Shorts for Sickos! - Volume 1

Today, on To Obscurity and Beyond, I'm going to be trying something different. As many of my readers know, the vast majority of what I review are short films. As much as I love films of all lengths, I find that short films are usually the most fun to review. However, a lot of the shorts I want to talk about are usually too short for me to review on their own. Granted, I have individually covered films in the past that are under 10-20 minutes, but these usually don't make for great reviews because often times, there is simply not enough content to digest. To compensate, and for the sake of variety, dear reader, I introduce you to.. Shorts for Sickos! The concept of Shorts for Sickos is extremely simple. In each volume, I will review four different short films, usually of the extreme or weird variety, that are under 10-20 minutes and thus wouldn't make for the best stand-alone reviews. So buckle up and prepare yourself, as volume one is going to be a very, very gory one.

Das Blutville Massaker (2021) - Canada / directed by Ben Gaudet

On the box, Das Blutville Massaker is touted as a lost German splatter film made in 2001 by an unknown filmmaker named Markus Heidman. What is held within, however, is a short and sweet tribute to underground German ultra-gore by teenage Canadian filmmaker Ben Gaudet. The "plot," if you can call it that, takes place in the German town of Blutville, as a psychotic killer goes on a rampage after he watches one too many splatter movies. What ensues is an unapologetic, uncontrolled gorefest of epic proportions.

What Blutville lacks in plot it more than makes up for in its explosive, insanely over-the-top gore effects. There are only a couple of kills, but the ones we get are blood-soaked and are beautifully shot. If I had never heard of or seen Ben's other work before, I would have been fooled. The short is intentionally shot to be as amateurish as possible, and thus nails the amateur-film vibe perfectly. Shot on 8mm video and then purposely copied from tape to tape to degrade the video quality, Das Blutville Massaker also perfectly nails the atmosphere of a lost gore movie. The short is also very well-edited, and the director's influence is made even more obvious as the soundtrack is recycled from the original Violent Shit. While the short is nothing too special when compared to Ben's other work, the gore effects and editing alone are nothing short of impressive, and they truly show the young director's potential to branch out and become even better.

Backyard Mutilations (2020) - United States / directed by Gage Black

Similar to the last film, Backyard Mutilations is another short about a deranged lunatic who goes on a murder spree, inspired by his love of violent cinema. Except this time, the killer brutally maims, stabs, decapitates, mutilates and tears apart his victims in his backyard and in his house. Not only is Backyard Mutilations a literal backyard production, but it's also made by an uprising teenage filmmaker!

Fellow Texan Gage Black began making short films around 2019, with shot-on-video inspired gore shorts such as Violent Murder and Feeders Revenge, both of which remain unreleased to this day. As he kept making films, in association with Ben Gaudet, he began working harder to improve his special effects and his filmmaking skills with projects such as Vibro, Verrückt and Fahrenheit. The results are often very rough yet thoroughly entertaining splatterfests, with great variety in kills and ambitious special effects. Backyard Mutilations may not have much of a plot and is hardly different from something like Verrückt, but it stands as a fun showcase of Gage's experiments with gore effects. Some of the effects are pretty rough as you can tell the props are made of styrofoam and plastic, but there are some well done kills such as the screwdriver and the shovel ones. Even in the short films made since this one, Gage has been steadily improving his skills overall, using better cameras and more elaborate effects and editing. Similar to Ben, I respect Gage's efforts and am curious to see how he will develop his works in the near future.

The Long Island Goregrind Massacre (2021) - United States / directed by Gore Filth

Gore Filth is back with yet another horrific shot-on-video short! This time we venture to Long Island, New York, to a venue where multiple goregrind bands put on a fun show for the crowd. But, after each show, one member of each band gets picked off by an unseen killer with a variety of different weapons.

