Monday 31 October 2011

Review: Bad Meat

Directed By: Lulu Jarmen
Written by: Paul Gerstenbeger
Starring: Jessica Parker Kennedy, Elisabeth Harnios and Dave Franco



The premise of Bad Meat is a simple one and sometimes, where horror is concerned, simple is better.  A group of wayward teens are packed off to a boot camp, run by Hitler wannabe Doug (Mark Pelligrino - Lost).  They soon realise that this is not going to be an easy ride as Doug and his helpers are more depraved than the youngsters.

Fed up of the abuse that the fascist camp workers deliver to both himself and the inmates, the cook decides to serve up one last meal that they'll never forget with illegal, diseased meat that, instead of just making them severely ill,  turns all who it eat into vicious, flesh craving cannibals.  

Bad Meat is a fun, gory and odd film, filled with all manner of bodily fluids.  If you try to look into it too seriously you will find flaws all over the place but this film isn't one that takes itself seriously (at least I hope it was't).  The writer described it as "a horror romp" when introducing it for its world premier at London's Fright Fest Halloween all nighter.

So don't go into this with any misgivings of a high brow, intelligent horror film and you shouldn't be disappointed.  Some of the acting is a little shaky but for the most part it was surprisingly decent. There are still areas, even within it's predication of not being anything more than it says on the tin, where it needed some work.  The characters get fleeting moments of background but remain unexplored and therefore largely irrelevant.   Although you could say this serves to aid the film with the "anyone can get it" factor. 

However nothing spoils this gloriously gory horror than the horrific ending.  And I don't mean horrific in a blood lust way.  The film clearly ran out of money and/or time and sadly was unable to end it properly.  It went quickly from a decent set piece to an unconnected scene with one of the characters getting bits ripped off which, as a guy, made you cross your legs and then haphazardly to a final scene which made very little sense at all. 

However, if you feel like something that will serve up a deliciously gross meal and can forgo a fully complimentus ending then this will satisfy your hunger a treat.

If the ending had worked I'd be giving this a three star review but unfortunately it does serve to detract from what went before and therefore I can only give it

2/5

2 comments:

  1. Ha ha! I actually thought the ending was pretty good because it was so untraditional and because ultimately it didn't tell you who the person under all the bandages really was!

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  2. This was the worst film I have ever seen! Would love to know who the person was under the bandages and the editing staff need to be fired. There are so many things wrong with this film, I am shocked it actually got this far! Not recommended AT ALL! 0 stars out of 10!

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