the ‘TRUE’ plan of the mission is properly revealed (and this is the halfway point of the movie…) It turns out that the US government KNEW china had a doomsday weapon, and were likely to use it, so they sent the astronauts up to basically make their way to Venus and ‘Adam and Eve’ it up to repopulate the planet.

Unfortunately they didnt count on TWO things, ONE being that some of the women aboard didnt sign UP to become birthing units for a new population of people. and TWO being that the radiation from the seismic blast was SO strong its catching up with the spaceship and will ultimately leave all the men sterile unless they can propel away from it. Some of the crew handle this fairly well and begin working on a solution…Others decide to use the situation to ramp up their SA efforts…Its all downhill from there really.

This thing was a total slog, I caught it as part of ‘Elviras Movie Macarbre’ which is probably the absolute best way to watch this one, purely for the fact that at least you get some fun enough host segments to take you away from the dull misery.

The scripts SO long and boring, scenes drag on and on and on WELL past the point that the audience understands whats happening and quickly into the realms of clockwatching. the pacings equal to a heavily laiden tortoise, the tone swings from ‘Buck Rogers’ esq 50s scifi schlock to some pretty unpleasent moments of racism, mysoginy and abuse. it doesnt really have a coherent story to tell and quite regularly threads are spun and then abandoned across the runtime. The entire opening sequence for example is just to establish there IS a doomsday machine…when your films called ‘The Doomsday Machine’…non of the characters or plot elements from that opening sequence make it past the 10 minute mark.

The characters are all super generic and unlikable, the dialogues really basic, tells EVERYTHING while also showing it. non of it is interesting or engaging to the audience, its 70-80 minutes of technobabble. and very little else.

The direction is incredibly poor, making most 50s poverty row features look expensive. its basically 2 sets, frequently redressed, shot wide and mid wide with a one or two (at most) camera setup. other than some VERY lacklustre wirework, this things got nothing to bring to the table. When I Can say confidently that films 20-30 years this films senior outshine it in terms of effects and camera work, from film makers with NO experience…well I hope that imparts just how poor this viewing experience really is.

The cine has a couple of flickers of moments here and there, theres some interesting colour and lighting work dribbed and drabbed across the runtime, but its all a bit thrown together, composition is static and repetative. the sequences rely heavily on stock footage for big chunks fo the runtime and feel quite slack in terms of how they’re cut together. its a messy work honestly.

The performances are HILARIOUSLY wooden in places, but ultimately dont provide enough comic relief to help this production pull through. everyones stuck on one mode of delivery, which is fairly dry and stilted for 90% of the runtime…But they DO all get at least one moment to do ‘frantic over the top’ acting…which garners mixed results. Theres not enough here from the cast to really truely win me over…their physicality on set is frankly dreadful, they bearly animate in that regard…its a mess.

And the score is so forgettable, I honestly forgot it. I literally have no notes…its that bland.

Had this not been hosted by Elvira, i’d have really struggled to make it to the end of this one. its dry, dull, and honestly a bit offensive in the year of our lord 2024. If your gonna catch it, watch the ‘Cinematic Titanic’ version of the ‘Movie Macarbre’ one…But maybe bring a pillow and a blanket, because this thing WILL knock you clean out in 30 minutes or less.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/doomsday-machine/

Its got to be coming up to 15 years since I first sat down and ‘Tail to snout’ watched ‘Manos: the Hands of Fate’ a film quite unlike anything that had come before it, and a film thats infamy proceeds it in almost any and all film discussions.

Yes, ‘Manos’ is widely considered a stinker, a much beloved movie (thanks to the MST3K/Mads/Rifftrax crowd) but a stinker non the less. But, and I dont want to be controversial here, I dont really think its THAT bad…or rather, people who cite it as one of the worst films ever made, I feel are rather overexaggerating it.

I absolutely wont defend this thing as a ‘good’ work, or even really a ‘fun’ work…but as something rather unique and exotic in terms of testing the limits of ‘the rules of cinema’ I find this picture really quite watchable.