The best part of this 18-minute short is seeing the bands play. We get live performances of at least one song each from Hit Run Drivers, Charcuterie, Bowel Erosion, Whore Abortion and Splattered Entrails. Each show is energetic and manic, and its fun seeing the banter between the bands and the crowd. That's all well and good, but now for the worst part: the gore effects! I understand the point of the short is to be z-grade schlock, but the effects are just laughably bad. They're undoubtedly some of the worst gore effects I've seen in a long time. Every gore scene is shot in Gore Filth's backyard, with the build-up to each murder being shot at the actual venue, and the scenery change is painfully obvious as the backgrounds never match. But by far, the funniest kill is where the killer randomly gets hit by a car. They roll over the hood of the car and then we see a single piece of intestine hit the fence. This short is bad, it's really bad, but that's the point, and it did get a really good laugh out of me. However, I can't recommend this unless you like goregrind and the cheapest of effects.

Forest of Death (2021) - United States / directed by Damian Bishop

For our final short we'll take a look at Forest of Death, one of the latest offerings from Dungeon Entertainment. Dungeon is a film team, led by Damian Bishop, that mostly makes lo-fi shot-on-video horror-comedy shorts. I have seen a couple of their works in the past such as Valley of Carnage and Date Nite, both of which which I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend. They are very funny and entertaining shorts that are well-made in the spirit of campy shot-on-video cinema. On the other hand, Forest of Death is one of the more serious, more straightforward horror offerings from Dungeon. Being entirely shot, edited and produced by Damian himself, Forest follows a man in a yellow Hazmat suit and gas mask who wades through a sinister forest. The deeper he goes, the worse things get as he finds mutilated body parts and bloodied human bones. To his horror, it's not long until he finds himself being stalked and chased by green mutants in Hazmat suits, and he must fight for his life.

For a short made entirely by one guy, it's very well done and very effectively made. The special effects are the obvious standout, with some really good gore and some creepy masks and mutant makeup. But the short also knows how to build a hell of an atmosphere. The low and droning ambient music and the terrible video quality make the short very creepy and grimy, and the editing and pacing is perfect. It's definitely one of the best-made shorts I've covered in this review.

CONCLUSION:

While there may not have been much in today's reviews in terms of variety, I can not deny that these shorts, despite being rough around the edges overall, clearly had a lot of heart and passion put behind them. And yes, that goes for Long Island Goregrind Massacre as well. Just because these shorts may have rough effects or dodgy technical aspects, it doesn't mean that there wasn't any care or effort put into them. It's great to see how these filmmakers continue to branch out with each work and keep working to build their audience and to improve their craft.

I'm hoping the readers will enjoy this new format of reviewing short films. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below or to email me! In the meantime, for the next volume of Shorts for Sickos, we will be traveling over to Europe and taking a look at four shorts from four different countries. Trust me, it only gets weirder and more fucked up from here...

RELEASES:
-Das Blutville Massaker has yet to be released in any form. I was given access to the film thanks to Ben Gaudet himself (thanks dude!).

-Backyard Mutilations was included on an anthology called I Was a Teenage Gorehound, released on DVD by SOV Horror. This anthology also features Gore Collector by Ben Gaudet, The Cross by Stephen Bloodworth, and my own shot-on-video short The Tape of Karma, plus a ton of fun extras. If interested, you can order your copy here.

-The Long Island Goregrind Massacre was released on a very limited edition DVD by SOV Horror, and is currently out of print. However, it is possible that more copies will be reprinted soon.

-As far as I'm aware, Forest of Death has yet to be released on physical media, but it can be watched on the Dungeon Entertainment YouTube channel, along with their many other works. You can watch the short here.

