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Ghost Canyon

'Brutal Massacre: A Comedy' [Blu-ray + DVD]
(David Naughton, Brian O'Halloran, Ken Foree, Gunnar Hansen, Ellen Sandweiss, et al / Blu-ray + DVD / NR / (2007) 2020 / MVD Visual)

Overview: Harry Penderecki, a once heralded horror auteur, finds himself on the outside looking in at Hollywood. He hasn't had a hit film in years, and most in the industry, including his close friends, think he's washed up.

Harry is given one last chance to redeem himself with what could be his best or last picture.

'Brutal Massacre' becomes just that, as the cast and crew find themselves battling one mishap after another as Harry struggles to keep his sanity against overwhelming resistance to finish the picture and finds himself at the top once again.

Blu-ray Verdict: From director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) comes this hilarious send up of horror films and horror filmmakers featuring an all-star cast that includes David Naughton (American Werewolf in London), Brian O'Halloran (Clerks), Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Gerry Bednob (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) and Ellen Sandweiss (The Evil Dead).

In truth, most movies I've seen about making a movie aren't very good, but this one bucks the system. It's a mockumentary about a director (David Naughton), who created one hit movie, but after a series of bad movies he is basically given one more chance to create a movie that people want to watch.

So he and his film crew head to a small town to film his latest movie, but once again, the director in question is just as awful as ever before!

He hires a cast of kooky film makers and actors and so everything that could possible go wrong while making a movie like this does indeed go spectacularly wrong in this moviemaking experience, of course!

Ergo, in this film-within-a-film, the acting is good, above far, but the characters portrayed are completely clueless (if that even makes any sense!).

'Brutal Massacre' is unto itself a low budget movie, but is still well done, in my humble opinion. I barely even noticed the lack of big effects or segued scenes and plot lines and just sat back and enjoyed the "mess" that is this Spinal Tap-esque new cinematic gem of wonderment!

Funnily enough, it actually reminded me a lot of The Office in some respects (aside from the fact it was filmed in Allentown, PA, not far from where The Office supposedly took place in Scranton, PA, of course.

Some of the humor is slapstick, some situational, and some subtle. For example, when David Naughton's director character talks about how Scorsese had problems making Apocalypse Now (it was Coppola), he reminded me of Michael Scott's attempts to appear knowledgeable on The Office.

In closing, 'Brutal Massacre' gives the audience a humoristic view on the set of a B-slasher movie. The acting is good enough, the story is pretty simple, but therein lies part of the strength of the movie.

The (often subtle) humor is great, although you have to be a fan of that. Of course, this isn't an all out fall of the seat, constant belly laugh movie (which I usually do not enjoy), but it has some superb moments to it.

With a well picked out cast, including Gerry Bednob (known from the 40 year old virgin) as the hilarious camera man Hanu Vindepesh, I highly recommend you check out this brand new Blu-ray+DVD Combo release of 'Brutal Massacre' for yourselves. This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Behind the Scenes featurette
Deleted Scenes
On the Set featurette
Photo Gallery
LMB Poster Gallery
'What Happened Was True' - Director's Commentary
Weekend of Horrors Brutal Massacre Cast Panel
Theatrical Trailers
BRAND NEW artwork created exclusively for this release!

www.StevenMena.com

www.MVDvisual.com





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