Brutal Massacre (2007)

BRUTAL MASSACRE is Stevan Mena's ode to the Horror genre, its filmmakers, and its fans. Coming off of the underground success of his Slasher hit MALEVOLENCE, Mena decided to move on to Comedy, using the "Mockumentary" shooting style made popular in The Office to deliver his story. This film-within-a-film finds Horror director Harry Penderecki on the shoot of his comeback picture, BRUTAL MASSACRE, where anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. With no money, less talent, and limited time, this rag-tag team of filmmakers must come together to finish the project and save their careers! BRUTAL MASSACRE boasts an impressive line-up of familiar genre faces and an incredibly witty script that falls just short of genius. David Naughton (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) leads as the inspired but utterly helpless Harry Penderecki, and is joined by Ellen Sandweiss and Besty Baker (THE EVIL DEAD), Gunnar Hansen (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), Ken Foree (DAWN OF THE DEAD), and many others. Mena uses the light tone to make clever strikes at the film industry, commenting on many of the toughest issues facing filmmakers that are forced to compromise their integrity and vision in order to earn financial backing. At the same time, he also pokes fun at directors' overwhelming sense of self-importance and pretentious attitudes towards their films, which is best shown when Harry is found deflecting accusations of misogyny and gratuitous violence with meaningless psychobabble. Though the writing is very smart, the timing and dry deliveries often undermine the humor, but genre fans will enjoy seeing their idols in sillier performances. While it may not be perfect, BRUTAL MASSACRE is an entertaining reflection on the genre that is sure to appeal to the Horror audiences that it was intended for.

Rating: 7/10.
Number of views: 2.

If you liked BRUTAL MASSACRE, check out:
AMERICAN MOVIE, BEHIND THE MASK, THE LAST HORROR MOVIE.