Death Factory (2014)

Because it has to be a comedy, right? It stretches the imagination that anyone would think of this as anything else, it's so packed with outrageous stereotypes, epicly bad acting, gratuitous sex just shoved into the story like the director had to fill a quota, and perhaps the worst dialogue in all of cinema history. Listen: It's even worse than "Is it raining? I hadn't noticed." [Four Weddings and a Funeral-but who doesn't know that?) Accordingly, I loved it. It now ranks at #1 in my list of "Movies So Bad I Can't Stop Watching Them," displacing Point Break for the first time in 20 years. I love how hard the actors are working (you can see them working their drama class training); I love how seriously the film portrays itself. So earnest. So committed. So sad.

Steven Judd directs this unnervingly odd horror film with a cast of outrageous caricatures that are laced with a certain realism. There is a sleazy bus driver, who manages to lose his passengers, a preaching evangelist, an aggressive Goth who cannot speak without pouting, a health obsessive, two brightly clad horny gum-chewing teen girls, and a possible hero Simon (Damien Puckler). We meet Simon at the beginning of the film, where, as a child, he clubs to death his abusive father before sprouting muscles and designer stubble and subtle tattoos. As the most sensible and handsome member of the ill-assorted crew, he soon becomes unelected leader of the pack. However, my favourite member is 'Auntie May' (Mara Hall), a larger lady who has seen-it-all-before and has a fine line in weary expletives relating either to her own, or someone else's ass. ("Auntie May ain't no b**** to f*** with," she warns at one point.) There's little that impresses Auntie May.Because the characters are so extreme, the weird and unnerving situation they find themselves in seems strangely fitting, and as a result, deliberately stylised. They stumble upon a ghost town, which houses the 'Death Factory', a museum that had been run by occultists and dedicated to serial killers including Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer and a lesbian Jack The Ripper (amongst others). The Goth, Ren (Jeremy Thorsen) and his girlfriend Star (Tonya Kay) find a 'Book of the Dead', read it, and subsequently bring the serial killers to life. In such a setting, such surreal happenings don't seem entirely unreasonable.After that, the narrative seems to settle into a more straightforward groove, if you can call stabbing, biting, disembowelling, and soft-core sex straightforward. Gratifyingly, the resurrected serial killers will just as willingly slaughter each other as any of the ex-passengers. And the bus driver? He might well be Satan, so that's something. The finale in particular is a terrific visual pay-off, the scope of the ensuing battle is spectacular and satisfying.Messy this is, serious it isn't. It certainly isn't a comedy, but the low budget cheerfulness invites you to view it a certain way, to go with it. If you think during the opening moments, that it's going to be a certain kind of film – like I did – you'd be wrong. This isn't like any kind of film – and it is well worth seeing.

Another poster took this movie too seriously and ended up turning it off halfway through. I wanted to stop watching too at some point until I realized this movie wasn't predictable at all. This is not supposed to be a scary horror movie. I repeat: this movie was not made for scares. It was made for entertainment in the same vein as Tremors, From Dusk Til Dawn, and John Carpenter's Vampires. Like those movies, this one is set in the desert. Also, like those movies, this movie was supposed to be a supernatural action/adventure movie rather than a horror movie. What's a supernatural action/adventure movie? It's an action/adventure movie with supernatural villains. It's not meant to be horror. It's simply meant to be entertaining. It's the type of movie you put on when you're bored at night, you have beer, you have chips, and you just want to watching an entertaining movie to make you forget your worries. That's why I gave this movie 10/10. It's mission was simply to entertain me and forget my cares and it succeeded.So if you're home bored, with beer and nachos, and want a supernatural desert movie in the vein of Tremors, From Dusk Til Dawn, and John Carpenter's Vampires, then go with Death Factory. And make sure not to take it seriously.

Quick Summary: a literal bus-load of stereotypes get stranded in the desert just by a museum for serial killers, where a man with... some kind of accent has brought back a Justice League of Mass Murderers so he can...eat their brains and gain their knowledge? or power? or both?Quick Review: OK so I really enjoy the film Waxwork (which has various monsters and killers brought to life via magic) so this seemed like it might be worth £8. No, no it wasn't and that's a shame because it's a really good concept, loads of real life serial killers (which I have an interest in) in a slasher film (which I have an interest in), great, it's just the execution (pun intended?). What's wrong with the execution? Most glaringly the 'protagonists' (read: victims) are horrendous, most offensive are the 'Goth' twosome, as written and dressed by someone who has never even been on the same side of the street as someone in a counter-culture and 'slutty bimbo' character Candi who actually screams about breaking a nail, although the Goths die first, and once that bit of misrepresentation is out of the way it's a lot easier to sit through. We also have religious maniacs, a fitness fanatic (who reappears when you least expect it brandishing scenery, I liked that bit) and Auntie May who talk jus' like yowa white butt think she gonna talk, she's boarder-line racist and she's the best character in the film so that should tell you how bad they all are. It's odd because there really seems to have been some knowledge put into the casting and portrayal of the killers; I dunno, maybe the team spent all their time at home reading about old killers and don't know how real people work?The editing is askew too, cutting at strange times, not discretion shots, those I can understand (even if they are disappointing, show me the gore dammit!) just cuts when cuts aren't necessary or when scenes are. I thought I'd fallen asleep and missed bits at least twice, both of which were in scenes involving Ed Gein - odd. And there's some very strange plot points...I've put the spoiler tag so to hell with it (pun intended) Jack the Ripper strips off to reveal a hot girl in naughty underwear. That's the weirdest plot 'twist'/'misstep'/'madness' but exemplary I think.Is it worth watching? Of course it is, all of these cheap horror films are worth watching once and there's some entertainment to be had; is it a good film? No. Is it so bad it's good? No, it's just bad - as bad as the lightning effects it uses, but you should be able to get through it, I did and I'm impatient. Like a lot of these films they'd benefit from a bigger budget remake with a script writer who's at least been to a Metal concert if not talked to some of the others there, or better yet, an actual Alternative.