Beauty Queen Butcher

There's a lot to gripe about in Beauty Queen Butcher. It's shot on video and looks it. The characters are two dimensional and over the top. The soundtrack at times reeks of a 1980's infomercial. But at the same time, I just can't deny liking the movie. It's made "just" well enough to keep you watching. I smiled, a lot. It's pure camp, and I would venture to say the filmmakers knew it. Ultimately, it plays out like a zero budget Carrie with some so bad it's good bits of acting. Of the Camp Motion Picture releases thus far, I can honestly say I enjoyed this one the most.

Whether or not you chose to rent it all determines on one question. Do you enjoy cult movies? I do, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

A shot on video high school slasher from 1991, and feeling very much like a non-supernatural spin on the CARRIE concept. Sadly, it's absolutely diabolical in terms of quality, with all of the awful things you come to associate with the indie genre: lacklustre scripting, incredibly stilted dialogue, and generally poor production values all round. The story follows a group of in-girls (shades of HEATHER) who decide to prank an obese classmate by getting her to join a beauty contest, where she's the butt of much humour. However, when the bullies go after her pet cat, the trouble really starts. There are no redeeming qualities here.

There are some interesting ideas here, but the movie just doesn't work mainly due to it's impossibly long run time when the first hour of the film could have been condensed into 20/30 minutes rather easily. It's obvious they're doing everything with a tongue planted firmly in their cheek, but some of the gags work better than others. Having a man play the head of the beauty contest is a great idea, but the actor they got isn't very good.

Had the story been more streamlined and the film had clocked in at a more manageable run time, it could have been a lot better. It's hard to critique it too much, because it obviously had far loftier goals than most no-budget slasher flicks and that should be applauded.

The movie has a good sense of humor, but it feels like you're watching outtakes or an un-fine tuned rough cut of a long lost John Waters movie before it got more refined. As expected, there are inspired moments, but they don't add up to much.

Overly long and lacking the gore or suspense of a slasher. Performances are earnest. Jim Boggess' performance stands out as Betty Purnish. It's better than many slashers with better budgets, but it doesn't rise above what I would consider "adequate." With a tighter script and faster pacing, could have scored higher. Better kills would have helped as well.

That said, there are some good jokes that elevate the movie.

My scoring:

1-3: Sub-par. Avoid.

4-6: Adequate.

7-9: Good 10: Exceptional (rare).

Something others might score in the 6-7 range would get a lower score. I understand this will mess up the average.

It is rare for me to write a review without really seeing the movie. And although I was prepared for a low budget, technically challenged film, I couldn't make it past the first 10minutes because I COULDN'T HEAR THE FREAKING DIALOGUE. Not just because it was low while everything else was normal, but because it sounded like the actors were speaking into a mic through four thick scarves around their faces. All I heard was low mumbling and that was it. Am I the only one who had this issue? Is it an Amazon Prime Video problem? I can overlook a lot when it comes to low budget indies because every now and then you find a diamond in the rough and the inkling of future talent. But the sound guy blew this for everyone. So was this a good movie ultimately? Dunno. Couldn't hear it.