Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas

Released by: Wild Eye Releasing
Released on: November 19^th, 2013.
Director: Dave Campfield
Cast: Dave Campfield, Paul Chomicki, Joe Estevez, Debbie Rochon, Linnea Quigley
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

Directed, co-written by and starring Dave Campfield, 2012's Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas is an amusing low budget horror-comedy with pretty much all you'd want out of a holiday themed horror picture - some goofy gore scenes, a little bit of skin, gratuitous cult film celebrity cameos and plenty of bizarre plot twists.

The storyline, if you couldn't figure this out on your own, revolves around Caesar (Campfield) and Otto (Paul Chomicki), a pair of half brothers who need work. They take a job with the appropriately named Xmas Enterprises playing Santa and an elf respectively, not really expecting much out of it except for a paycheck. They soon learn that there's more to playing Santa than just ho-ho-ho'ing when a different store Santa (Deron Miller of CKY) starts to show his bias against them. Why he holds such a hated towards them remains to be seen, but when Caesar realizes that those on his Thanksgiving invite list are turning up dead, he starts to take all this more seriously than he thought he'd have to.

As the bodies start to fall, Caesar and Otto have to deal with problems of their own: Caesar with his long standing fear of Santa Clause and Otto with his hopes to reconcile with his old lady friend - but most importantly they need to put a stop to the killings before Otto winds up arrested for them.

With cameos from the likes of Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman, Sleepaway Camp's Felissa Rose, B-movie stalwart Joe Estevez and Silent Night, Deadly Night's Linnea Quigley Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas would seem to wear its intentions plainly on its sleeve. This is, in many ways, a comedic homage to the holiday slashers of yesterday (there's very clearly a specific reason Quigley is cast in the role she plays here), with more emphasis on laughs than on scares. Oh, there are a few gore scenes here, a couple of which are mildly gruesome, but it's all delivered with tongue firmly in cheek. By the time the ending rolls around, things have gotten so ludicrous that you can't help but snicker at all of this, even if you also can't help but notice how corny it all is.

B-movie celebrity appearances aside, the principal cast members, who do most of the heavy lifting here, all do reasonably solid work. Campfield and Chomicki feel like a believable enough pair and they have decent chemistry and comedic timing. The script, which they worked on together, gives them ample opportunity to yuck it up. Miller, as the potential killer Santa at large, is also fine here. At just over eighty minutes this breezes by quickly enough that it makes for a fun holiday themed watch. It's all more than a little bit stupid but that doesn't mean it isn't equally amusing.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Caesar & Otto arrive on DVD framed at 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen and for the most part the transfer looks pretty good, so long as you go in with the right expectations. The colors look nice and natural and while there are some compression artifacts in a few of the darker scenes detail is pretty solid. Skin tones look lifelike and accurate and there aren't any contrast issues to quibble over.

Audio chores are handled by an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix which is properly balanced and free of any hiss or distortion. Bass response won't blow you away but the low end is there when the movie needs it to be and the score sounds fine as do the sound effects.

Extras? Lots of them, starting with the audio commentary tracks, of which there are three. Director Campfield flies solo in the first track, and as he also wrote and starred in the feature, it stands to reason that he'd have a lot to say about the movie. He talks about where some of the ideas came from, wearing the different hats he wore on set and the various collaborations of the other cast and crew members. The second commentary wrangles up Campfield and co-stars Paul Chomicki and Deron Miller and a few others. It's a more active track as there are more participants and while there are a few spots where they talk over each other just a bit, there's a good sense of humor behind this one that makes it fun to listen to. You can tell these guys all had a good time making this movie together. The third commentary track features producer Joe Randazzo, Sean Steffan (who produced The Perfect Candidate short film) and a moderator named Dolph from the Essential Films blog. Randazzo co-wrote the picture with Campfield so he's able to go into some detail about the genesis of the project and, as the movies play out, we get some scene specific insight from all three participants.

So yeah, as mentioned we also get a bonus short film called The Perfect Candiate starring Joe Estevez that is available with your choice of two options commentary tracks, one from director Campfield and one from producer Steffan. The movie clocks in at about fourteen minutes and it tells the amusing story of what might happen if Estevez were to run for office against… Robert Z'Dar! It's definitely weird enough to work.

The DVD also includes a seven minute Behind The Scenes featurettes made up of footage shot on set, cast and crew interviews and outtake clips from the shoot, all put into a fairly cohesive context to give us some insight into what went into creating this movie. Most of the principal cast and crew members show up here in some capacity and it's a fairly interesting segment.

Rounding out the extras are some deleted and extended scenes (about five minutes worth), two other short films (Piggyzilla and Otto's First job), trailers for the feature, trailers for a few other Wild Eye Releasing DVDs, animated menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:

Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas receives a solid special edition release from Wild Eye Releasing. The disc is stacked with extras and it looks and sounds as good as you'd expect a low budget picture like this to look. The movie itself is actually pretty funny, showcasing a couple of fun performances and a few decent gore scenes while managing to hold our attention until the finish. Make sure you stick it out through the end credits too, if for no other reason than… Z'DAR!