Father's Day

Father's Day is a Troma film and such as these production type movies, it isn't mainstream and certainly for a specific niche audience. There is most definitely a certain charm and bizarreness that makes this film worthwhile and engaging to watch. A lot happens and it is completely unpredictable in which direction it takes.

It is cheap and the over the top special effects look as such making nothing exactly shocking but more so disturbing and somewhat cringe.

The plot starts off relatively slow but once the lead character of Ahab (who sounds like he's doing a Batman voice impersonation) is further brought in, the film gets going.

Troma films shouldn't be judge by ordinary standards. They are not exactly "good" in the same way that mainstream Hollywood films might be good. They are "good" by being as insane and over the top graphically with cheesy acting as possible.

Containing boundary pushing gore, everything is intended to be offensive and sick. It works since it feels quite original and very "out there". It is gory, sick, depraved, self-knowingly silly, and entertaining if you're in the right frame of mind. Sure, however it succeeds in doing the exact thing it sets out to.

The ending is somewhat of a cop out and sort of drags on, when we see the final reveal, although quite unpredictable in a sense.

Like Troma films, Father's Day isn't for everyone, though for fans of Troma or oddball, unconventional spoof comedy/over the top cheesy unrealistic gore films, it's certainly watchable.

A demonic character known as Chris Fuchman (Mackenzie Murdock) has been out and about for a long, long time, raping and murdering fathers with gleeful abandon. It's up to a one-eyed recluse named Ahab (Adam Brooks), a solicitous young priest, Father John Sullivan (Matthew Kennedy), and a delinquent, Twink (Conor Sweeney), to vanquish this beast, and save the soul of Ahabs' smoking hot sister Chelsea (Amy Groening).

It's not surprising that the notorious Troma company would have been involved in this joyously classless story. Certainly it bears a number of their trademarks: the over the top gore, the defiling of good taste, the blasphemy, the hammy acting, etc. Written and directed by a filmmaking collective known as "Astron-6" (including our three leading actors), it's made to look like the first movie in a late-night TV triple feature. If you're a fan of Troma, or are at least familiar with the way that they do things, you're likely to have fun with "Father's Day", as it careens from one outrageous sequence to another.

The gore and creature effects are great fun, use of various Canadian cities (including Winnipeg, this viewers' hometown) is effective, and there's a hearty helping of amusing and catchy music. There's plenty of bare skin revealed by the attractive female cast, and the performances are, in general, suited to the material. Kennedy, in particular, is a hoot, especially when he dies and goes to Heaven, and then spends all his time there trying to get damned to Hell, because that's where he needs to be to help his friends. Viewers will be delighted with the cameos by the guy playing God and The Devil.

Diverting entertainment for anybody who desires politically incorrect, cinematic insanity.

All you need to know: there's one hysterical moment where Ahab does Chelsea doggy style.

Seven out of 10.

FATHER'S DAY is a gory, disgusting, perverted mess... in a good way!

After several years, the notorious Chris Fuchman (Mackenzie Murdock) is back to rape and mutilate anyone in his path. Especially dads. No kidding, this guy is one of the most nauseating killers to ever (dis)grace the screen!

Now, it's up to an unlikely trio of would-be crimefighters (Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, and Conor Sweeney) to track down this odious monster and do what must be done.

This movie goes out of its way to be offensive and revolting, hitting just about every red button along the way. It's also hysterically funny. If you enjoy absurd, crackpot cinema with bite, then you can't go wrong here!...

In all my years of a horror fanatic and throughout the experience of writing more than 3.000 film reviews, it hasn't happened to me very often (not once, in fact) but right now I'm completely … utterly … speechless! I anticipated something quite bonkers, but "Father's Day" is truly the most demented, twisted, sickest and derailed genre outing that I ever watched. And I'm glad that I watched it on a big screen, at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films, together with a chock-full theater of equally avid and enthusiast freaks like myself. The crowd literally went wild upon being exposed to such a massive amount of gore, perversity, craziness and smut! This movie truly embodied the absolute most fun you can experience at a festival. Written and directed by a collective of no less than six creative minds – who are undoubtedly all mentally ill beyond repair – and produced by the legendary infamous Troma Studios, "Father's Day" is best described as a sort of homage/throwback to gritty & low-budgeted Grindhouse cinema from the 70's and early 80's, but I assure you that even throughout that entirely lunatic era, there was never a film so extreme as this one.

