Shock-O-Rama

Shock-O-Rama is a low budget horror film split into three segments. Anyone that has seen a Brett Piper film will have some idea what to expect; a silly plot line and some cheap, but imaginative, special effects are the order of the day; and the director duly delivers. My main reason for seeing this film was the inclusion of Seduction Cinema queen Misty Mundae, and while the actress keeps her clothes on in this film; she still delivers an amusing performance. The film is basically an anthology; although it toys with that idea somewhat with regards to the wrap-around story. We focus on low budget trash actress Rebecca Raven. She gets fired from her Production Company and goes to stay in some isolated old house. Meanwhile, her replacement gets thrown in jail; leaving her ex-producers with the task of trying to find another lead actress. Julia Roberts apparently won't take her clothes off; so they set off watching bad low budget movies, meanwhile Rebecca Raven is having trouble of her own in the form of a flesh eating zombie.

The film is light and fun throughout, and while not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination; at least remains entertaining for the duration. Clearly the film does not take itself seriously and the jokes come by way of the dialogue, and simply how stupid the film is. The first of the two tales that stem from the producers watching low budget films is the best, and features a layabout good-for-nothing junkyard owner that stumbles on a downed alien spaceship. The aliens then proceed to attack, leaving him and his estranged girlfriend to try and fight them off. The best thing about this segment is the lead performance from Rob Monkiewicz. Not a great actor, but he is entertaining and seems at home with the ridiculous plot. The second tale is more inventive, but not as good; and focuses on something to do with dreams. There's a role for Julian Wells and there's a good idea at the climax. The wrap-around is the only part that stars Misty Mundae, and the highlights include an F-word rant at her producer and seeing her wield a chainsaw. Overall, this is certainly good enough for a single viewing and Misty Mundae fans should enjoy it.

I almost caught this movie at a convention is Chicago. Then I read many glowing reviews of it on the net and decided to hunt it down. For what it is (that is a very low budget film shot in New Jersey) it's pretty remarkable. The production design and overall look of the film is excellent, the cast is good, and the story fast paced and inventive (and frequently very funny!). Although I liked the last episode least it ironically had my favorite scenes: one a sort of take-off on Poe's PIT AND THE PENDULEM and the other a wacky dream sequence that reminded me of Tim Burton. If you're a fan of off-beat entertainment I can certainly recommend this.

Brett Piper is always at his best with FX sequences and not as his best with actors or story. This film being a series of short stories, the script never really polishes any idea before moving on to the next half backed story and most of the time it's up to the actors to fill the time until we reach feature length. Bulk of the characters are the type you fear you'll be stuck next to on a long flight somewhere. FX are few and far between.

Yes they shot on film but it has a flat Saturday morning TV series, and not a good one, for kids in the 1970's look.

The performers all try to overact and the words are just padding here. It looks like every first take was printed and the only direction was make it more over the top. When you have actors who don't really have over the top to give what you get is shrill non actor yelling at each other or mugging like they are funny. They aren't.

Talk talk talk, oh here's a cute special FX shot, talk talk talk talk.

That's pretty much the way the movie goes. It seems a lazy effort from Piper who may well be exhausted from doing all those FX on most of his films himself. There just aren't enough of his charming hand made retro FX to forgive the flat talky nature of the rest of the movie. And the way the script is written, so talk heavy, that seems to have been the intention all along.

There are films of Pipers that are worth watching, I just can't put this one in that pile. Main title music by Jon Greathouse is great fun but then there is almost no score to the rest of the film. Another Piper decision? A function of no post production time? More music please especially in a drag-a-thon like this one.

Tell you all roads were great and then we came on to an amazing END very funny how life imates art as art imates life. To see such a great film and to know how Misty was calling it quits. All the films they came from factory...days to shockorama ,video outlaw ,seduction. Was an amazing film. But ended a Alternative cinema era . Sad in retrospect So see this film to me wss one of the best . Cheers

Ever since I won a copy of the haunted house shocker "Drainiac" about two months ago, I consider myself a fan of the New Hampshire based cult filmmaker Brett Piper.

And since "Drainiac" was not enough to quench my hunger for spectacular low budget horror, I didn't hesitate to send a couple of bucks to Shock-O-Rama/EI Cinema to order Brett Piper's flicks "Shock-O-Rama" and "Bacterium" on DVD. And since I was especially excited to see "Shock-O-Rama"—which Brett Piper himself had already introduced to me as his best movie so far—I put the disc in the player right after I got it. And what shall I say, after I've been watching "Shock-O-Rama" for hardly more than a few minutes, it already appeared to me that this flick would indeed turn out to be a highly entertaining horror comedy with real cult potential.

Just like classics such as "Creepshow" or "Tales From The Crypt", "Shock-O-Rama" is also divided into three individual episodes, that are tied together by a funny, tongue-in-the-cheek background story. In the first episode called "Mecharachnia", a group of tiny little aliens shipwrecks on a run-down junkyard and terrorizes the macho yard keeper Jedd Callahan and his bitchy ex-wife Linda. Things get even worse when the uninvited guests from outer space build a giant killer robot out of scratch metal overnight and henceforth try to blow the quarrelsome ex-couple to pieces.

In "Zombie This" we'll then get to see scream queen Rebecca Raven (played by Misty Mundae) being attacked by a bloodthirsty zombie, who has just risen from the grave and now wants to feast on the sexy actress' soft and tasty flesh. At first it doesn't look too good for Mrs. Raven, but then she finds a chainsaw in an old tool shed and all of a sudden the situation takes an unexpected turn and now it's the zombie who's gotta run for his rotten life.

And last but not least there's also an episode called "Lonely Are The Brain". This freaky and visually very appealing sequence is about a giant brain from the future, which controls the naughty dreams and sexual desires of a whole bunch of scantly clad hotties, who henceforth find themselves right in the middle of the weirdest fantasy scenarios. But be aware, what might look like the kinky product of a naughty girl's imagination at first, may turn into a bloody nightmare just a couple of moments later...

As a devoted b-movie maniac you will most likely have realized by now, that there's hardly a horror- and science fiction cliché which Brett Piper does not use in "Shock-O-Rama". From start to finish, this flick is nothing but a wonderful homage to the long forgotten monster movies of the past, especially the drive-in classics of the 50s and 60s.

To keep "Shock-O-Rama" in proper old-school style, Brett Piper has almost completely abstained from using CGI and instead unleashed a true feast of cool, handmade effects. Throughout the course of this movie you'll find tons of awesome stop motion monsters, latex masks, horror makeups and miniatures, as well as beautiful sets and locations occupied by hilariously over-the-top characters, who deliver one funny line after the other... and, as the icing on the cake, "Shock-O-Rama" does also offer lots and lots of bloodshed and nudity for our greedy 'lil eyeballs to behold.

To keep a long story short: "Shock-O-Rama" is a wild, colorful and highly entertaining ride with the b-movie roller-coaster, which every scifi-, horror- and cult film fan will surely enjoy a lot. Fans of trash icons such as Roger Corman, Frank Hennenlotter and Lloyd Kaufman will definitely get their money's worth with this DVD, especially since not only the film itself, but also the package with lots of cool specials such as interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and an informative audio commentary do hardly leave anything to be desired.