Horror-101

Indie Scene: ‘Dead Shit,’ ‘Dream Reaper’ Entertaining Horror Comedies

For this group of Hacks, there’s no budget like no budget

directed and written by Kevin Strange

Hack Movies is an a group of no budget independent “filmmakers” (I use the term loosely, as they’re self-proclaimed hacks who are just trying to have a good time with this hobby) that makes entertaining horror comedies. It was founded by Kevin Strange, a talented man with an obviously love for Troma and b-movies. He writes, directs, and acts in the films, and clearly has a good sense of humor. With a group of friends and a camera, he made both Dead Shit and Dream Reaper.

Dead Shit is a 32-minute zombie short. It begins with Hogan (Strange) and Nixon (Joshitsuo Montoya) rolling a blunt and smoking up. All seems well for the stoners until they notices zombies meandering around in front of their residence. Thus begins a supernatural journey, and the fate of the world rests on these two losers. For some inexplicable reason, they have ghetto-thug accents (and Hogan sounds like Rick James). They getting annoying, and it doesn’t help that the dialects vary throughout the movie. Nevertheless, it’s all about the fun. This includes the ignorance of the super-cheap gore and effects (for example, the undead are just friends with facepaint).

The DVD also features an introduction from Strange, three different commentaries, a “Behind the Shit” featurette, ten minutes of bloopers, and trailers/teasers for other Hack films. The film has a subtitle of Part 1: The Talisman of Tikinaya, so this may not be the last we’ve seen of Hogan and Nixon. I wouldn’t mind watching more of this second-rate Jay and Silent Bob-meets-Return of the Living Dead. It’s not something I’ll watch over and over, but it has its moments. I mean, how often do you see a man having sex with a zombie? “You’re gonna get, like, super AIDS!”

Dream Reaper is Hack’s first feature length movie at over 70 minutes. Unfortunately, I feel that they did better with the short, as the running time here seemed to drag, though with time they could improve the script. The film is about a band called Dream Reaper, “the lullaby to which the sleepy infant that is rock and roll will fall sweetly asleep to.” There is obvious tension between the bandmates. Specifically, homosexual bassist Dick Gibson (Montoya) wants to go emo, while frontman Willy Nutsack (Strange) wants to sing about sea monsters. Meanwhile, drummer Hwang Johnson (Chadwick Cockstriker) obsesses over ninjas, and his brother/guitarist Peter (John the Band Guy) just stares off into the distance the whole film.

Yes, as you may have noticed, all of the males’ names are euphemisms for a penis. That’s just the sense of you humor these guys have. The band is rounded out by guitarist Tiffany (Cris Deveroux), who seems to be the only sane one. Things go from bad to worse when an actual dream reaper (Matt Ringering) from another realm tells Willy to disband or he’ll kill them all. His reason? The other reapers make fun of him because the band of the same name is so bad. Willy, of course, will have none of that, and soon his bandmates begin to perish in their dreams a la A Nightmare on Elm Street.

If you thought the psuedo-gore in Dead Shit was bad, Dream Reaper is even cheesier. Note the balloons used for intestines and the obvious-yet-funny use of a water melon as a head. I also can’t leave out the fact that this movie has no less than eight masturbation scenes. Most of them are funny in one way or another, but it still gets uncomfortable watching a guy’s facial expression for more than 30 seconds — and many of the sequences last much longer than that. Special features on the DVD include an introduction from Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman, three commentary tracks, a special effects tutorial on how to make cheap spray blood, eighteen minutes of bloopers, a cast intro, and teasers/trailers.

Are these great films? No, far from it. The acting, script, and effects are poor. But are they entertaining? You bet. I chuckled a few times while watching both movies, but thinking back, they seem even funnier. There’s some great one liners: “When that idiot shot his hot juicy man-load down my rotting throat piece, seventeen demons from Hell manifest within this dead husk” (from Dead Shit); “Imagine a world where a man does not live in fear of touching another man’s genitalia” (from Dream Reaper). What’s really important is that you can tell everyone involved is having a great time, and for that you have to give them credit. I look forward to their future horror comedies (including the forthcoming It Came From My Pants).

Horror 101 gives Dead Shit a 64 out of 101
Horror 101 gives Dream Reaper a 58 out of 101

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