Splatter

After committing suicide, a washed-up rocker returns from the grave to torment the five people who betrayed him in life. TV-14 29m

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.

Back in the 1950's, before commercials consumed 10 minutes of a half-hour TV show, they knew how to introduce a story, develop the plot, reach and resolve a crisis, and tidy up before rolling the credits. Splatter is not much more than the steaming pile of entrails it attempts to exploit. It even fails as at guts 'n' gore, which is about all it might have had going for it. After 30 minutes, I have to wonder why I bothered sitting through it. There must be a different Roger Corman involved in this train wreck.

In 2009, Netflix pitches the idea of an original interactive web series to Roger Coreman and Joe Dante. It was an early experiment in video streaming instead of Netflix shipping tons of DVDs back and forth. The original intent was to have viewers vote on which character would die in the next 10-15 minute episode.

Netflix only kept three episodes and put them together in a 29 minute short that isn't worth anyone's time. Feldman plays a washed up rockstar who kills himself in order to bait his frienemies to his mansion so he can come back as a ghost demon and murder them. Nothing about this film was original and the production value (even for 2009 low budget horror) is the only thing horrifying about this film.

That you would "star" is his incoherent piece of dribble, and don't even get me started on that bizarre ending. I wasted a portion of my life watching this mess.