Body Trash

Here's an unassuming Australian-made horror-comedy, a hybrid of David Cronenberg's early 'biological mutation' movies and fellow antipodean Peter Jackson's comic gore fests.

Inhabitants of a tract-home development in suburban Melbourne are used in a controlled experiment by scientists at a trendy health resort (called Vimuville and built on a condemned toxic dump). Their revolutionary E-59 vitamin supplement is promised to create a "new you." Unfortunately the side effects are equally revolutionary -- recipients hallucinate, their bodies malfunction, glandular secretions get up and move around, and eventually they explode into colorful goo.

BODY MELT's episodic script plays down the ultra-gory possibilities of the situation, and takes occasionally funny stabs at suburbanites who will eat just about anything they get for free, and are otherwise oblivious to how they are exploited by government and industry.

In the film's most outrageous sequence, a pregnant Yuppie housewife dies when the fetus erupts from her womb, flies across the room, and slithers down the throat of its horrified father. But BODY MELT works best when it avoids spittle 'n grue and brushes with the nightmarish. For instance, there is a protracted but effective sequence of an infected businessman with a recurring hallucination, a female apparition who collects rib bones from men "just like him."

The humor is uneven but co-writer/director Philip Brophy exhibits a healthy distrust of white middle-class swank. There's a good "ear joke"; a police station awash in green vomit; liquid detergent guzzling; a chintzy Cronenberg-style TV commercial; a mutating ex-Vimuville scientist with moronic, Mongloid offspring, who keeps the antidote to E-59 a secret; and a pill-popping bodybuilder with an exploding penis! The cast, a contingent of Australian TV actors, is good, especially Suzi Dougherty as the rib-girl.

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!

As an Australian reviewer it is gratifying seeing reviewers from other countries express their appreciation for Philip Brophy's little 1993 gore-fest. Brophy is something of a Renaissance Man, wearing many hats from composer and musician to film critic, curator and academic (for those interested in Brophy's scholarly work you might want to check out his website: http://www.philipbrophy.com/index.html).

BODY MELT cleverly pokes fun at a variety of popular contemporary Australian television dramas (most notably NEIGHBOURS, the long-running prime-time Aussie soap opera well-known to British viewers and set in the neighbourly cul-de-sac of Ramsay Street) and 1970s Aussie police procedurals. Even most of his cast come from Australian television series, such as BLUE HEALERS regulars Lisa McCune and William McInnes and Brett Climo (who starred in A COUNTRY PRACTISE and THE FLYING DOCTORS) and Gerard Kennedy, the face of Crawford Productions 1970s cop show, DIVISION 4. Perhaps best of all is the casting of NEIGHBOURS veteran Ian Smith, who plays Harold Bishop in that long-running TV Soap. Casting Smith as eccentric Dr. Carrera, Brophy provides the actor with a rare opportunity to play against type and Smith inhabits the role with relish.

I was at the wonderful old Valhalla Cinema in Northcote (now the far less interesting Westgarth Cinema) back in 1993 on the night that Brophy premiered BODY MELT to an appreciative Melbourne audience who belly-laughed at the over-the-top comedy and lurid special effects. His depictions of bodies self-destructing and liquefying in various icky and imaginative ways recalled, for me, Brophy's 1988 experimental film, SALT SALIVA SPERM AND SWEAT, in which he explores corporeality and the idea of bodily fluids as a form of social exchange. At the screening, Brophy explained that he incorporated ideas he'd had for shorter films into BODY MELT as side-stories, admitting that while they do not contribute towards a cohesive narrative, they nevertheless fit within the broader thematic concerns of the film. Indeed, I would argue that these moments of suburban Gothic psychedelia and outback redneck cannibalism add to the outlandish comedy and disorienting effect of the film.

It's nice to see people from other countries getting into this film, which deserves a higher rating than 4.3, even if some of the humour is culturally parochial. Thanks to those who took the time to watch and appreciate this overlooked little gem.

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.

'Body Melt' is one of the most misunderstood Australian movies of all time! Director Philip Brophy, who has a background in avante garde electronic music and performance art, has created a wicked subversion of splatter movies. The film is all the better for having many Aussie soap stars and familiar faces in its cast, a fact that will probably be completely lost on overseas viewers. Just imagine your own "beloved" family favourites in the main roles and you might start to see what Brophy's done here.

'Body Melt' is rude, crude, messy fun that only a complete idiot could take SERIOUSLY as a horror movie! So sit back, tune in turn on and drop IN to 'Body Melt'! Just watch what you eat when you do....