- Directed by Joe Badon
- Written by Joe Badon, Jason Kruppa
- Stars Kali Russell, Vincent Stalba, Jeff Pearson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teqCiI8mbJw
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
There is a vague thread of an overall story; the trick is untangling it as you watch. It’s a movie with episodes of television shows and commercials inside it, done in layers, with behind-the-scenes and outtake footage mixed in. If that sounds confusing, it is, but it’s funny and weird and delightful with some horror elements.
Synopsis
We open with a title talking about a miniseries, and then we go straight into an interview, something like what you’d get in a DVD special feature. The director explains the whole thing; it’s like binging an old TV show with ads and such – he mentions inspiration from “Kentucky Fried Movie.” Eventually, we get to the start of the story.
We watch the destruction of the age of dinosaurs; it’s all very realistic and believable– no, it’s puppets and stop-motion. We then cut to “The Blood of the Dinosaurs,” a prologue to the story that we’ve previously reviewed as a standalone short. It’s still weird.
We then cut to “The Jason Johnson Experiment,” a three-minute show on late-night public access TV. He gives birth, and then it’s over.
We then begin with the director describing how the film should start, as the film starts. Margaret Corn introduces herself as an artist. She shows us some pretty awful drawings and cut-out paper dioramas, but she is passionate about them. She talks about one that looks like a spaceship, and we cut to a Star-Trek-like bridge. Captain Corn is being attacked by Dr. Universe, who threatens her with, um, threats. She gives an overdramatic speech until her grandmother phones. This results in a song.
We cut to a store where a woman, also played by the same actress as the Corns, buys a choose-your-own-adventure book for 1 cent. This takes us back to the studio, where we get a script being table read by the cast before the filming started. And then– credits roll.
Episode 1: The Reflection in the Mirror. We open in a black-and-white world. A woman’s car breaks down and she sees a full-color Santa Claus out her window. We “zoom out” to see that this is just Marge, reading that adventure book from earlier and imagining herself there. We return to the adventure story, where Marge runs from a strange person in a raincoat. That’s all for chapter 1.
We then get a commercial from a “Skateboard Attorney.”
The weirdness continues for almost another hour as various things we’ve seen before start to tie together, but I don’t want to spoil it all.
Commentary
Ah, Public Access TV. It was generally stupid and terrible, but I miss it now after seeing this.
Horror note: I spotted numerous tiny clips from the silent “Vampyr” (1932) embedded inside.
It’s several off-the-wall short films that are slightly interconnected. It hops around a lot, and there’s a ridiculous amount of silly bits, parodies, and outright nonsense. It’s all ridiculous, and fast-paced, and a lot of fun. There wasn’t really a clear story involved other than the vague choose-your-own-adventure book. There are even segments where the actors say they didn’t understand the ending or even what the film is about.
If you like weird, non sequitur, random silliness that’s really well done, this one’s for you! How do I order that CD for the “Best of Elvis Breastly”?