KILL

I could effortlessly reel off the many shortcomings of the following movie. Released by those purveyors of independent trash, Troma, KILL had an alleged budget of a mere $5000. It inevitably meant friends were utilized as the cast, while one of their houses (rented naturally!) was used as the sole set. The time between penning the script and the director shouting his inaugural "action" was only two weeks, so the dialogue was always destined to be a gesture at best! But in truth, there is nothing clever or interesting about pointing out the inadequacies of a Troma release. You’re best off checking in at IMDB for that kind of thing.

Instead, I would rather focus on some of the more intriguing aspects of Chad Archibald (NOT ‘Archivald’ as printed on the discs front cover!) and Phillip Carrer’s basic scenario based shocker.

Sherri, Lauren, Jeremy, Kirk, Richard and Emma have no idea who each other are or what they have in common. They all have partners; yet have woken up in a strange house with each other. It seems they are being enticed to play a game in some absurdly violent reality TV show while being goaded on by the show’s host, ‘The Ringleader’.

But this is no ordinary game show. It seems the house is occupied by some very sinister masked Tiki men, who take it upon themselves to terrorize the sextet into playing a fun game of murder! If they want to wake up next to their loved ones again, there is only one thing they can do to save themselves from being slaughtered – and that is KILL!

Who are the Tiki men? Why have these particular six been chosen? Why did the directors think some acid house smiley faces would make the setting seem Hawaiian? Well, after sitting through the movie twice I still don’t know! However, the first thing that really stood out about the movie for me was the fact it was notably one of the darkest and most vicious releases I have ever witnessed to come out of the Troma stable. There is a fairly steady flow of bloodshed throughout and the way this is done is undoubtedly one of the movies highlights. Some frantic editing helps the reasonably good effects hide their deficiencies. I have seen many a ‘no budgeter’ whereby the gore is just a few aftermath shots. At least KILL does try, in this respect, to show some actual slashing and stabbings even if not wholly convincing. The white garments worn by the protagonists also meant every drop of blood that was spilt left a trail.

Some of the violence was downright nasty. Without revealing too much, let’s just say our pretty female readers out there may just be wearier of searing oven hotplates in future..!

Even if the concept of ultra-violence on a minuscule budget may a bit tedious to some of you, the film did try and raise a profound, if not wholly original, question: "Are you willing to kill for your loved ones?"

These interesting elements were regrettably severely hampered (some would argue easily outweighed) by the aforesaid limitations. Although the plot didn’t bother wasting its time on explaining how they were chosen or why someone would plan such carnage, I wasn’t that bothered. Movies of this ilk such as the SAW sequels, or even PANIC BUTTON, usually have such a farfetched rationale I find it tends to render the film rather unsatisfactory, certainly if believability is going to induce any sort of fear anyway. Maybe I have been numbed into submission with regular doses of video trash but I found the movie overall to be watchable with some enjoyably shocking moments to boot.

I thoroughly enjoy the "extras’ Troma discs tend to include and the KILL package was another typical example. A commentary track, featuring the aforementioned writers and director accompanies the main feature. It’s standard fair in truth but does throw up a couple of interesting anecdotes such as the ‘actor’ playing The Ringleader is none other than Canadian self-mutilating travelling freak circus chap ‘The Great Orbax’. Google him – he sounds cool!

But most poignantly, during the commentary, the duo recognizes a cameo from their friend Chris Zimmerman. Big deal I hear you say: except for the fact that Chris was a meds student, who was run over by a bus and killed before the film’s release. Their collective apparent shock and surprise instantly calls for KILL to be officially dedicated to the late Mr Zimmerman!

The usual selection of classic Tromas trailers are also included, which I guess would be interesting to those viewers who are acquainting themselves with the Kaufman and Herz’s team for the first time. The rest of us are already aware of such delights as Tromeo and Juliet and my personal Troma fave, Class of Nuke ‘em High. But it’s the two other bizarrely surreal segments that had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief. First up is a ridiculous attempt at saving the environment Troma style before moving on to good ole fashion tomfoolery featuring Trey Stone, Matt Parker and Motorhead’s Lemmy! The subject of their parody – a hermaphrodite public service announcement! Who needs $$$ when you have toxic chaos like this?

Review by Marc Lissenburg