Duck! The Carbine High Massacre

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I loved this movie. I'm familiar with William Hellfire and Factory 2000's early output, so I knew what I was in for. That may have helped. Still, I was initially put off by the first twenty or so minutes. I expected this content to be taken a little more seriously. Once I understood the tone they were going for, I got it, and loved it.

There are some disturbing moments in this, but tongue is firmly in cheek through the entire film. It pokes fun at the cliques in high school, the clueless parents (which are ALL played by the same two people, I found this to be a funny gag), American media's obsession with violence. The massacre at the end gets fairly graphic and uncomfortable to watch at times, but the black humor still shines through.

If you're looking for an offensive but intelligently done low (LOW) budget flick, I can't recommend this one enough. One of Factory 2000's best films.

The massacre at Columbine High School--and the grief of its aftermath drawn out in the mass media--brought the 1990s to a screaming halt in a manner similar to the way Charles Manson's 'family' ended the 1960s on a similarly somber note. In the years that have followed, the incident has been the crux of Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" documentary and Gus van Sant's awful, exploitative art-house take, "Elephant." In Moore's film, more issues than answers are raised, with the ambiguity of motive and reason providing the fuel for discussion and thought; van Sant's film, on the other hand, is 80 shallow minutes that take forever to say absolutely nothing.

"Duck! The Carbine High Massacre" exists in an odd limbo between the above-mentioned films. Not as thought-provoking as Moore's humanitarian view, and not as dull as van Sant's debacle, its biggest claim to fame is being out the gate first (though filmed in 1999, it didn't receive an official video release until last year), though that ultimately isn't saying much. And the rationale for its existence, though the directors claim otherwise, is just as empty as the news media jumping on the handkerchief-wringing bandwagon of sadness carried in the aftermath of the Columbine massacre.

The shot-on-video production (which has the feel of a home movie, thus making its flaws all the more apparent) follows the lives of two put-upon high school kids (played by William Hellfire and Joey Smack) who listen to heavy metal, make bombs, read "Mein Kampf," and are subjected to torture and humiliation by the Alpha Elite, until one day they decide to shoot up the school in a blood-soaked frenzy. The characters are broad stereotypes without names, from a Bible-thumping Puritan, the cheerleader and her jock boyfriend, the gearhead, and the similarly tormented Goth kids--the cast isn't experienced enough and the writing isn't sharp enough to bring off the cutting satire successfully, so the film just winds up wallowing in its over-the-top excess, pandering for our attention.

That's not to say it isn't without its merits--though some of the humor is awkward (when a husband beats up his wife after hearing some heavy metal music, for instance), the youthful characters hit the right notes in spite of their heavy-handed approach. Needless to say, Hellfire and Smack carry this 20-minutes-too-long picture, and exhibit a deeply felt rapport whenever on screen; though their characters are ultimately as clichéd as the bullying jocks, we are sympathetic towards their plight without necessarily agreeing with it.

On the other hand, "Duck!" trots out nerve-obliterating clichés (how many times did we need to see that wounded kid running out of the building, on TV?), unfunny one-liners, and very poor acting by the surrounding adults. It gets to the point where any commentary on school violence is jettisoned for a "Natural Born Killers"-style festival of excess, to the point where the film becomes a chore to watch.

Ultimately, "Duck!" is an unbalanced misfire that takes the good with the bad, but doesn't elicit the strong reaction it is so desperately trying to provoke. What's left is the promise of seeing something of fairer quality from the Hellfire/Smack duo one day, so...better luck next time, guys.

I was, at first, reluctant to show this movie to my friends. i was afraid they'd think it was a tasteless, shoddily made, horrible movie (Which it is, but more on that later). then, once i told them about it, they were very eager to see it. So i showed it to them, and we laughed our asses off.

This movie is very cheaply made (On sub-porno quality video), with some of the worst acting i've ever seen. It's cheap, crude, and not at all slick. but that's the only way i can imagine a project like this working. it wouldn't be funny at all if it were slickly made. That is the true beauty of this film. My one gripe: the carnage comes too late in the film. but up to that point there are numerous comic gems, so this movie is still worth seeing.

i just got this movie in he mail today and i've gotta say it's pretty good. when it first starts, i had to scoff at the acting in the first scene because it was SO terrible, but as the movie progressed, it got better. hellfire and smack aren't bad actors and play their characters rather well. as cheap as the movie was (and i don't mean that as necessarily bad) i couldn't help but to feel some compassion for derick and derwin, particularly the part after derwin gets beat up and derick has to do that presentation by himself. it actually upset me how they were ridiculing him and he was obviously getting upset, and to top it off, the teacher failed him. that was probably my favorite scene. overall, it was a pretty good movie despite some of the acting. i recommend to fans of independent movies.

If there was a controversy over this movie I never heard anything about it, and the small number of votes here would seem to indicate it was never much of an important topic.

The only controversy that should be related to this movie is whether or not it should qualify as a "movie" at all, since it looks and especially sounds as though it was made by a high school drama club on one of their dad's VHS camcorders.

This is just terrible. Can't believe we made it through the whole thing. And this is coming from someone who actually enjoys watching bad/cheesy movies.