There’s a whole world of horror bubbling beneath both the mainstream and independent realms.
These no-budget movies with names like “Zombie Farm” and “Rat Scratch Fever” boil the filmmaking experience down to its essentials. You won’t find big-name actors cast in leading roles, nor will 10 minutes of screen time go by without a little blood being spilled. Or a lot.
And while the films are meant to be shocking, they’re often constructed with a heavy helping of humor to wash it all down.
One of the newest entries in this sub-genre, “Dahmer vs. Gacy,” played at the StarFest 2010 festival April 16. This horror comedy pits two of the most wicked serial killers in modern history against each other in a body count battle to the … death. (Note: The film screens again at 7 p.m. Saturday April 17)
It’s hard not to enjoy the “let’s put on a show” pluck on display with these films, even if they would be hard pressed to compete with their big-budgeted peers.
But tell that to the sub-genre’s base who whooped it up as the blood and gags sprayed the small theater Friday night at the Marriott Hotel at the Denver Tech Center.
“Dahmer vs. Gacy” director Ford Austin plays Jeffrey Dahmer, or at least a clone of the serial killing cannibal. A secret government project is cloning some of the world’s most notorious killers in order to create a super soldier capable of devastating the enemy.
An accident at the facility lets loose two of the cloned creatures - Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy (Randal Malone). Apparently, the cloning process also duplicated Gacy’s notorious clown makeup.
Now, the two are killing innocents left and right, and humanity’s best hope may come in the form of a nearly naked redneck who hears god speak to him (the voice of Harland Williams) from his radio speakers.
Along the way the film spoofs - often effectively - the blathering heard on cable news outlets, military buffoonery and our celebrity worshipping culture.
The death of a veteran street mime is priceless, plain and simple.
Genre favorites including Ethan Phillips (“Star Trek: Voyager”) and Jed Rowen (who is appearing at this year’s StarFest event) flesh out the colorful cast.
Nothing is subtle, and the silly quotient is often off the chart. Horror purists won’t find much frightening here, beyond a couple of the performances, and the film is best enjoyed in a group setting. But some of the jokes land precisely on target, and the film’s breeziness extends to the narrative.
If only the promised battle royale delivered the goods. But by this point we’ve already seen enough blood showers, hacked limbs and other genre staples to make such complaints moot.
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