Maggot Farmers (2021)

Maggot Farmers (2021) - Belgium
Directed by: Wesley Remory

ABOUT THE FILM:
Midsplatternight Pictures began back in 2003 as a local horror film festival in Belgium, and was the brainchild of one Wesley Remory. Wesley and others initially aimed to promote independent filmmakers and their work within Belgium, but many years later, Wesley and crew decided to try their hand at making a horror film of their own. But Wesley didn't want to make just any by-the-numbers horror film. In fact, he turned hellbent on making a love-letter to the weird and gory shot-on-video movies of the 80's, as well as paying tribute to the late, great Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci. And ultimately, Wesley decided to do so with a project called Maggot Farmers. The story of Maggot Farmers is very simple, but is also very effectively told across its runtime. There is an old woman in a cloak performing a sinister ritual as she casts spells and then buries five voodoo dolls into a pot of soil and then cuts her hand, spilling her blood into the soil. Meanwhile, a group of men are kidnapping and butchering women for their meals, and using their organs to feed the maggots. But little do they know that the dead are being resurrected and that the men are merely fodder for these undead beasts...

The original Maggot Farmers poster.

THE HISTORY OF MAGGOT FARMERS:

The original version of Maggot Farmers was written and began to materialize as early as 2009, with Wesley writing the script and setting up effects, but as it turns out, the production and culmination of Maggot Farmers as a whole was cursed from the very beginning. With the cast and crew's availability constantly changing, on top of bad weather, very little filmmaking experience and very little footage, the production of the original Maggot Farmers was cancelled in 2011. But Midsplatternight's foray into film didn't end there. Over the next decade, they stirred up a considerable buzz in the underground horror scene with atmospheric short works such as Prognosticum, Verbintenis, and their second most-recent work, the infamous Walging. Despite the success that the shorts of Midsplatternight Pictures saw, Wesley could not forget about Maggot Farmers. It just kept haunting him; he had to tell this story, he had to realize his true visions.

In 2019, Maggot Farmers was re-written, and with more experience under their belt, the Midsplatternight crew went back into production on the film. But just like its original incarnation, this production was plagued from the very beginning. Aside from audio recordings being lost or ruined, issues with crew vehicles, shooting delays and special effects malfunctioning, the biggest curse of the production was the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Because of the scare, once more, the production of Maggot Farmers was delayed indefinitely. But, through patience, stubbornness and perseverance, Wesley and crew pulled through and finished Maggot Farmers in late 2021, and now this twisted vision of ritualistic, undead mayhem can be unleashed onto the populace. But can they swallow it?

REVIEW:

Maggot Farmers wears its influence on its sleeve but it also stands head and shoulders above other homages to old-school horror. Whereas many different homages and tributes to 80's horror often fail to recapture what made old horror so special by overusing genre tropes, Maggot Farmers is much more reserved and well-structured. The story, while simple and very short, is told well and with very little dialogue. There's maybe two scenes in the entire short that have any dialogue, and it boils down to simple exchanges. But Maggot Farmers doesn't need much dialogue to tell its story, and the filmmakers prove this by working wonders with visual storytelling. The camera work and the lighting both play a huge role in setting the tone for the film. The entire time, the camera work is extremely smooth and fluid, and is only ever jerky to accentuate shifts in tone. For example, when a character is being approached by a zombie, we suddenly switch to a shaky POV to demonstrate a shift in tone. The lighting isn't overly dull or overly colorful. There's heavy use of soft yellow and orange tints, and when the zombies are onscreen, they are aided by soft blue glows that effectively build an uneasy atmosphere. The ambient droning music only further lulls in the viewer, as well as a few 80's horror-inspired synth tunes that are well composed. Additionally, the film is aided with sound design that will both chill the viewer, and disgust the viewer during the grisly scenes of cannibalism and dismemberment.

