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Bloodmarsh Krackoon
Released by: Bloody Earth Films
Released on: Mary 20th, 2014.
Director: Jerry Landi
Cast: Sal Amore, Scott Barile, Anthony Bisciello, Cindy Guyer
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Written and directed by Jerry Landi, Bloodmarsh Krackoon begins in the Bronx neighborhood of Locust Point where a pair of disreputable looking guys with slicked back hair and plain white t-shirts are unloading a few gallons of toxic waste that winds up causing the kinds of problems that leaking toxic waste tends to cause in horror movies. On top of that, there are stories going about that a raccoon hooked on crack cocaine has been going around terrorizing the area. Enter Deputy Mayor Peter Rabbit (Sal Amore), an ambitious politician out to climb the ladder and make a name for himself. He sees in this raccoon problem the chance to do just that: get some attention and win some favor with the public.
To make this happen, he and his cousins arm themselves and head into the swampy outskirts of town in search of the 'krackoon' known as Red-Eye. But what they don't realize is that there's more than one of these beasts out there, and that they're not going to go down without a fight.
This is pretty silly stuff and it never tries to rise above that, but Bloodmarsh Krackoon is quickly paced and sometimes fairly ambitious in its intent. The environmental message is a worthy one even if it has been done to death in horror films, while the fact that the entire thing really does seem to have been shot on location in the boogie down Bronx gives it some welcome authenticity and local flavor.
Those with an affinity for 'New Yawk' characters will get a kick out of Amore's sometimes over the top performance while the supporting cast varies in terms of their work - most of them aren't very good, but they suffice in their roles. Cindy Guyer from Wallace Pott's B-movie classic Psycho Cop shows up in this one too, her first movie in over a decade. She is puzzlingly (but admittedly amusingly) cast as the resident of a retirement home in the area but she's fun in the part.
The real star of the show, however, is the krackoon. While often times the effects are done the old fashioned way and we wind up seeing people pretending to be terrorized by what looks like a mangy stuffed animal/puppet, the scenes are played straight enough that they are actually pretty funny. There are some fairly terrible sequences that use super low budget CGI and use it rather poorly at that, but some of the practical gore effects work fairly well.
This one is fun. It's got all of the problems you'd expect from a movie obviously made on a very modest budget but it's not afraid to exploit its ridiculous concept in interesting ways. There are some good laughs, some fun characters and some decent gore effects - it's hard not to have fun with this if you're in the right frame of mind for it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Bloodmarsh Krackoon arrives 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 are nicely reproduced but some of the darker scenes are a bit murky and show some crush. Thankfully detail is pretty solid and skin tones look lifelike and accurate. The image, shot on digital video, is quote clean 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.
So… extras? Well, the feature version of Bloodmarsh Krackoon was originally conceived as a shorter sixty-minute film simply titled Krackoon and it's included here as a bonus. It basically follows the same idea but it's fun to see this earlier version made back in 2010. Outside of that, we also get a trailer vault and a decent behind the scenes featurette that shows off what it was like on set and how some of the different scenes in the movie were put together. Not a bad batch of supplements, really.
The Final Word:
Bloodmarsh Krackoon might wear its low budget very plainly on its sleeve but that doesn't really hurt the movie as much as you might think. There's some inspired creativity going on behind the camera and a few good laughs to enjoy in front of it and as goofy as it all is (and it's PLENTY goof), the movie is nothing if not entertaining. The DVD release looks and sounds about as good as you can expect and offers up some solid extras too. A fun disc overall, if you're into low budget oddities.
