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THERE'S
NOTHING OUT THERE
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Review
by
Doug Red
Film:8
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DVD:8
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| Here's
a B-movie recipe to consider: Take the typical horror group from
the 1980s, such as a a bunch of horny young teens, and have them
encounter a threat that kills them off one by one. Into this typical
B-movie cocktail throw in one nerdy guy who realizes he's in a
horror film and tries to warn everybody about the obvious clichéd
danger they are in. Based on that description, the film in question
could be sounds like Wes Craven's 1996 Scream;
however, the film described is actually Rolfe Kanefsky's There's
Nothing Out There from 1990 (which enjoyed only very limited
theatrical release in 1992). Nothing
is more than just an 'also-ran' with a great narrative trick utilized
a few years later by a bigger-budget film; it's a rollicking horror-comedy
that delivers both jokes and scares, all the while breathing new
life into the world of '80s-style fright flicks. |
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Beginning
with a dream sequence in an old fashioned video rental store (that
involves a cashier getting covered in videotape vinyl as a mysterious
assailant enters the store clutching for her with the camera's
POV), Nothing features a group of
seven young students going away to a house in the woods for a
weekend of partying and hookups. Seven people is an odd number,
made up of three sets of '80s movie teen couples (academic guy
David and foreign exchange girl Janet; blond hottie Doreen and
brain-dead jock Jim; clever guy Nick, whose family owns the house,
statuesque, sassy brunette Stacy), and Mike — the "third wheel"
who is a horror movie buff without a girlfriend. When the teens
run across the scene of what might be an accident, Mike immediately
suspects they are in a horror movie and that there is a maniac
or monster loose waiting to kill them behind every tree. The rest
of the gang doesn't believe Mike's story in the least, so off
they go to their weekend of fun in the sun. What they don't know
is that Mike is actually correct: there's a green frog/crab-like
space alien (nicknamed "Little Guy" by the filmmakers) that has
landed and is planning on killing and eating the menfolk through
slow digestion, while hypnotizing and breeding with the women
of Earth. Flesh is dissolved, people are killed, jokes are made,
boom mics come to the rescue, clothes are doffed, rakes get stepped
on, shaving cream is used as a weapon, bikinis are gloriously
worn for hours, mind control rays occur, makeshift traps are constructed,
all building to a final confrontation between a terrifying (and
occasionally clumsy) interstellar menace and the surviving teens. |
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A
gory good time awaits viewers who take in Nothing.
Some clever homages to '80s horror tropes are on display; A
Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil
Dead, and Return
of the Living Dead all get nods, as does an unexpected
appearance by a certain Stephen Spielberg epic. The performances
are generally quite good, and Bonnie Bowers, Claudia Flores and
Wendy Bendarz all make for lovely starlets. Craig Peck's horror-fan
Mike is probably the "Bruce Campbell" of the film, because like
Campbell to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead
series, he worked with director Kanefsky on earlier projects,
he brings a broad yet still appropriate comedic style to the story,
and he serves as a focal point for the audience since he's pointing
out all the tropes that horror aficionados do. An unjustly neglected
gem, There's Nothing Out There actually
is something... entertaining! |
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| Troma's
two-disc "20th Anniversary" edition of There's
Nothing Out There uses the same transfer as the 2001 Image
release, presented in anamorphic 1.78:1. Given the film's low
budget 16mm origins it looks and sounds quite good (or at least
perfectly acceptable). |
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Two
commentary tracks by Rolfe Kanefsky are offered, one recorded
for the Image release ten years ago and a new one for the Troma
set. Both are eminently worthwhile for fans of Nothing
or for anybody interested in trying to produce a film themselves
on a shoestring budget. The first commentary deals more with the
film proper, with the second commentary dealing more with elements
missed in the first commentary along with information on projects
Rolfe has been working on since then. There are a few deleted
scenes (nothing too spectacular), bloopers (some good ones, and
which show some of the rehearsals for the film), the original
trailer, and the short film Just Listen that the director
shot for a class that is briefly seen in the opening sequence. |
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The
best extras of the lot are a music video for Nothing
that was made using a song rejected for the film but which still
made a fun video, shown as edited together with two VCRs back
in 1990, and the infamous Mood Boobs featurette. Mood
Boobs is a short film Kanefsky made due to an interesting
confluence of events. Having directed a film called Jacqueline
Hyde (2005) that featured in its trailer an image of breasts
expanding, Kanefsky was approached by a fellow who wanted to make
a short showcasing women's breasts enlarging and bursting out
of their clothing. The guy paid for the production and Rolfe made
it with sexy actresses Shaina Fewell and Kanefsky favorite Tiffany
Shepis. It sold out of its original run, and now it's an excellent
DVD extra, along with the behind-the-scenes The Making of Mood
Boobs. True to form there are a few "Tromatic" extras
not related to Nothing, including
a Lloyd Kaufman intro to the film, a Troma T&A short, a Troma
PSA, the Radiation March, and various Troma trailers. 2/14/11
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