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5
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9 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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In
her last film for E.I. Productions, Misty Mundae (AKA Erin Brown)
gets to poke cheeky fun at her image as a direct-to-video softcore
sex starlet.
Shock-O-Rama
is writer-director-FX
artist Brett Piper's affectionate homage to the genre pics of
the drive-in era, a horror/sci-fi/sexploitation comedy with
the emphasis on humor. Unlike E.I.'s typical comedy product
it is not a spoof in the vein of such softcore lesbian
sex romps as Play-Mate
Of The Apes or Spiderbabe.
Sex and nudity have their place — you can't have the likes of
Misty Mundae and Julian Wells in an exploitation flick and not
get 'em naked at some point — but they aren't the raison
d'etre. It was also shot on film as opposed to video, giving
it a much more polished look and feel.
Misty's scenes function
as a wraparound plot device in which two other unrelated tales
are inserted, making it an anthology film. She plays Rebecca
Raven, reigning queen of low budget exploitation pictures —
a thinly-veiled send-up of her E.I. persona. Frustrated at being
pigeonholed as a T&A
horror bimbo, Rebecca hopes to leave the B-movie world behind
in quest of more challenging, meaningful roles. Sleazy studio
chief Frank (Michael Thomas), incensed by his star attraction's
lack of gratitude, decides not to renew her contract — in effect,
firing her. Getting sacked before she could quit wasn't part
of Little Miss Diva's plan; with a profanity-laden tirade she
storms out of the studio, bridges seemingly burned behind her.
To get her head together Rebecca rents a picturesque old house
in the country where she can relax and enjoy some tranquil solitude.
The bloodthirsty zombie
buried in the cellar — soon to be accidentally reanimated —
isn't going to allow her a peaceful stay.
Meanwhile, back at
the studio, Frank and his assistant launch a mad scramble to
find the "new Rebecca Raven" when the replacement
actress they had already signed is arrested and jailed just
days before shooting is to begin on their latest picture. This
is how Shock-O-Rama's other two
stories, or segments, come into play — they're 'movies within
a movie', flicks screened by the studio chief in the course
of an emergency talent search.
Mecharachnia:
Pint-sized alien criminals elude the intergalactic fuzz and
escape to earth, crash-landing their tiny spaceship in a New
Jersey junkyard. The yard's boorish, brawny owner (Rob Monkiewicz)
and his motor-mouthed ex-girlfriend (Caitlin Ross), trapped
inside, must battle the hostile invaders for survival... if
they don't kill each other first.
Lonely Are The
Brain: Under the guise of dream experiments at the Center
For Hypnomorphic Research, an evil disembodied super-brain from
the future absorbs the subconscious emotional experiences of
young, nubile female 'volunteers'. One of the test subjects
(A.J. Khan) becomes suspicious when the project's foxy physician
(Dr. Jekyll
& Mistress Hyde's Julian Wells) starts appearing in
her dreams, making bizarre, even frightening sexual advances...
Intentionally campy,
Shock-O-Rama is the kind of flick
best viewed with your brain switched off and the bong fully
loaded. It doesn't aspire to be anything more than that. Piper
(A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell,
Bite Me!) strives to meld his love
of '50s drive-in fare with today's "Skinemax"-friendly
exploitation conventions, the goal being to poke fun at the
established clichés while at the same time embracing them. He's
not always successful, due more to sketchy writing than budgetary
limitations. (As with any comedy, some of the jokes fall flat.
And the ribbing of zombie movie clichés, especially in recent
years, has in itself become a cliché.) In the disc's
supplements Piper states that the film cost about what it took
to produce the original Night
Of The Living Dead almost 40 years ago — if so, it's
a testament to him and his crew that Shock-O-Rama
looks as good as it does. The old fashioned stop-motion effects
(the Mecharachnia segment) and weird, Tim Burton-ish
set designs (Lonely Are The Brain) were done very, very
cheaply but are effective, even charming, nonetheless. The cast
is game, too, with the major players acquitting themselves nicely...
Seduction Cinema regular A.J. Khan (Suburban
Secrets) is given the opportunity to actually act
for a change and shows she's up to it; fans of Misty Mundae
will enjoy seeing her spoof her manufactured image as a B-movie
goddess. Julian Wells, whom I've never seen give a bad performance
regardless of a film's content, lends Sharon Stone-style sex
appeal as the sinister — and hot — Dr. Carruthers.
Since it's not particularly
shocking, Shock-O-Rama is going
to disappoint those looking for grue-splattered horror. Horndogs
expecting the wall-to-wall skin and softcore sexcapades characteristic
of E.I.'s typical output will also be let down. But, provided
you go in knowing it's a comedy (and you have a soft spot for
classic cheese like The
Brain From Planet Arous), you should have a enjoyable time
with it.
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Although
the film had its premiere almost a year ago (and has played at
festivals and conventions in the interim), E.I. has only now issued
Shock-O-Rama
on DVD. It's
given
a solid, extras-packed release, with the bonus features adding
considerably to the overall value. There's certainly nothing to
complain about vis a vis the anamorphic 1.78.1 widescreen
transfer, which is very good considering the 16mm source. The
disc's Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix won't tax your home theater
setup but gets the job done admirably; dialog, music and sound
effects are clean and clear.
Bonus features are plentiful. An engaging audio
commentary with Brett Piper and producer Michael Raso covers virtually
every aspect of the film's production and is well worth a listen.
A 6-minute featurette goes behind-the-scenes during shooting,
showing cast and crew members mostly loafing during breaks. Another
short featurette concerns the 2005 New York premiere and the post-screening
party at some bar (after a bit of drinking). An audience Q&A
session with Piper runs almost 5 minutes. The fourth and longest
(16½ min.) featurette consists of interviews of Raso and
Piper interwoven with film snippets. Finally, you get twelve trailers
from E.I.'s Shock-O-Rama and Retro Shock-O-Rama DVD lines; Film
Threat's Merle Bertrand contributes a booklet of liner notes.
9/19/06 |
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