Death Factory

Fun little flick! Sure, its cheesy and heavy handed but frankly, i like that in a horror film. Nothing earth shattering in the realm of horror- as far as plot, pretty standard "summoning dark forces" fare- but an interesting twist via the use of serial killers. All your favorite real life skeezwads are here, including gein, dahmer, and a creepy new take on jack the ripper (honestly impressed with that one.) Annoying sterotypes youll enjoy see getting killed-seriously, try not to cheer when the goth couple gets their comeuppance- including the gratuitous bimbos providing the requisite T&A the genre demands, and a few actually likable people to root for. Auntie May proves that she is, indeed, not one to f*** with and my favorite character. I want a spin off starring her, wherein she takes down demons with one monstrous flick of her wig. And how often are the main villians African American? Semi Anthony is quite luscious and plays a good meanie. Some good fight scenes towards the end, including an impressive spin kick. All in all, the kind of fun horror i enjoy, not too serious and just a good time. :)

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.

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.

This film has exactly three good things: the location, the original main villain and the music. The music is a good tribute to the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and single handedly lifts this film from a 1 to a 2.

Apart from that the casting, the acting, the lighting, the editing, the dialogue, the plot and the sound is so bad it couldn't even pass for a student film. Especially the casting, which is truly bad considering this film tries to include historical serial killers.

Also, the film has no proper ending, and there are several scenes that are so disjointed it seems like there are missing reels.

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.