The plot? follows a young(ish) family as they head out on a vacation, however they experience car troubles along the way and end up at a rundown house where they’re greeted by a dishevelled and goat-like caretaker by the name of ‘Torgo’ who is VERY reluctant to help or get involved with the family, warning them to leave as soon as possible as ‘The Master would not approve’ before somehow being swept up into letting them stay the night and head out in the morning.

During the night the tone and vibe shifts quite drastically as Torgo corners Margaret (the mother of the family) insisting that the master wishes for her to become his new wife…and what follows is a further 30 minutes of not quite horror, not quite satire, not quite psychological piece, as the family consult the master and his otherworldly realm that houses his many MANY wives…

And you know your in for an interesting time when its easier to describe what the film ISNT than what it actually IS.

The script has a VERY basic plot line underpinned in 3 acts thats pretty clean to follow…How it manouvers through those 3 acts however to GET that basic plot across feels like ‘Concussion cinema’ to me. Scenes just run on and on and the conversations feel like the kind had when your trapped in a motel suite with people you dont really know or like that much 6 pints of beer in. It feels awkward, like the cast are trying to socially navigate the scenario, but not in a naturalistic way that you could reasonably EXPECT a few strangers trying to read the room to feel like. This is awkwardness explicitly BECAUSE whats written in the script only really made sense in the mind of the writer, and he didnt really bother to direct the cast on set all that much.

The pacing and tone are all over the place, it has moments of very dry dated comedy, it gets VERY bleak in places quite quickly, but when thats married up to the BEYOND strange dialogue and the woozy and unsettling pacing, it ends up at times feeling more like a work of AI than something an ACTUAL person paid money to make.

Its a nippy 73 minutes of a movie, but that puts it in the awkward situation where, im not entirely sure whether this thing should have been 10 minutes longer and REALLY, TRUELY given us the detail needed to make the plot a bit more clear and layered (rather than what they’ve ended up doing, which is just throwing everything they’ve got at the screen.) Or whether they should have cut the thing by 20 minutes and TRUELY made it a surrealist art house piece where the basic plot was really all there needed to be.

I also cant quite figure out whether the characters not really having any depth works in the films favour or not either…on the one hand that lack of depth keeps things a little more mysterious and ‘otherworldly’ we never really truely know what ‘The Master’ and ‘Torgos’ FULL mission was here…nor do we really get to know the rest of the cast in any menaingful sense barring the scenes they occupy. Which I think does help give the film a bit more appeal.

But then on the other side, that lack of character depth makes everything feel really shallow and strange. made even STRANGER by the BIZARRE decision to dub all the casts voices over in post because the ‘on set’ audio was unsatisfactory…but to redub ALL the womens performances with a single voice actress who doesnt even TRY to differentiate voices…It really doesnt do the film any favours…

On the direction front, everything is gently out of focus, the colour schemes are either overly vibrant and heavily lit (due to the exposure rating on the cameras being very VERY dark) or pitch black. shot setups had to be ‘guessed’ at because the cameras used only had VERY rudamentary viewfinders. its clear there was some creative vision behind how this film should have looked and behaved. But given this was the directors first feature film outing, and that he did it really just because he ‘could’ rather than having any kind of burning drive to make something specific. Its unsurprsing that sequences here are undisciplined, experimental and often badly framed.

When Harold P. Warren had a shot in mind, he CLEARLY had a vision in hand…but if he didnt, well…the assumption based on the extras is that the DOP was just given free reign to ‘fill in the gaps’ on the script.

It also became apparent from the extra features on the ‘Manos’ bluray that the cast were chronically left in the dark in terms of how to perform. Harold didnt direct them or give them any advice. I assume either because he didnt know he had to, or if he did, he decided to leave it up to the cast to communicate their interpretation…this simultaineouly worked in the films favour AND backfired spectacularly…as I feel, had their been a more seasoned director at the healm, we’d have never got to see ‘Torgo’ as a character in all his strange and unusual glory, and the awkward stiltedness that has really helped cement the films infamy probably would have been a smoother experience. So I guess shoddy direction actually kind of saved this one.

