100 Tears

An over-sized meat cleaver being swung by an over-sized clown...

An overly low ended "Thud" is followed by an over-sized spray of blood..

All set to an overly goofy carnival organ soundtrack...

If this is interesting to you, then you might want to check out "100 Tears" for an evening of over the (big) top indie horror fun. Marcus Roch directs this strait to video opus to great effect, and never under-estimates the power of splatter. Sure, it's silly and even down right corny, but in this context it seems to work quite well. I think all would-be low budget horror producers should take a gander at "100 Tears", and take a few notes along the way. The film never tries to take itself too seriously, and that's what makes it stand out in a sea of indie crap being peddled on the unknowing public. It is hard to produce a "Realistic" story when you are working with next to no money, so why not make a film that uses that fact to it's advantage? The acting is stiff but watchable (minus the wonderful comic timing of Joe Davison) and the cinematography / lighting scheme are weak but tolerable. These down sides are over looked because the film simply entertains, and you become a part of this twisted world thanks (in part) to a wacky soundtrack by "The Voodoo Organist". Probably not for everyone, but none the less a gruesomely goofy viewing experience.

"100 Tears" is a suitably dingy and sickening slasher flick, which at an estimated budget of about $75k, is at least a wonder of frugality.

Yes, $75,000 can pay for gallons of blood, viscera, and artificial limbs.

What money cannot buy, however, is a decent story, something you either have or you don't. Or characters. Or perhaps, even cohesive direction, which may be an innate gift some have and some don't.

The story - not that anyone cares about story in a movie like this - is about a serial killer clown and two obnoxious reporters, one of whom looks like Alex Jones, who track him down where the police have failed because they know how to use a computer and the police don't.

The introduction of the clown, shockingly violent though it may be, is handled so witlessly by the filmmaker that it is hopelessly undercut. We see one of the reporters looking at a computer screen and talking about a serial killer on the loose, and then the movie cuts straight to a series of brutal killings by our Bozo. The way this is shot makes it look like the reporter is watching the killings unfold on the computer monitor. They aren't. Some fairly cursory editing could have achieved the effect of having us realise we are witnessing the murders the reporter is describing. This would have provided a sense of mounting dread as we are let into information the reporter doesn't know, and we know they probably wouldn't try to chase up the story if they know what we now know. Get it?

Instead of quick cutting from the description of the acts to the violent crimes, as the filmmakers obviously should have done, we get a lengthy scene introducing 'characters' who exist only so that they can be killed, and their introduction grinding the film to a halt - a halt it finally comes to at around one hour into the proceedings, where I was so bored I mostly stopped paying attention.

I have put more effort into writing this review than the screenwriters did in writing the movie. But, yes, they really went to town on the gore. One early scene shows a person's head split multiple times by Bozo's big meat cleaver, until the head looks like a pinecone. If you're after sickening, over-the-top gore produced on a microbudget, I guess you already know where to look. Just don't expect anything else.

I would like to add, however, that the bad-guy, Gurdy the Clown, is actually scary. Much more so than almost any other slasher villain in any movie made for over one hundred times the budget that this one was made for.

A huge creepy looking clown Gurdy walks through a halfway house and systematically slaughters at least a dozen people with meatcleaver.The gore flows freely in the first 15 minutes.Two reporters Mark and Jennifer are investigating the legendary 'Teardrop Killer',who's been butchering unsuspecting groups of victims for 20 plus years."100 Tears" is among the goriest indie slasher movies I have ever seen.I must say that the bodycount is truly high and the killings are over-the-top including several juicy decapitations and dismemberments.The techno score is annoying,the acting is mediocre and the climax is abrupt,but if you enjoy drowning in the sea of blood and guts "100 Tears" can't be missed.7 out of 10.

Like another reviewer pointed out, this style of splatter probably has its roots in Germany, with directors like Andreas Schnaas, Olaf Ittenbach and Timo Rose. Both when it comes to the style of the gore and the way of making a script I would say. The gore is great and they have really tried making a serious plot, but ended up with a plot that is very unrealistic, and to say it plainly, stupid.

Let me explain by giving you the basics of the story. It is about two tabloid journalists writing an article about serial killers and trying to track down a serial killer wearing clown make up. So far it sounds OK, right? But the thing is the clown has killed over 160 people over a period of over 20 years, he has done nothing to cover his tracks and it takes the journalists a couple of days to figure out that the killings has always occurred in the vicinity of a circus. By some really lousy detective work they manage to track down the killer in a week or so, which the FBI has tried for 20 years!

I would compare this movie to Brian Paulins films, which also are German-style American splatter. They suffer from the same faults of bad story and bad acting, but makes up for it when it comes to the gore. And really, that is what is important here, right? I mean, sure I can enjoy deep relational dramas or clever social commentary, but when I watch a movie like 100 tears, I expect decapitation, torture, blood and guts. Watching a movie like this one for the story would make as much sense as watching a porno for the story. And the gore is great. Loads of blood and intestines throughout the whole movie. And the fx are good too for a low budget movie. But it becomes a little monotonous as the killer almost always uses the huge meat cleaver or whatever the weapon is supposed to be.

Also, the soundtrack is most of the times pretty good. The soundtrack includes weird but good music by The voodoo organist and Voltaire, which I would not be able to define the genre of and a dark hardcore song, which also is good. One complaint here is that the movie could have used some more songs, instead of re-using the same over and over again. So, monotony is sadly something that spoils the good parts of this movie a little on several levels. But not that much. When it comes to the soundtrack it's really a very minor complaint.

Well, that's my take on it. Turn off your brain for a while and enjoy the gore. And if that isn't your cup of blood, stay away from this one.

This is a pretty average horror/slasher movie. I grant the makers they squeezed in a lot of kills and especially fans of decapitations and guts will like it. The movie is about a serial killer in a clowns outfit who slashes people by the dozen with his hack-axe. Two detectives are on the hunt for the "teardrop killer" who leaves bloody tears behind on the murder scenes and got a back story they slowly unfold. Its like two plots running along each other... Clown slashes people with some entertaining ideas (liked the wheelchair down the stairs shot) and the detectives uncover the story with real bad acting. Basically the movie should have concentrated on the gore because this is where its strong side lies... the acting is real bad, the music is annoying (always the same hardcore techno over the kills and one music sounds a lot like being taken directly out of Hellraiser). The pseudo plot will bore the gore hounds to death and especially fails of bad acting and inconsistency. "100 tears" is rather for the trash/splatter fans but I guess because the director couldn't decide which way to go this one will soon be forgotten. And BTW... the closing scene sucks and like in many movies made me think they didn't know how to get out of their scripts mess.