Film House Fever

I saw this movie because I found it on YouTube during the first lockdown caused by the pandemic (April 2020) because some days I ended up watching even three movies a day. And I could easily relate to the leads.

The movie hasn't really a plot. It begins with Vinnie and Tony (Steve Buscemi and Mark Boone junior) that after an entire week at home in front of the TV decide to go out for going to the movie theater and watch an entire day of non-stop movies! What follows is basically an entire series of clips and snippets of some very awful movies from the 1960s and 1970s made by some of the worst directors ever and when the movie day is over, everybody in theater turns into zombies!

This movie has an incredibly dated direct to video look and the clips of the movies that Buscemi and Boone Junior watch are at times pretty nasty and nauseating to watch. A truly unpleasant and worthless movie... and I can see why only 8 persons apart me dared to review it!

This is just random old b movie clips. Many are even shown multiple times. The "stars" of this so called movie add nothing and have absolutely no reason to be there. There is no entertainment value here.

As I watched "Film House Fever" I couldn't help but wonder if this film cost more than $6.89 to make. And, the more I think about it, $6.89 might be MORE than they spent...it's that bad and that cheap...and has a direct to video look.

"Film House Fever" is a bit like a really bad and unfunny version of "MSTK3000" but instead of watching a single film and make comments, two guys instead watch clip after clip from various bad ultra-violent and soft core exploitation films from the 1960s through the 80s and say almost nothing. The clips are inserted randomly and with no finesse nor style. And, because of the randomness, they really aren't fun to watch in the least and it's all incoherent. It's a shame, as the idea MIGHT have worked had the filmmakers shown SOME skill or sense of humor.

So is there any reason to watch this film? There's only one I can think of....to see Steve Buscemi in one of his first movies. But apart from that, I think you'd be better off just seeing these exploitation films yourself instead of in clips. Or, download the films yourself and make your own clip movie...it certainly couldn't be any worse than "Film House Fever"! Or, better yet, just stare at a photo of Steve Buscemi for an hour....it STILL would be better than this movie.

There's only two good reasons to endure this schlocky collection of mostly unattributed film clips: young Steve Buscemi and young, thin, almost wholesome-looking (almost) Mark Boone Jr., probably best known these days for playing the sleazy but good-hearted motel clerk in `Memento.' The `host segments' (to borrow an apt term from MST3K) are shot on video and as such are reminiscent of public access television. And that's very appropriate, since this entire production reeks of the public access clip-show aesthetic. Though the bits of comic business Buscemi and Boone get up to together are mostly unfunny (by even the most lax critical standards), they nonetheless elicit chuckles because they're being performed by very game, very earnest (no doubt very glad to have even a crappy job like this) talented young actors. If this was the only thing you'd ever seen him in, you'd never imagine that Buscemi would end up turning in Oscar-worthy performances years later. And to reiterate, the normally dissolute Boone looks almost cuddly - kind of like a low rent Curtis Armstrong (who's already low rent).

The only major criticism to be leveled at this collection of clips is that the attributions are sporadic and follow no apparent logic. Some get superimposed credits at the bottom announcing what they are (seemingly all the Hershel Gordon Lewis clips get this favored treatment), but most whiz by without telling what they are. This is a bit maddening if you care about trivia like that. But if you don't, why the hell are you watching trash like this in the first place?

Can't believe nobody's mentioned the REAL reason to check this out -- mixed in among the public domain, z-rated echh-sploitation stuff, you'll find the ONLY legally issued pre-"Evil Dead" footage by young Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, and friends! Several segments from their Three Stooges-like comedy shorts "Torro, Torro, Torro" (about a lawnmower gone berserk) and "Cleveland Smith: The Waders of the Lost Park" appear here, reproduced from nice, crisp sources. Unfortunately neither film is shown in it's entirety (for that, you'll still have to resort to the smudgy, muffled bootlegs that have been making the rounds for years.)

• Ken Lieck