As mentioned the cine is hit and miss, when it hits (I.E a cleanly composed shot thats massively overlit and full of rich vibrant colour) I absolutely fall in love with it, it feels like an absurdist piece in those moments…when it ISNT that (which is the majority of the film) its blurry, smeary and beige up to the elbows. Your milage almost certainly may vary. But I think if you have a keen eye for visuals, there are at least half a dozen shots in this thing that may effect you in a profound way.

In terms of the editing?..Well, again we go to the special features of the ‘Manos’ bluray, where they described the editing process as ‘Three drunk guys hashing it out over a weekend’…THAT, is EXACTLY how it feels to watch, cuts are inconsistent, badly timed, they use way too many fade ups and downs to and from black when it isnt needed, splices are badly made, there is noticable print damage that was dubbed into the master copies of the film during the edit process…its a mess, effective in places when combined with everything i’ve said above…but a mess.

Performance wise, the core cast had little to no guidence, The actor playing Torgo was on drugs for most of the shooting period and comitted suicide a couple of weeks before the premiere. Its a real mixed bag. Probably the best performances in this are Tom Neyman as ‘The Master’ bringing a genuinely commanding performance to the role, he really had an animated presence here, and while I do think he didnt *quite* nail enough menace for ‘adult horror’ here? I think he’d have been an amazing kids tv and film villain.

John Reynolds as Torgo is as iconic a performance as the riffer would have you believe, he was a method actor, which meant ACTUALLY huritng himself with prosthetics in his knees and shoes to help him hobble for most of the runtime. while he may not give the best performance of the film, he’s almost certainly the most memorable with some amazing physical turns here, and dialogue deliveries that range from unsettling to hilarious.

The rest of the cast…im gonna be honest, are a little dull. They all have their own moments to shine…but when you’ve got performances from ‘Torgo’ and ‘The Master’ to compete with, it’ll always seem a little less thrilling.

Score wise? its weird. a hybrid of chilling piano pieces, and music that sounds like it belongs in a nudist camp movie. some of this suits the film, some of it REALLY doesnt…but I cant really imagine the film without it.

‘Manos: The Hands of Fate’ is not a good film. it struggles on a technical level, the lack of coherent direction is palpable, the perforamances beyond notable exception leave a lot to be desired and the score is unusual. But it does have some upsides, with a script that is really truely ‘unique’ for the time, some BIZARRE and mesmorising performances, choice cine and directional turns when everything lined up properly, and ultimately we did get arguably one of the best ‘MST3K’ episodes out of the deal as well…

I can absolutely understand why folks love AND loath ‘Manos’ for me? I think I may stick to a ‘riffed’ version in future…but seeing it unriffed from time to time DOES make me appreciate the few times it actually does go above expectations. i’d say this was worth catching at least once.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/manos-the-hands-of-fate/1/

I first caught ‘Dead Heat’ a couple of years ago as part of a double feature on ‘The Last Drive in with Joe Bob Briggs’ and I honestly cant think of a better example of a film that has good ideas driven into the ground by bad decisions. This one comes courtesy of ‘New World’ pictures, Roger Cormans production company, and you can pretty quickly tell that this has ‘New Worlds’ typical ‘fantastic soundtrack and character pieces held together with masking tape and a prayer’ aesthetic.

The plot follows two detective pals Roger Mortis (GETTIT?!?) and Doug Bigelow as they do their usual patrols of the city. After a strange encounter with two jewel theives that take an entire swat teams worth of bullets and are only stopped by LITERALLY being blown up. The pair discover that there was more to these crooks than meets the eye…namely that they’d already been checked into the morgue a few months prior. Some invetigations reveal that a shady scientific company appears to be stocking unusual supplies that have been shown to have restorative bodily properties. and, on inspecting the facility, they find something a bit odd.

A backroom containing a giant table and electronic equipment…and a stitched together biker who goes full on Beserker at the pair. during the scuffle Roger ends up dying in a pressure chamber, but Doug and one of the scientists at the facility get him tot he backroom and with some ‘weird science’ wondery, Roger is brought back to life. He feels great…but somethings off…it turns out, he’s rotting…unable to die! but rotting…with the local pathologist giving him only hours to live before he begins to decompose to a point that he’d be umable to hold his own frame.

