Death Factory

Poorly-made, with the appearance of a cheap TV movie - very shabby special effects, banal script, illogical plotting, extraordinary expansions and contractions of time, but most of all the most blatant collection of stereotypes: the jock, lecturing on fitness the whole time; the soldier with the murky (presumably deniable) recent history he tells to the first person who asks; the preacher, well over six feet and with a southern accent, proselytising.to the point of irritation; the saucy, feisty women of colour; the doe-teed youths, desperate to fall in love with each other.

The bad guys should all be so familiar, but Jack the Ripper turns out to be a woman in a mask and with a Dick van Dyke chimney-sweep Bert accent (no spoiler, she is in the cast list), Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer are so keen to emphasise their one identifiable aspect that they forget to be bad. The pamphlet for a serial killer museum hints at a 'mystery killer', but we get two and it is never clear why.

Gore, such as there is, is strictly 1970s Giallo-standard; likewise gratuitous sexuality. If I was looking for a comparison, I would suggest a less memorable episode of Supernatural - it even ends as if setting up for the next episode but, on the evidence of this, a sequel is unlikely.

THE FACTORY is one of those horror films that sounds good in concept but turns out to be a real load of nonsense. The problem with it is that it's another low budget indie production which means bad script, bad direction and bad acting. A busload of cliched characters head off to a serial killer museum but find themselves stalked when the killers come back to life and look for new victims. The blood and gore is in short supply here but one of the characters is a martial artist so we do get a handful of fight scenes randomly shoehorned into the mix. What's most irritating is the level of excess on display in the acting.

Because it has to be a comedy, right? It stretches the imagination that anyone would think of this as anything else, it's so packed with outrageous stereotypes, epicly bad acting, gratuitous sex just shoved into the story like the director had to fill a quota, and perhaps the worst dialogue in all of cinema history. Listen: It's even worse than "Is it raining? I hadn't noticed." [Four Weddings and a Funeral-but who doesn't know that?)

Accordingly, I loved it. It now ranks at #1 in my list of "Movies So Bad I Can't Stop Watching Them," displacing Point Break for the first time in 20 years. I love how hard the actors are working (you can see them working their drama class training); I love how seriously the film portrays itself. So earnest. So committed. So sad.

In the introduction, a hillbilly woman is (somewhat disturbingly) beaten and killed by who appears to be her violent ex-boyfriend, before said goon is killed by the lady's son. I'm still in the process of sorting out how this fits into the whole storyline, but maybe that's pointless, as proved later.

A few decades later, that same son has grown into a bearded and broody hunk. He's part of a group of disparate individuals heading to the desert for some sort of spiritual enlightenment trek. There's a preacher and his dull girlfriend, the goofy best friend, the sports fanatic, 2 bimbos, 2 worthless goths, a fat foul-mouthed lady, etc.. Halfway through, their bus breaks down and they hike to a ghost town. The same ghost town that, earlier on, a salesman "bought" the rights to the Death Factory Museum from an unsuspecting local. The poor chap must have been the only left resident in town. After some accidental sexual witchcraft, the 2 goths awaken the spirits of legendary serial killers like Ed Gein, Jack the Ripper, and a a healthy handful of others (including a bare-chested lethal vixen I couldn't recognize, but maybe she was only there for gender equality). The broody and hunky son makes it a mission to save his reluctant posse by absorbing the spirit of said killers, then there's some capoeira, and the Devil, and it just stops making sense.

If you agree to not try and make sense of the very messy storyline, you will probably be pleasantly entertained by the varied shenanigans. All the killers have great presence (except maybe for the aforementioned vixen, probably because she has no back-story in our collective pop consciousness). They are strongly portrayed, have threatening presence, and are prominently featured. There's lots of actions and gruesome killings, some refreshing nudity, the plot twists keep on popping until the very end, there's nothing to be bored with. Just leave your expectations at the door and enjoy the heartfelt ride.

Okay, I am not saying this is something that is going to get tons of awards, but the idea is interesting on it's own. I bought it for a tenner, expecting something below average, I love horror what can I say. Although I was surprised firstly the serials killers did act like how they were in real life even some fun elements, but I find it funny the only critic gave this 0/10, that shows worth of that critic. Anyway, they are caricatures, but as with horror the most annoying die first. The critic also does not seem to how understand how unlimited stupidity is, referring to the fact they read the book. Of course we as watchers will know it's bad idea, but then we have fortunate fact of knowing they are in a horror movie.

Sorry for the rant, but this was not a hugely bad movie, it had some surprises and outside of small annoyances never felt I need to stop watching. I give it eight, good way to pass the time and one twist is genuinely clever...

The ending, well that shows the critic who reviewed did not even understand what had happened... Plus some of the character's broke out of their clichés which was refreshing.