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Released By: Troma
Released On:11/16/2004
Director: Adam Mirarovich & Kevin Woods/David Silvio
Cast: N/A
Year: 2003/2004
The Movies:
Troma combines another pair of pustulant slabs of Tromatic entertainment on DVD with their double feature release of Zombies vs. Satan Double Digital Creature Feature: Wiseguys vs. Zombies/Meat for Satan's Icebox! More horror-comedy hybrid musing from the company that gave us such wonderful films as Lloyd Kaufman's The Toxic Avenger and Richard W. Haines' technicolor masterpiece, Class Of Nuke'm High? Yessir. That's what this is, and here's how it holds up…
Wiseguys vs. Zombies 2/5
A mobster known only as The Cuban is having an experimental drug shipped to Florida but it's only a matter of time before it goes missing. Realizing the implications that the lose of this drug could have, he calls in Mr. Delbrone and his team of tough guys to find out what happened to the drug and why, regardless of who gets killed in the process. It doesn't take the mobsters long to find the theives who hesited the drug and send them off to meet their maker, but once that's over with they find that they have a bigger problem on their hands when the men they killed and stuffed in the trunk of their car start coming back to life as bloodthirty (and possibly a little inbred) zombies.
While the idea of blending tough talking wise guys with gut munching zombies seems like a great idea on the surface, this one doesn't quite live up to its potential. It has some clever moments and interesting gory snippets here and there that at least serve to make it entertaining, even if it's hardly mind numbingly brilliant. Performances are pretty uneven in this one - a few of the guys are pretty good and convincing enough as mobsters, while a few others are obviously stretching their acting ability pretty thin.
Meat for Satan's Icebox 3/5
This second feature tells the story of Cindy Cavatelli, an cranky teenage girl who, if it weren't for bad luck, would have no luck at all. Since her mother was killed under rather mysterious circumstances, she lives with her perverted and abusive father in the ominously named locale of Satan Place, where the local slaughterhouse is the hub of the community.
Where things start to get weirder is when we find out that there's more than just animal meat being processed in this devious flesh factory - a fact that a lot of dead strippers end up finding out the hardway. When Cindy finds out what's going on at the plant, the men who run the place want to in turn run her through the meat grinder so that she'll keep her mouth shut. Cindy's going to have to do something about all of this on her own, as everyone else in town is either nuts, completely untrustworthy, or even in on the bag.
Chock full of corpse loving, incest, nasty violence and tasteless humor, Meat for Satan's Icebox is a truly twisted little movie. It takes things pretty far and isn't afraid to rub the audiences nose in the foul little droppings it leaves on your TV screen. Plenty of gore, grisly jokes and taboo breaking imagery leaves little to the imagination and even if we've seen all of these ideas and themes played out before, the movie is still a pretty grotesque little effort that just might get under your skin a bit more than you think.
At nearly two hours in length, this one doesn't give the viewer much of a break. It keeps at it and keeps at it until you're either going to turn it off in disgust or become numb to it and let it slowly but surely seep in - a dangerous thought considering how vile this one is at times. If it didn't have such an obvious streak of mean spirited black humor running through it I think I probably would have been offended but there are a few moments where you can't help but snicker under your breath when the movie really goes for the gross out.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Wiseguys Vs. Zombies gets a decent 1.85.1 non-anamorphic widescreen transfer. For the most part, this movie doesn't look too bad. There is some edge enhancement and some mild compression artifacts but the color scheme makes it through the digital birth canal more or less intact and there's a reasonable level of detail present throughout the film. Some of the contrast is (intentionally?) off as the white levels are through the roof in a few spots but this looks to have been a stylisitic choice as it does evoke some atmosphere appropriate for the proceedings of the film.
Meat For Satan's Icebox gets a murky fullframe transfer. The biggest problem with this one is that the on set lighting looks to have been pretty poor while the film was being made and because of this, a lot of the darker scenes are in really bad shape and at times almost unwatchable. When the lights are on, things don't look too bad but enough of the film does take place in the dark that more care should have been taken to prevent this from happening. I know low budget filmmaking is a tough task in and of itself and that the proper resources aren't always made available, but if you can't see what's going on in your movie, it's kind of a waste of time.
For low budget movies, both Wiseguys Vs. Zombies and Meat For Satan's Icebox sound pretty solid on this DVD. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo tracks, dialogue is clear on both movies and there are only occasionaly and minor run ins with hiss or distortion. None of these tracks are going to blow your mind or make you pee your pants with joy, but they don't suck either.
The main extra on this double feature is a Behind The Scenes Of Wiseguys vs. Zombies featurette. This segment runs roughly five minutes and it does a nice job of explaining how a few of the set pieces were devised in the film through a candid look at how it all went down behind the camera.
Aside from that, there's also a Wiseguys vs. Zombies trailer, an intro from Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman (joined by buxom Debbie Rochon), a few of the seemingly required Troma Public Service Announcements and a few bonus trailers for other, unrelated Troma DVD releases.
The Final Word:
Well, you could do a lot worse. As far as indie fare goes, these two films aren't half bad. They show some creative and original flourishes here and there and both films have their moments of interest. While I can't say you should run out and buy this one right away, fans of independent schlock would do well to keep Zombies vs. Satan Double Digital Creature Feature: Wiseguys vs. Zombies/Meat for Satan's Icebox on their radar.