Splatter (2009)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
When you team up producer Roger Corman, writer Richard Christian Matheson and director Joe Dante you expect something much better than this short film, which, sad to say, is downright bad. Rock and roll has been Jonny Splatter (Corey Feldman) kills himself so that he can come back as a zombie-like creature and kill the five people who betrayed him in life. You have the former bandmate, the ex who stole his song, a groupie, a therapist and of course his manager who just happens to be played by Tony Todd. At just 29-minutes you'd think this would at least be somewhat viewable in a "so bad it's good" way but it's not. When you consider the talent involved you can't help but see this thing as a complete disaster that has very little going for it and a whole lot going wrong. You can start with the screenplay, which just throws out on cliché after another and it doesn't do a single fresh thing from start to finish. There are several references to current events or pop culture but this adds nothing. The special effects contain some decent stuff including a melting head that eventually pops as well as a throat being sliced but that's about it. As far as performances go they're really mixed. Fans of Feldman, myself included, will enjoy seeing him here even though the "performance" isn't the great. Todd could do this type of film in his sleep but he's always fun to watch. Erin Way was the one bright spot in the film as she played the groupie very well and certainly stole the film. I'm sure this movie wasn't meant to be taken serious and it wanted to have some sort of cult appeal but you still have to at least try and do something with it. It really seems like this movie was thrown together out of scraps and sadly the end result is very boring.