And so, a race begins with Doug, Roger and others to find out WHO is running the ‘death ressurection’ racket and hopefully put an end to it before things get too far out of hand.

For starters, the script is a lighthearted and fun little idea, it moves at a reasonable clip at an hour and 20, they pace out the action across the 3 acts pretty well, and the three acts themselves are reasonable well paced out starting strong, maintaining a good momentum and finishing a *little* bit abruptly for my taste…but probably about as well as these things could have honestly.

The characters, for the most part are likable, but herein lies the first issue…while most of them are nicely charismatic and really fit the bill of the roles they’re playing. The character of Doug and more specifically the performance of Joe Piscapoe absolutely poured cold water on this thing. Doug as a character is a quip machine. He doesnt really do all that much plot wise, he doesnt have any real solid character development moments. He seems to literally exist in this film to turn EVERY. SINGLE. SITUATION…into a bad joke-fest. and its frankly insufferable.

Had they opened with him being that way, then maybe explored his character a bit more to reveal maybe some kind of background that means he uses humour to cover, and ended the film with him reigning in on it. I’d have probably gotten on better with the character. but after the first 10 minutes of the character not taking ANY situation presented to him seriously, I started to feel a nagging head pain, that only got worse and worse as the film wore on.

Honestly? this could have just been Roger, Randi (The scientist who helps the pair uncover the truth on whats going on) and ‘Smithers (the pathologist in the lab who first reveals the unusual circumstances) and it probably would have been a much stronger work for it. Unfortunately we end up with a bit of a crowded house, which didnt exactly do the film any favours.

The dialogue (bad jokes aside) is for the most part fine enough, nothing TOO out there or interesting, but the film has some interesting moments for decent one liners and I think they nailed the chartcter dynamics for the most part.

The tone of this thing is another minor issue…It cant seem to decide if it wants to be an all out action film with supernatural elements. or an action comedy, or an action horror/thriller…or some kind of macarbre dark comedy…so it just sort of…tries everything. Which makes it quite hard to get a decent read on the intention of the writer director…and can cause some moments of the film to feel a bit ‘bad taste’ or jarring compared to the general tone of the production.

Direction and cine in and of itself is actually pretty above standard, Its a studio picture so I expected the bare minimum to be met. But theres actually some really solid creative visions realised here and some really quite solid scene building. A particularly noteworth sequence being set in a chinese deli featuring special effects and puppeteering that, the first time I saw this, had my jaw on the floor.

Shots are well composed, Colour use is kind of drab here, which is a real shame as I think a splash of colour really could have helped elevate this one a bit more. sequence building can be a bit messy in places, I think they were tight on the amount of film they could shoot on. So there are moments where I feel a bit more B-roll maybe could have helped this one out a bit more. On the whole though, its a kind of inoffensive work. Nothing too ‘genre’ defining. but it gets the job done pretty well.

Performance wise, We stumble again. While our core cast of Treat Williams and Lindsay Frost are a deligthful pairing bringing real charm, charisma and energy to proceedings. I had a real bad time with Joe Piscapoe…I appreciate he was probably directed to be this obnoxious…but he REALLY gets to a point in this where I couldnt really roll my eyes any harder. he’s loud, awkward and a bit fumbly on physicality…I wasnt a fan.

Mercifully, the film does win things back with an unexpected (but welcome) Vincent Price cameo, and he’s as wonderful as ever, ultimately pulling the film back from becoming a bit bland. Darren McGavin ALSO delights as Dr. Earnest, giving ‘Mayor from Jaws’ vibes throughout ALSO helping to keep this thing on an even keel.

The soundtracks killer, Honestly? ‘Dead Heat’ is a fine enough film, it wont win any awards. But if you like New World pictures like ‘Night of the comet’ or ‘The Stuff’ you’ll probably dig this. it has sparks of a good idea, it just…doesnt quite fully realise them.

Someone on my discord server called this film ‘Miami Vice, but with zombies’ and I think they may be onto something…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dead-heat/1/