Chainsaw Sally

Despite an engaging central performance from April Monique Burril as sexy schizophrenic Sally, the goth girl with a penchant for power-tool mayhem, this low budget trash horror didn't quite cut it for me, never attempting the true horror one might expect from a film that frequently references The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, nor delivering the gruesome graphic splatter from one that features a cameo from none other than the 'godfather of gore' himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Director Jimmyo Burril, lucky spouse of leading lady April, clearly has a great love of the genre, and his script throws up plenty of suitably warped and offensive situations, but the full potential of his delightfully deviant material is often left unrealised: Sally's early murders are frustratingly gore-free, her severing of a guy's tally-whacker remains strictly out of frame (although the addition of the sparkler to the wound was a nice touch), the splattery demise of a woman forced to consume acid is regrettably brief, and some nail-gun action towards the end really could have been much nastier.

Whilst the absence of in-your-face, gross-out effects can probably be put down to budgetary restraints, no such excuse can be applied to the low standard of acting from all but its attractive star or the weak stabs at dark humour.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb (although I was tempted to round it down to 4 to counterbalance the suspiciously high proportion of over-enthusiastic reviews here on IMDb).

This flick was only released as a zone 1 DVD which means that Europeans couldn't catch a copy or you need a zone free player. On the other hand it was sold out rather soon and it even became a bit of a cult flick in the US which resulted in some kind of series know as The Chainsaw Sally Show released in 2010.

I just tracked down the original flick because it contained two famous names, Herschell Gordon Lewis and Gunnar Hansen. I think that I don't have to make any introduction to those both names. Herschell the godfather of gore and Gunnar being Leatherface.

For most of the other actors it was their first real attempt, except Silver Scream (2003) which came out straight on video. And you surely doesn't want to watch it for the acting. There are a lot of problems with this flick. The acting is sometimes really wooden. Okay, maybe Jimmyo Burril (the director) didn't knew his stuff back then except for Silver Scream and it shows. The editing was really bad and the sound was sometimes worse. You couldn't understand what they were saying when there was a conversation going on. The comedy added was for me so typical American and for me that's mostly not laughable as it shows again here. The story on the other hand is okay but didn't really work out on the screen. There's red stuff on the screen but most of Sally's torturing is done off-camera. There's a big ode towards The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, just watch the poster and Sally's swirling with the chainsaw just like Leatherface did at the end of TCM. Or when Sally is playing TCM with her brother. Nevertheless it wasn't really my cup of tea. Some parts I did enjoy others I didn't like. It's clear that gorehounds hate this, it had so much to offer but I blame it on the extreme low budget and being the first attempt of Jimmyo to make a full feature.

Still, the series that was made in 2010 had more gore which is normal, it was made 6 years later. Even that became a bit of a cult series and is already OOP.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0,5/5

Pretty good flick. Back in 2004 I attended the Shockerfest Convention down in Modesto, CA and watched this on the big screen (and met some of the cast). I had no idea this was scheduled to play, when I saw one of the little flyers, I knew I had to watch it. My sister and I agreed that it was one of the best feature-length films shown.

By day Sally works at a library. She has a younger brother who lives with her. I found this character 'Ruby' extremely likable and funny. At night Sally goes a little psycho violently murdering anyone she believes to be a threat to herself, her brother and her home.

On a personal note, I thought the girl who played the 'Cinthia' was/is hot. Felt a little sad to find out this is her only film to date. Hope to see her in more movies in the future.

Anyway, going back to Chainsaw Sally. The audience seemed to like it as much as my sister and I did. Can't wait for the sequel, hopefully I'll be able to watch it on the big screen as well!

I decided to give this one a try from the pretty positive reviews, silly me, I thought this tale of a mild mannered librarian turned psycho killer had some potential. But the sad truth was that everything about this mess of a film is simply awful. From the porn-caliber acting to the lame ass comedy. The special effects (aka. Gore) was all right, but the rest of the movie was so bad that mere words can't convey how utterly disastrous it is. I thought that having the legendary Gunner Hansen AND legend H G Lewis would be a good sign and I'd find a diamond in the rough. Alas, no I couldn't have been more wrong. Avoid this film at all costs as it can only bring you misery. I consider myself a huge B-movie horror fan and even I loathed this film. That should tell you something.

My Grade: D-

DVD Extras: Commentary by Director/writer Jimmyo Burril, actress April Burril, and actor Shawn Jones: 30 minute documentary on the film; an interview with Gunnar Hansen; Story boards; a music video; promotional trailer; and trailers for "Skin Crawl", "Bacterium", "Creature from the hillbilly lagoon", "Chantel", "Sinful", "Shock-O-Rama", "Feeding the Masses", "Prison a go go", "Bite me!", "Screaming Dead", Suburben Nightmare", "Slime City", "Women's prison massacre", "Criminally Insane", "Satan's Black Wedding", & "Nurse Sherry"

Eye Candy: Lesley Vermot got topless

This movie is really bad. I don't mean cheap or amateurish, as I understand low budget independent film making has many obstacles. My problem is that it is written terribly, acted even worse and is just a massive rip off of John Waters brilliant, Serial Mom. The title character ( played by the fleshy and comatose April Burrill ) kills those who offend her sensibilities by acting in ways she feels are unacceptable. Bad manners, talking in the library, not recycling ( whoops, that's from Serial Mom, sorry )... well, u get the picture. Basically the writer has taken Beverly Sutphin, Waters's domestic maniac, and put her in some punk rock ( read: I bought this cool gear at Hot Topic ) clothes. I could let the ripping off slide if the damn movie was even a little entertaining but it's not. I gave this one star. I do like to find one positive in any movie I hate, and in this, it's the actress Kristen Hudsen. She is beautiful, sexy and the only person who appears on screen that can act. Why isn't she Chainsaw Sally????