The actors do a pretty good job, considering the rather simple characters they have to work with. There's an especially impressive effects sequence where a character is lit on fire and writhes around in agony, à la Olaf Ittenbach's The Burning Moon. My hat goes off to the person brave enough to actually let themselves be set ablaze, especially on a production with such a low budget. But despite the low budget, the film is well made overall, including its special effects. While not a total gorefest, Maggot Farmers has some especially impressive gore and zombie makeup. The zombies look creepy as hell and are truly reminiscent of Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2. All things considered, the only complaints I have are minor sound mix issues that are only noticeable if the viewer is wearing headphones. But those are so trivial they may as well not be mentioned at all. Overall, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect going into Maggot Farmers, considering I've never seen anything from Midsplatternight Pictures before. I do, however, remember when Walging was first released and it was receiving a lot of praise from indie horror fans. I was intrigued, but at the time I was a broke 17 year-old kid with no money, and alas, I never had a chance to see anything from this studio. But now that I've seen Maggot Farmers, I'm curious to see what else they have, because this was a very well done short! At the time of writing this review, Maggot Farmers has not been released physically or digitally, but I suggest jumping at it once it's released. This is an 80's horror throwback worth watching and revisiting.

On a side note, one thing I love is that during the end credits, we also get to see what survives of the original 2011 Maggot Farmers, along with its respective credits. It's interesting to see how the film has evolved over the decade it took to complete, and it's even better to see that despite all of the hardships, Wesley Remory never gave up on his vision. Why should anyone else give up on theirs?

RELEASES:
-Maggot Farmers will be seeing a DVD release in the near future, either at the end of 2021 or in early 2022, and is purported to have all of Midsplatternight Pictures' previous short films as bonus features. To keep updated, I'd recommend checking out their Facebook page here.

Zombie Toxin (1996)

Zombie Toxin (1996) - United Kingdom
Directed by: Tom J. Moose

THE MAKING OF A BRITISH TRASHTERPIECE:

Tom Moose, Adrian Ottiwell and Robert Taylor began making films together in 1989 when they all met in their teenage years in school. They made a few amateurish comedies and short films together, some about chickens and superheroes. But it wasn't until 1992, when Tom was brewing his own homemade white wine, that he came up with an idea for a feature-length film; a film we would come to know as Zombie Toxin, but it was originally named Homebrew. Tom pitched his idea to Robert and Adrian, and they wrote a rather complex story. What started off as a simple yet absurd comedy would later devolve into a convoluted tale about Nazis, zombies with diarrhea, horse slaughter and killer, sentient wine bottles. Tom and crew never intended to make a "sick" film so they employed as much humor as possible when making the movie to keep it from being too dark.

A script was never written for Homebrew. The filmmakers would literally make up the dialogue and scenes as they went along, but this made for very confusing and tedious shoots. On top of the movie's ultra low budget, there were a few special effects and pyrotechnics involved that made for dangerous times on set, which resulted in a lot of the effects having to be done with computers. Homebrew began shooting in 1993 and wrapped up in 1996, and it was around this time that Tom and crew were really spreading the word about their movie. Tom wrote in to multiple zine publishers looking for help finishing the movie. 

Steve Lawson, a filmmaker and the author of the underground movie zine A Bag of Sand wrote a few articles about Homebrew in different issues and not only promoted the film, but also chipped in on production. Tom gave Steve ideas of what the film was like and Steve ended up making all of the music up without seeing any of the movie. Steve used an Amiga computer and a program called Pro-Tracker to score the film, and then sent the score to Tom via a computer disk for mixing. The film was shot entirely on SVHS and was edited together using video mixers and computer graphics, with the titles and effects being done at a video company where Tom worked at the time. After years of hard work and stress, Homebrew was finally completed later in 1996 and was lucky to get international distribution and a reputation as one of the most ambitious and sick amateur movies to ever emerge from the underground.

Now that's all well and good, but I've rambled plenty about the behind-the-scenes details. What is the movie about? Well it's very hard to say exactly, but I'll give you my best plot description possible. Two Satanists (who look more like KKK members) that run a torture and shoe-repair business employ one Mr. Nasty to slaughter a horse for a ritual they're planning. When the procedure gets too bloody and messy, Mr. Nasty is infected by the horse's innards, which spread a deadly toxin that will turn anyone into a flesh-hungry zombie. Mr. Nasty's goofy, unlucky assistant Benny dumps the horse's innards into the river. But things get worse when a farmer drinks from the river and turns into a zombie with chronic diarrhea. His diarrhea infects his yeast crops, which two Nazis harvest to make homemade wine in an attempt to take over the world. But the plan backfires, and the wine bottles come to life and start attacking everyone. Who will stop the reign of the evil wine bottles?

