Body Melt

This movie really surprised me. I picked it up after reading the rave reviews from other IMDB members, and on the strength of everyone comparing it to Braindead (aka Dead Alive).

Well, it isn't like Braindead. It's something new, something extremely unique and original. Really impressive if you ask me, and a whole lot of fun. I loved the inbred family, loved the "over-the-top" gore effects.

There is one thing that not many have mentioned yet, this film is clever. It isn't just some empty splatter film, it has personality and style. We never really get to know the characters that well, but it tells a good story just as well.

Oh, and it's funny. Very funny. Any movie in which a couple of deformed hillbilly kids kill a kangaroo with a rock at 1000 yards, then eat it's adreno glands to get high, has got something to say.

Love it.

The residents of Pebbles Court, Homesville, have been chosen (unknowingly) to take part in the testing of a new Vitamin Supplement manufactured by a company known as Vimuville. Unfortunately, there are horrible side effects due to chemical imbalances in the body and the like, and most of the cast end up exploding, or imploding and various other things. The graphic FX are good; script nice and tight (and funny), and it's full of colour. So, not really a horror, but more along the lines of The Toxic Avenger(1985), Braindead(1992) and Street Trash (1991).

Even though this is not quite a satire, it's full of funny moments for all sickos and people with twisted sense of humour. Some australian reviewers inform us that some of the cast are well known in Australia from soap shows. That makes me really glad and the whole thing clearer! Really gross-out gore effects (i expected a bit more, though), really great photograph & depiction of an ausytralian suberb (even though i have never been there!) and a sequence of really entertaining scenes. This could be considered the definition of "high-time" for a bunch of friends drinking beer and laughing, but, to me, its this and much more.

What the Heck is this flick? It's not really a comedy or horror movie, it's not really sci-fi, and I'm pretty sure it's not a drama. Mystery, thriller, Western- there's not a genre section at Blockbuster that can tame this wily beast of a movie!

Here's what it is, as far as I can tell: A mysterious pharmaceutical company, run by one naked woman and a bunch of muscle-bound squeeky voiced guys, is secretly testing it's new drug on the inhabitants of a small housing complex somewhere in New Zealand. They also front a health spa where their unwitting test subjects come to have their urine sampled. The drug is, of course, malfunctioning, and all the folks who take it eventually mutate in various ways (not many of them actually melt, as the title implies. Most explode).

In one subplot, two lustful teens are off to donate sperm but get lost and end up with a bizarre backwoods family with big welts on their faces. The teens hang out with the inbred yokels for a while, watching them eat kangaroo glands and riding in the truck from "Even Dwarves Started Small". Unfortunately, one of the guys puts the moves on the huge, revolting sister in the family and gets a stake in the loins.

Other highlights include killer placentas, exploding genitals, huge swelling tongues, and tons of other gore (from the people who handled the effects in "Dead Alive"). This movie is a sloppy good time, for no one escapes the wrath of... BODY MELT! Recommended!

The second funniest horror/comedy I have ever seen, second only to Kiwi flick Dead Alive (aka Brain Dead). Special effects are corny, yet very well done. The plot isn't too involving, but doesn't fall apart and can be followed with ease. Great portrayal of your average Australian. Basically there's this company that tests it's hazardous products on a new neighbourhood causing havoc. Genitals explode, rednecks shove sticks up people, and pregnant women burst open and their placentas attack people. Superb! 8/10.