Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Body Melt (Katarina's Nightmare Theater)

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Todd Jordan
    Smut is good.

  • Body Melt (Katarina's Nightmare Theater)



    Released by: Scorpion Releasing
    Released on: 4/30/2013
    Director: Philip Brophy
    Cast: Gerard Kennedy, Andrew Daddo, Ian Smith, Regina Gaigalas
    Year: 1993
    Purchase from Amazon

    The Movie:

    A dietary supplement company is working on a new product called “Vimuville” and has chosen the quaint little piece of cul-de-sac suburbia Pebbles Court as a neighborhood worthy of testing the new sensation in health and fitness. The good people of Pebbles Court have no knowledge of their new roles as lab rats, and don't even question the free samples they keep finding in their mailboxes. A number of different people live at Pebbles Court, such as a young couple with a baby on the way, and a four family unit complete with a bitchy teenaged girl and a shit-headed pre-pubescent lad.

    An accident involving one of the engineers of Vimuville brings the police to the neighborhood, and they keep having to come back to it once all the fluids start gushing out of people as they die horribly. Two other scientist/evil corporation types know what their product is doing to the test subjects, but that doesn't change things. As to the grand plan for killing people with a health supplement, that doesn't seem to be of importance to the story. Also having some part in all this is an Outback car repair business run by a dirty man with weird boils and such on his face, as well as a trio of seriously low-level IQ mongoloid children. Daddy Incest was at one point a colleague of one of the evil scientists, but this bit of subplot seems to be little more than a reason for some backwoods murder/cannibalism.

    It's kind of all over the place with the story and the sub-stories and the whole thing feels more like a loose anthology than a structured plot, with the body-melting Vimuville as the joining thread. The fact that the movie is based on some short stories the filmmakers wrote makes the disjointed nature of the film a bit more understandable. Like for instance, after the initial accident a Pebbles Court, two teens in one of the houses, not jacked up on the melting supplement, drive off and end up at the aforementioned boil-ridden scientist's dirt estate. No reason they end up there, other than to repair a windshield, and die for no other reason than for entertainment to the mentally and hygienically challenged family. And our entertainment as well, of course. But the two guys have NOTHING to do with the main plot.

    But none of that matters much because the film's soul purpose is to go for the gross-out. No one is safe in this chunk blower, and that includes an unborn baby, a kid on inline skates, or a juiced-up muscle-head's penis. And speaking of muscle-heads, the evil scientist lady (who shows her naked goods in the first few minutes) is accompanied by two such men, and one of them has a voice that is so uncharacteristic that it's giggle-worthy. At any rate, body fluids of all types splash, weird tentacles burst from cavities, and faces do funky things. The SFX gags (gore pun) are performed with glee and deliver 100 percent on the satisfaction front.

    This oddball, so-called “Ozploitation” flick is pretty foolish, but entertaining for certain. Lots of gooey special effects lend themselves to create some fun moments nothing seems off limits. It's difficult not to compare Body Melt to movies like the New Zealand-made Dead Alive and Bad Taste, and it's pretty obvious that Peter Jackson's movies influenced the director. That's not a bad thing though. He may have not created a cult hit, but he definitely created something fun to watch.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Things look pretty good for the most part on Scorpion's DVD. Not having seen movie prior to this release, it's impossible to say how it compares, but the image is clear, colors look proper as do skin tones. A bit of print damage appears here and there, but it's nothing distracting at all. There's nothing to get up on a soapbox and praise, but nothing to bitch about either. The audio is on par with the video and things are clear and easy to understand, unless Australian accents are difficult for you to understand. If that's the case, you'll be unhappy to know there are no subtitles available.

    Extra-wise, the only thing on the disc is the intro and outro by host Katarina Leigh Waters. After a little bit of sketch comedy, she drops some factoids on us concerning the movie and the actors. Other than that its bare bones all the way.

    The Final Word:

    While certainly not one of the finest entries to come from Australia (not by a long shot) Body Melt absolutely delivers on goopy and horrible deaths. It flops in a number of other ways, but at the end of the day, it accomplishes its goal. Scorpion's disc is light on the extras we've become so spoiled with, but it's worth picking up. It should become a proud member of that collection your family just doesn't understand.



















      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    • Nemesis (MVD Rewind Collection) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: MVD Rewind Collection
      Released on: January 8th, 2019.
      Director: Albert Pyun
      Cast: Olivier Gruner, Jennifer Gatti, Tim Thomerson
      Year: 1992
      Purchase From Amazon

      Nemesis – Movie Review:

      Albert Pyun's 1992 film Nemesis takes place in the future of 2027. Here it's common for criminals and cops alike to ‘upgrade' themselves using cybernetic bits and pieces in an effort to make themselves more than human. In this world
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:22 AM
    • Bloodmoon (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: February 1st, 2024.
      Director: Alec Mills
      Cast: Leon Lissek, Christine Amor, Helen Thomson, Ian Williams
      Year: 1990
      Purchase From Amazon

      Bloodmoon – Movie Review:

      The directorial debut of Alec Mills, the cinematographer on such films as Polanski’s MacBeth and Return Of The Jedi, 1990’s Bloodmoon, a later period slasher film, is set around St. Elizabeth’s, an all-girls Catholic School
      ...
      03-07-2024, 03:55 PM
    • The Shining (Scream Factory) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Scream Factory
      Released on: March 12th, 2024.
      Director: Mick Garris
      Cast: Steven Weber, Rebecca De Mornay, Melvin Van Peebles, Courtland Mead
      Year: 1997
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Shining – Movie Review:

      Stephen King somewhat famously didn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his novel, The Shining, so he signed on to work with Director Mick Garris on this three-part TV mini-series take which hit the airwaves
      ...
      03-07-2024, 03:50 PM
    • Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Shout! Factory
      Released on: February 13th, 2024.
      Director: Liam Lynch
      Cast: Jack Black, Kyle Gass
      Year: 2006
      Purchase From Amazon

      Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny – Movie Review:

      Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny opens with a prologue where we meet a young man named Jables (JB, played by Jack Black) who, despite his strict religious upbringing, only wants to rock n roll. When his father tears down all of his posters
      ...
      02-29-2024, 06:17 PM
    Working...
    X