REVIEW:
So... yeah. Homebrew is a shot-on-video splatter comedy from Britain. It is also one of the most batshit insane movies I've ever seen, even to this day. This movie is pure non-stop madness, but it's one of the most hilarious indie movies I've ever seen. It's the greatest thing Troma never released! The plot is by far the most ridiculous and convoluted thing about the movie, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love how stupid it is. The story is so nonsensical and we are constantly introduced to characters who get hastily killed off or only exist to be running jokes. Every character's motivations are paper-thin and lack explanation, which would normally kill any other film. But in a comedy like Homebrew, you're so engulfed by its insanity that you're too entertained to care! 

The acting ranges from laughably bad to over-the-top and hammy like bacon. Every actor seems like they're using everything in their power to not burst out laughing, which makes things even better. I can't blame them when half of them are running around in ridiculous costumes, gaudy wigs and fake mustaches while singing corny songs (yes, there are songs) and spouting great one-liners about shitting their own innards out.

Speaking of shit, there's a lot of it in this movie. There are multiple scenes where we get graphic closeups of (obviously fake) shit spewing from zombie's asses, as well as a lot of green, glowing chunky vomit. Without meaning to spoil, one of the best and nastiest scenes in the movie involves two zombies, a lot of shit, vomit, and some really messy gore effects. For an amateur production, the camera, editing, and special effects are especially impressive. Granted, we do get a lot of very cheap looking digital effects that were clearly made with a low-grade computer. But the gore, makeup and other practical effects are pretty well done considering the obviously ultra-low budget. The camera work is very inventive and there are some very creative shots, such as a scene involving a character being run over by a train, POVs from the killer wine bottles, and so much more. The editing and sound mixing, while rough in some spots, is mostly well-done, and even the score is pretty cool, if cheesy and rough around the edges. So while this movie isn't ultra-polished or smart, it's a hell of a lot of fun and there's plenty of gore and dark humor for horror fans to enjoy!

I love this movie. It's one of my favorite shot-on-video flicks, and is also one of my favorite British underground flicks. Tom Moose, unfortunately, didn't do too much later in his film career. After Homebrew, Tom and crew began working on a parody of government-conspiracy movies called Viva Las Venus, but that project was never finished. Tom made a few smutty sex-comedies in the mid-2000's that did get distribution in America, but he never made anything else in the realm of horror-comedies, which is a shame. I'd love to see him and his crew take on making one more absurd dark comedy. But I'm at least content knowing he made this masterpiece of trash. Absolutely check this movie out!

RELEASES:

-Homebrew was originally self-released by Viscera International Pictures in 1996 on VHS.

-Homebrew was later re-released on VHS in the UK by Screen Edge.

-Finally, Homebrew was released on VHS in the USA by Alternative Cinema under its old sub-label Shock-O-Rama Cinema, but the name and title card were changed to Zombie Toxin for the American market. There's also another VHS edition from Shock-O-Rama with the name Zombie Brew on the box, but the opening credits have the original Homebrew title card. Alternative Cinema has teased a DVD re-issue of the film for years now, but the release has yet to materialize. Which really sucks. I would kill to see some bloopers, behind the scenes or interviews!

MORE PICTURES:

CREDITS:

Pictures and stills courtesy of Ross Snyder of Saturn's Core Audio and Video, Michael Raso of Alternative Cinema, John Bentham of Screen Edge and Steve Lawson of Creativ Studios.

Barf Bunny (2021)

Barf Bunny (2021) - United States
Directed by: Jonathan Doe

ABOUT THE FILM:

I would like to give Jonathan Doe a big thank you for providing me with a screener copy for review! This review is based on the "Fetish-Gore Cut" of the movie.

