Here’s a Halloween double-bill from the folks at MVM that will certainly give you the shivers, but not in the way you may think. First up is Mr Halloween. In the non-descript town of Sauquoit, New York, locals believe the reclusive Bill Loomis, who runs the annual Halloween haunted house, uses real body parts in his attraction. When teens start disappearing, a young girl tries to find out the truth. But she soon finds herself at the mercy of Bill, aka Mr Halloween.
This really is a thrown-together-by-a-bunch a mates-one-weekend homemade horror. Bill Loomis, a real life Halloween party thrower, plays the title character. But Bill’s maniac has no purpose other than to kill. He’s just too non-dimensional to care. Also a downer is the script, the film quality (on par with VHS most times), the lighting, direction and acting. Basically everything’s bad – and not in a good way. Oh! And I was so looking forward to seeing the masked maniac shown on the DVD cover. Instead, all I got was a Tom Savini lookalike dressed in Michael Myers issued blue coveralls. I do hope Andrew and Cody Wolf don’t make any more films sometime soon. Please spare us, guys.
MVM’s second fright-flick is Dr Chopper, a much more satisfying horror comedy, which draws on a classic premise: the mad doctor looking for immortality. Twenty years after being struck off for harvesting live human body parts, Dr Chopper (Ed Brigadier) is hiding out in some remote woodland with his loyal nurses (think Dr Phibes’ Vulnavia with cosmetically-enhanced boobs) on his big chopper (yes, it’s a bike) still conducting his research. When a group of college friends descend on his terrain, they quickly become Dr Chopper’s next bloody harvest. But among them is someone who possesses the key to unlocking the secrets of immortality.
While the first half of the movie is totally missable – horrible teens getting slaughtered à la Friday the 13th – the second half, as Dr Chopper’s plan is put into action, is much more watchable. The only problem is Dr Chopper may look great (like Diabolik with oatmeal on his face or Magneto in X-Men) but he doesn’t actually do that much. Shame really, as he could have become the new Dr Phibes. Still it’s above average fun, with some crazy characters (the park ranger is hilariously weird) and the dialogue is a hoot. ‘Look it’s a guy on a motorbike.’ ‘That’s not a motorbike, that’s a chopper’.
Released 28 September
