Butcher Boys

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way associated with the film - nor do I believe the other positive reviews to be. I simply had to make this my first review due to how shocked I am of the rating here.

Is this the next cult classic for horror films? Absolutely not. Was I thoroughly entertained the ENTIRE film? YES.

Make no mistake about it - this is definitely a rehashed TCM script that the writer augmented after reading a book he enjoyed. People are comparing this the Chainsaw Massacre because it feels remarkably similar. You are fooling yourself if you feel otherwise.

The plot is ripe with loose ends...and it definitely gets wacky at the end, but that's alright. Because its entertaining. TCM3D was one of the worst films I watched this year... perhaps the worst actually. Butcher Boys has solid acting for the most part, interesting characters, and truly nonstop engagement. Seriously ..its impressive if you think about it.

I am a horror movie fan. In fact, I watch damn near exclusively horror films. I passed on this one several times due to the lower rating here on IMDb. I watched because I simply had nothing else, and I am very glad I did. It's a move I will certainly be revisiting due to its tense yet "fun" (i suppose) nature.

Greetings, a lot of people don't like this movie as much while watching it. All I can do is provide you a breakdown of why I actually enjoyed it and you can take away what you will. Opinions may differ. Alright, some of the acting was shod, and some of the scenes felt silly. Most of the good guy characters were meh but the main female wasn't bad, a lot of main females have terrible sounding screams etc but I found her pretty good and not annoying (a plus right?).. On the other hand some of the villains were rather enjoyable, with points going to Johnny Walter. His screen presence and attitude felt comfortable and natural and very fitting for the collected "boss" of the villains. When it comes to the story if you compare it to a lot of other horror films that have higher ratings I suppose it has a lot more substance. I mean look at most of the Friday the 13th films (to which I am a fan), teens go back to crystal lake for some reason and jason chases and kills them, the end. That's the case with a lot of horror films. Or there is a weak plot thrown in as a excuse for torture porn and rape. I am not saying there is some in depth story or plot twists here, you are at least provided with some crazy setting and characters. As for the characters most of the good guys/victims were more or less forgettable, not a lot of substance but there rarely is in horror. The villains on the other hand were rather enjoyable for me, I liked their mix of rockabilly look (and I guess one looks like joaquin pheonix) and attitudes and the way they acted around each other. They at least made the effort to add various bits of personality to the various characters, some more than others. Music was mostly subtle, eerie sounds etc, nothing fantastic but better than some of the zombie movies lately that blast some trash garage metal. Atmosphere was nice, lots of eerie abandoned little areas and set pieces. Lighting wasn't too dark, off, or weird. The camera work and sound quality was quite decent, not much to say. Basic decent camera work. Well done. Wasn't too ridiculously overly gory and the shots of gore were not terrible, nothing tremendously new but nothing stupid either. And drum roll please NO RAPESCENE IN THIS FILM! I couldn't believe it! I finally get to sit down and watch a good old b horror gore film and didn't have to watch a shitty forced in rape scene. There is some nudity in the film though. There were some stupid parts yes of course, its a horror film. If a horror film void of stupid parts gets made it will probably lose its horror tag. The Amphead guy screaming into the speakers was midly annoying after a bit. I don't think the film is meant to be taken too seriously of course. I struggle between giving this a 6 (one over mediocre, enjoyable but not special) to a 7 which warrants a rather greater bit of interest I felt while watching so I suppose for now I will settle on a 6.5 Hopefully I provided a little insight. Would recommend more for horror fans and gore fans especially those who can sit back and enjoy the crazy.

Four kids out for some fun upset the wrong gang of cannibal greasers and are chased around a city at night while being picked off one by one. The script for Butcher boys was written by the writer of the original Texas chainsaw massacre with most of the ideas from that movie being regurgitated here only slightly tweaked. Several scenes are reused which dampens the impact as you've seen it before. It also borrows from other films most notably Judgement night.

In its favour Butcher boys does have a pleasingly nihilistic tone as once the film gets going nothing is explained. Who are these rockabilly cannibals? Why are the cops scared of them? Just what is that weird restaurant/gentlemans club they're running all about? But the tentative approach to the violence portrayed is at odds with the gonzo storytelling. Apart from two or three slightly graphic scenes the blood and gore is fairly minimal. This could be due to budget constraints. If I so I would have maybe saved the money spent on the constant nighttime aerial shots and spent that money on more prosthetic effects. A little more violence would have pushed this film up another notch on the crazy level making it that little bit more memorable. The nihilism does eventually reach it's apex in the finale when all hell breaks lose. Unfortunately this scene also turns a few things already set up in the film on its head. Making you question even further the lack of coherence.

I did find watching Butcher boys a fairly frustrating experience. I could definitely feel the opportunity for a good if not great movie in there somewhere. Visually it's very competent, it's well filmed and has a certain visual style all credit to the directors achieving this on a minimal budget. The sound and score are also strong. On the whole the performances are good with the odd exception. The problem lies mainly with the script, it borrows too much from other films, some of it could be classed as a knowing wink or nod to the writers previous work. Although had it been written by anyone else I think we'd be calling it plagiarism.

In the end I was left neither loving or hating the film hence the score. Maybe on a second viewing I'd like it more, but at the moment the only taste left in my mouth is vanilla.

I threw this on for background noise, and it turned out to be pretty good to the end. It had a ethereal feeling like the Fancy restaurant that Jake, and Oy stumble upon while trying to get back to the Beam. I thought it was just another vampire movie, and I started to tune it out, but I liked the sound that kept drawing me back. The sound of a woman getting away over, and over again. That is a pretty good sound, so I was pulled in, and surprised by what I saw. This movie is what would happen if vampires ran the "Hostile" organization, but one night the kick ass survivor girl from "The Cave" shows up, and does her thing. I really ended up enjoying myself, and would recommend this to anyone who is a Buffy fan, or just likes good action/horror.

So what even is happening in this movie? All of the actors are ridiculous, and the music is TOO over the top. So many of the fighting scenes are obviously fake and this movie is a waste of 10 GTR's if you ask me. No but seriously, it's so bloody weird, and I've seen all scary movies before. Please don't even waste your precious time watching this crap. Just when you think it's about to end, some more weird stuff happens. There's a mutant thing that keeps making noise and is just horribly distracting. I'm pretty sure it's about weird cannibals, but I don't even know. The movie skips to different scenes way too quickly, and when the bad guys get shot they don't even get hurt !

Plus the booby scenes aren't real :(