Jonathan Doe is a filmmaker and is the mind behind the Cinema's Underbelly YouTube channel, as well as the Uneasy Terrain Explorers Club Podcast and many other creative endeavors. Barring a few short films he made over a decade ago as school projects, Jonathan has only recently gotten into producing and directing short and feature films. Barf Bunny is not only Jonathan Doe's first (barely) feature-length film, but it is also the first entry in what will become his "Erotic Grotesque Nonsense" series.

Barf Bunny stars Felicia Fisher, a fetish-gore actress known for her roles in various A Baroque House films, as the eponymous barf bunny. We join the bunny in the garden as she endlessly stuffs her face full of berries, carrots and grapes, and then pukes everything back up on the table, all the while teasing and attempting to seduce us. She doesn't like to play by the garden rules however. She tells us she doesn't like being told to play with her food and disobeys orders, thinking she's not being watched. But unbeknownst to the little barf bunny, she is being watched and she's about to pay...

REVIEW:
Barf Bunny is Jonathan Doe's love letter to grotesque fetish cinema along the lines of Lucifer Valentine's Vomit Gore series and the notorious Terrible Meal. Not once does the camera shy away as Felicia gorges herself on fruits and veggies, gags herself with a huge rubber carrot and pukes up everything she eats into jars. At some points she even picks up food from the jars with her toes, sucks on them and then eats them. Occasionally she spouts a funny line of dialogue, but the first 30 minutes is just puking and carrot deep-throating. So with that said, if you have a vomit or a foot fetish, you will enjoy this. I don't care for puke, snot or feet however. Although I have seen far worse things with vomit, this movie was pretty gross at points. My biggest complaint (and this is just a pet peeve) is the sound. Felicia constantly talks with her mouth full and smacks on her food a lot, which I personally can't stand. If I'm in public and someone is loudly enjoying their food, I'm quick to plug my ears and/or move away. But obviously grossing the viewer out was the point, so good job there.

The entire film takes place in one setting. Felicia sits at a table before what looks to be a hand-painted background of a garden, which looks quite nice. The colors are also very rich and the scene is lit well. The camera work is all handheld and is very smooth and steady, intently focusing on the grotesqueries unfolding before us. And the camera man isn't afraid to get in the splash zone, if you will. Speaking of splash, let's get into the gore effects. The gore and make-up was done by legendary make-up artist Marcus Koch and Jesse Seitz. Alongside James Bell, Marcus Koch is one of my favorite indie make-up artists and once more, along with Jesse Seitz, knocks it out of the park with Barf Bunny. The gore is incredible, it's detailed and gooey and the blood shines a beautiful, brilliant deep red as it sprays from the Barf Bunny's open neck cavity. The gore is all shown in slow-motion, which is made even better by the choice of music. Barf Bunny's soundtrack consists entirely of classical music, which I'm a huge sucker for. The ending of the Fetish-Gore Cut is amazing , and it made wading through all of the puke and snot worth it.

This film is definitely not for everyone, as it fits into one of the smallest niches possible. But if you're a lover of vomit, or gore, or both, then I highly recommend Barf Bunny. After seeing this I'm excited to check out new films from Jonathan Doe and the rest of the Erotic Grotesque Nonsense series. In the meantime, I highly recommend you check out the Cinema's Underbelly YouTube channel and Jonathan's podcast as they offer tons of great content!

RELEASES:
-Barf Bunny was released on DVD by Vile Video Productions in 2021. The movie comes in a very high-quality 2-disc set with amazing cover art from Martin Trafford. This set comes with both the Fetish-Gore Cut and the Emetophilia cut of Barf Bunny. Both cuts are mostly the same, but each one has a different ending. We also get a Making-Of featurette, interviews and a few trailers.

