LovecraCked! The Movie

Lovecracked stands on its own as a fun and entertaining experience, hosting a collection of short stories tied together with an oft humorous narration, but what makes the DVD stand out even more is the addition of so much enjoyable extra content.

My fiancé and I enjoyed the extra content almost as much as we enjoyed the main future. This DVD stands as a great indication of what can be done by creative and intelligent people even when they don't have an insane budget to burn though.

If you're looking for a fun time and a great party movie, then I full heartily recommend the Lovecracked DVD.

I have to suspect that some if not all of the previous five reviews are from people involved in the film. I have a hard time believing that five people all thought LoveCracked was that great with no one saying otherwise.

This is a collection of shorts from different directors/actors, all linked by an HP Lovecraft theme, and all done in different ways. In between the shorts are quick comedy segments.

For originality, you have to give it a high score. I haven't seen anything else like this or even close. Some of the shorts were pretty good, notably the "Randolph Carter" story. Some were pretty bad. That's what you get with an anthology.

The comedy in between shorts is lame. The "investigative reporter" bit got old about two minutes in and didn't get any better. It just wasn't funny. All he did was talk to people who knew nothing. That was supposed to be funny, the idea that nobody this guy interviewed actually knew anything about ol' HP; it might have sounded funny on paper. In practice, it just came off as a bad attempt at comedy.

There was a soft-core edit of "Re-Penetrator", which was totally lost on me. Since there is full frontal nudity and this is an indie collection, why bother to edit it down? Seems like they were trying to avoid the perceived stigma of porn. All they did was screw up what could have been one of the better shorts.

The production quality was good where it was supposed to be; some of the comedy bits had intentional bad production but that's as it should be. The soundtrack was OK, even good in places. The acting was better than most indie projects. Where the whole thing broke down was the comedy; they really need to find a better writer, otherwise it's just a bunch of non-funny bits added to what could have been a decent anthology.

First of all I will say that the DVD release of this is very good quality for an independent film and it is packed with features that make it well worth seeking out.

Now onto the main course. This is an amusing, somewhat creepy (a few times downright horrifying) tribute to HP Lovecraft, or is that PM Lovecraft. I must say that by the end of this film I knew less about Lovecraft than I did before I viewed this film. Basically this is an anthology of short films inspired by HP Lovecraft and the whole thing is linked together by the inanely hilarious antics of an incompetent Investigative reporter played by Biff Juggernaut's very own Elias.

Overall, the films are well crafted and entertaining. There is a wide spectrum of approaches from slapstick to film noir through to an amusingly straight take on "The Statement of Randolph Carter" that brought to mind older takes on Lovecraft on early 60's TV programs such as The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.

Highlights for me were "Bug Boy" and "Alecto" which really got under my skin and freaked me out. Not unlike late night readings of Lovecraft's Stories as I thought to myself "This is corny, how can this scare me?" but after I finally put the book down and tried to sleep every howl of wind, creak of floor, or shadow of tree limbs out side the window pulled Lovecraft's monsters to the forefront of my thoughts.

I think that the low point for me was "History of the Lurkers" but other than that one this is a good independent blast!

Imagine Monty Python directed by Dario Argento, and you have this crazy collection of nine gore/comedy skits. The linking thread for these surreal bloodbaths is a Monty Python like reporter doing an investigative report of famed horror author H.P Lovecraft. Cameos by famed Troma intern Lloyd Kaufmann and punk rock princess Joanna Angel pepper this savage bit of DVD fun. My only complaint here is that while Juggernaut made a film with a very original look, and format, leaping from dismemberment to giggles, he throws in some rather tired clichés. During the closing credits we see "funny" out-takes off in the corner. Some scenes are pretty much direct repeats of famous Python sketches. Biff, when somebody says, "You know, Biff how we see in all those movies where they (insert cliché here.) We can do that." Just ignore them, Biff. Anyway, fun, sick movie Biff.

The concept of an anthology film project comprised of humorous adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft material never would have occurred to me but obviously someone at BiFF JUGGERNAUT Productions was "cracked" enough to give birth to such a bizarre concept. Given that this film is a collection of other filmmaker's material with varying degrees of quality, shooting formats and aspect ratios, the whole thing meshes together surprisingly well and the wrap-around segments featuring Director Elias as a kind of eccentric roving reporter delving into...something...related to Lovecraft somehow manage to tie up a few loose ends while unraveling several dozen in the process. There's something very charming about films where your roving reporter and his subjects are all completely dubbed; I guess it satisfies that Mondo movie jones that I have.