THANKSKILLING 3

THANKSKILLING 3

If you cast your minds back, the star of the original THANKSKILLING was a psychotic gobbler by the name of Turkie (director/co-writer Jordan Downey).

Now he’s back, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign that unbelievably managed to raise a reported $100,000.00 towards this sequel getting made.

You may at this point be wondering what happened to THANKSKILLING 2. In truth, it doesn’t exist. Or, at least, it only exists in the context of this here movie …

We open with a space-set scene from the fabled THANKSKILLING 2, before a raspy narration informs us that the film became so reviled that all copies of it were ordered to be destroyed. Driven by a huge truck into the desert, every DVD copy of said film is then torched by flamethrower. The film, it would seem, has been banished forever. But not quite.

Turkie discovers this while watching TV in his shithouse home one evening. He goes nuts, kills his wife and takes off with his retarded son Nibla (Preston Altree) in search of the last remaining copy of the film. Hitching a ride on a seagull’s back, Turkie uses his psychic powers to determine the rough whereabouts of the final, elusive DVD: in a backpack belong to puppet girl Yomi (Downey again).

Yomi is befriended by egotistical Uncle Donny (Daniel Usaj), who also happens to be the creator of mega turkey-roasting machine Pluckmaster 3000. He’s gearing up to Thanksgiving by selling as many units of his product as he can via his cheesy TV infomercials, and by planning on opening a theme park called ThanksgivingLand with his pal, security geek Jefferson (Joe Hartzler).

Donny takes Yomi back to his place, which he shares with Jefferson and Jefferson’s insatiable, finger-sniffing mother Flowis (Marc M). Here, this strange group prepare for Thanksgiving … until Turkie turns up and the shit hits the fan.

Meanwhile, a worm called Rhonda (Kevin Stewart) has its own reasons for wanting to track down the THANKSKILLING 2 DVD first …

Downey’s sequel glories in badness. The acting is deliberately over-the-top, as is the often obscene dialogue. The plot, if you can call it that, manages to crowbar in everything from faux cartoon skits and rap videos to kung-fu fights, segues into outer space and men who wear silly wigs for no apparent reason.

Along the way, there’s also a sage-like turkey who takes Donny and Yomi under its wing in a bid to defeat Turkie once and for all, and a predictable amount of zealous, patently fake gore.

Yes, this film is bad - but it's also a significant progression aesthetically over what came before it. A lot of the charm of its no-budget progenitor is lost, but is replaced by a genuinely surprising amount of visual finesse: Downey makes sure that every penny of his successful Kickstarter campaign makes it on to the screen. Consequently, images are bold and sharp, set designs impress with their colours and the puppets (of which there are lots) are uniformly impressive, albeit in an intentionally rudimentary manner. Think MEET THE FEEBLES, but with a far slicker finish.

Another asset to the film is Zain Effendi's atmospheric electronic score. It's often at loggerheads with the base, if attractively shot, action on screen, but brings a class to the film which is most welcome.

The whole thing though is a mess of ideas, gags, and hyper energy that crams so much into a 99-minute running time that the end result is somewhat nullifying. The film is as dumb as it is clever, as crude as it is remarkably naive. That is, its humour may strive to offend, but who is it really going to rattle - Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done all of this previously, and the "Spitting Image" team got there even before them.

Still, there's an energy to THANKSKILLING 3 that prevents it from being unwatchable. And the Jefferson character, along with his obscene mother, are genuinely funny. I just wish they'd been in it more.

THANKSKILLING 3 comes to DVD fully uncut and presented in a stunning 2.35:1 transfer which has been enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Shot in HD on the RED camera, image quality is pin-sharp, vibrant and filled with depth: if you’ve seen its predecessor, you’ll know that its aesthetic approach was decidedly lo-fi; this sequel is most definitely at the other end of the visual scale.

English 2.0 is also rendered extremely well, providing a clean and clear playback proposition throughout.

MVD Visual’s region-free DVD opens up to a colourful animated main menu page. Although there is no scene-selection menu option, the film can be navigated remotely by way of 27 chapter stops.

Extras begin with two audio commentary tracks, both from Downey and co-writer Kevin Stewart. The first is a fun, irreverent track that offers little in the way of trivia but plenty of knob gags, belching and the like. It does grate.

The second is the "technical" track, proffering a more sober approach and a whole heap of nerdish information on the film’s making.

Two trailers are provided: the official 101-second offering, and a lengthier ‘brown band’ affair which intersperses the former with cruder snapshots from the film.

"Turkie’s House" is a 13-minute featurette taking a closer look at how the main character’s habitat was custom-built, including lots of behind-the-scenes footage and the odd rummage around rubbish tips for props.

"Frankenturkey & Turkey Hell" spends 4 minutes elaborating on the making of Turkie, and explaining how one of the film’s key chase scenes was executed.

"Building the Flamethrower" is a self-explanatory 1-minute montage of behind-the-scenes footage.

Likewise the ensuing featurettes which delve into "Creating the Skeleturkey Graveyard" (8 minutes), "Nerd Worm’s Lair" (1 minute) and "Building the ThanksgivingLand sign" (1 minute).

"Evolution of the Pluckmasters" spends a further 4 minutes on prop and location scouting.

A 4-minute behind-the-scenes gallery serves up a plethora of stills, all set to the excerpts from that stirring electronic score. This is followed closely by a similar 3-minute gallery of promo-related stills.

A drinking game begins with a text disclaimer appealing for viewers to adopt a sensible approach towards their boozing … then proceeds to play the film with a clear set of hangover-inducing rules: "Take one shot whenever Flowis sniffs her pussy fingers", and so on. You WILL get drunk playing this game.

Speaking of Flowis, the full 70-second video for her rap track "Sprinkle of Wrinkle" is also included for your delectation. As is Uncle Donny’s complete, 98-second Pluckmaster 3000 infomercial.

THANKSKILLING 3 looks and sounds great, and gets a tremendously generous release from MVD Visual in terms of bonus features. If you happen to like this sort of thing, you are being very well catered for here …

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Gravitas Ventures
Region 1 NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
see main review
Back