Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Caesar & Otto's Deadly Xmas



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

    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!































      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • 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
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 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
    Working...
    X