-The 2-disc set also comes in the Barf Bunny bundle, signed by the cast and crew. In the bundle you also get an exclusive Barf Bunny barf bag signed by the director, a piece of the table cloth used in the film, and also an 11" by 17" poster. If you're interested, I recommend checking out the Putrid Productions website here!

-The film was also released on limited runs of VHS and Blu-Ray in the United Kingdom by Dead Format Films.

Pot Zombies (2006)

Pot Zombies (2006) - United States
Directed by: Justin Powers

ABOUT THE FILM:
After reviewing tons of underground German splatter and odd, obscure shot-on-video titles, I'm finally taking a jab at a Troma film! ...Even though the movie in question barely deviates from the kinds of films I've already reviewed.
Pot Zombies is a film made in 2006 by up-and-coming amateur filmmaker Justin Powers, and it was soon picked up and distributed by Troma as part of their "Young Filmmakers Series" line, a line that didn't last very long. In fact it's hard to find any other titles released under this line, but I digress.
I remember buying this movie in 2015 from Hastings (RIP), as an ex-rental. It hadn't been rented for years and years, so the shop sold it to me for $2. At the time, I was getting more and more into Troma flicks, and I was building a sizable collection. I've seen some of the best the studio had to offer, like the Toxic Avenger, Poultrygeist and Redneck Zombies, to name a few. I've also seen some absolute trash like Rock 'n' Roll Space Patrol, Madigan's Millions and anything from Giuseppe Andrews. But then, there are films that are so bafflingly horrible that I don't know how to feel about them. Undeniably, Pot Zombies falls into that latter category.

REVIEW:
The "plot" of Pot Zombies, if you will, is about a barrel of toxic waste that makes its way into marijuana as it's being shipped to a small town, and anyone who smokes this toxic ganja turns into a green zombie with bouncy green CGI eyeballs and with the munchies for warm human innards. Of course, this "plot" is nothing but an excuse to showcase some of the most ineffective and laughable gore effects ever captured on videotape.
The entire movie rinses and repeats the same scenario over and over again across its 54 minute runtime. Smoke weed, zombies, death. Occasionally they change it up a bit, like in a scene at a venue where the bands the Dwarves and Damage Case are playing. Secondhand smoke fills the air and turns the crowd into zombies, and then carnage ensues. There's also a very gratuitous lesbian sex scene, but that's kind of par for the course in movies from Troma.

I will admit that there are things I enjoyed about this movie. There's a lengthy scene where a cop pulls over a hippie after he suspects him of being high off his ass. The hippie tries to convince the cop otherwise, but this devolves into a pointless anecdote about how he thought a raw chicken wasn't actually a chicken (?), and then the scene dives right back into bottom-of-the-barrel splatter territory. Funny enough, the guy playing the hippie is the only "actor" who put in something close to a good showing. Almost everyone else's performances are on par with low-budget porn, except for Lloyd Kaufman, who hams up his performance as a mentally handicapped pizza guy. But then again, I wasn't expecting top-notch acting from a movie about toxic weed zombies.

The camera work is acceptable throughout, nothing too bad. The editing is okay, although some scenes could have definitely used trimming down. The digital effects are just as bad as the gore effects, possibly worse. And the gore effects are already the remnants of the bottom of the barrel. There's a few uses of green-screen that look awful, tons of CGI blood and smoke, and while the soundtrack is decent, the sound mix is really bad. Sometimes dialogue is mixed so low that you can hardly hear what the actors are saying. If you're looking for a serious zombie movie with good story, characters and awesome gore, definitely skip this one. But if you like movies that are so god-awful that they're entertaining, I can kind of recommend Pot Zombies. It's atrocious, but I think the worst part is I kind of enjoyed it.

RELEASES:
-This movie was released by Troma (of course!) in 2007. DVD extras are kind of sparse, but the movie does come with a drinking/smoking game option, plus two music videos, a bunch of trailers for other Troma titles, and a short romantic comedy called Fiancé, which Justin Powers made in 2002. This short is actually better than Pot Zombies, but that's not saying much.