Where and how to begin with describing this unique piece of trash? With the plot, perhaps? It's practically impossible, but I'll give it a shot anyways. The pauperized ghetto streets are terrorized by the psychopath Chris Fuchman; an anal rapist and serial killer targeting distinguished middle class fathers. One of the victims' sons (a gay teenage prostitute) teams up with an ambitious young priest, but they quickly realize they'll need the help of the eye-patch wearing warrior Ahab. He hunted down Fuchman once before, but now retired to the Canadian forests in order to devote his life to making maple syrup. I kid you not. Ahab can be convinced to fight, however, as this grants him the opportunity to restore his relationship with his estranged go-go dancing sister Chelsea. Together, this crazy wild bunch tracks down Fuchman, but their work isn't even finished when they kill him, as his soul and even his evil sperm carry forward the killing spree. Mind you that this short description doesn't give you one quarter of insight about everything that's going on in "Father's Day". The plot is much more convoluted and insane than this, complete with dead-end sub plots, a massive load of flamboyant supportive characters, depraved undertones and a finale that left a complete theater full of horror freaks startled! I don't suppose I have to emphasize this, but "Father's Day" should most definitely be avoided by all easily offended, prudish, squeamish and politically correct viewers. The film is a smörgåsbord of blood and intestines, cut off body parts, ripped out organs, bludgeoned faces and – oh yes – even cut open/bitten off penises and crushed fetuses. The acting performances are all extremely over-the-top (like they ought to be) and the movie is supported by a penetrating soundtrack, raw & primitive cinematography and awesomely animated opening credits. Particularly the depiction of heaven and hell near the climax are deliciously deranged. And, as some sort of extra reward for the fans, there's a brilliant cameo appearance by Troma's smut-deity Lloyd Kaufman in a genuinely apt role.

Lloyd Kaufman and Jeremy Gillespie, one of the director's collective Astron-6, were present in Brussels at the festival to introduce their film and provided some interesting background production info. The crazed out collective initially fabricated a fake trailer for "Father's Day" and sent it to the Troma headquarters. To their own surprise, Troma contacted them back and offered them the relatively low (at least to make a full-feature film) sum of $10.000. Gillespie elaborated that it's incredibly difficult to make a full movie out of a fake trailer that actually even started as a little joke. Most of the downright absurd and unfathomable situations and plot twists in the film are a direct consequence of the fact that Astron-6 stuffed nonsensical ideas into their trailer, unaware they later had to bring coherence between it all. But the result is there. "Father's Day" is destined to become a Troma cult favorite for sure.

Hell yeah I had a great time watching this movie. Sure maybe I was setting myself up for some awkward moments by brining my girlfriend to watch it at the Calgary Underground Film Festival but i cant say i wasn't warned. Any synopsis on this film will tell you that its about three guys who are trying to kill a man who raped and murdered their fathers. I was hoping that maybe they would go light on the father raping and get right into the revenge plot but the truth is they didn't go light on anything but modesty and morality. For anyone wondering if they should watch this movie or not just know that it is extremely offencive, gory, wrong, and funny all at the same time and is absolutely never boring. Thats what i loved most about this movie is that it is never dull, not for a second. Sure there is one scene out of all the nasty shat going on that truly made me uncomfortable (it involved our introduction to the Tweek character), but it happened early on in the film and they definitely made up for it with the copious amounts of comedy in the second half. The dialogue and chemistry between the actors is spot on and hilarious and i both laughed out loud and cringed and groaned more than a couple times. The gore is hilarious, the characters are hilarious, the plot is hilarious, hell even everything i've heard from these guys on facebook and other blogs since watching this movie has been hilarious. Since watching this at CUFF i've become quite intrigued by this group. They are incredibly inspiring having made a film that looks 5 times more expensive than what they made it for. I've also picked up their "wtf is astron-6" DVD compilation which isn't quite as amazing as this movie but is just as inspiring. Now i honestly cant wait for "Manborg" which I'm guessing will be released approximately 2 months after whatever release date they first present us with but after watching Fathers Day I'm basically guaranteed it will be well worth the wait. If i won the lottery i would donate it to astron-6.