CHILLERAMA
Rating: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment
MSRP: $29.97, but Amazon has it for $14.99
Running Time: 120 minutes
What’s Going On?
It’s the closing night of the last Drive-In theater in America, and to go out with a bang they’ve scoured their celluloid collection and are going to showcase 4 of the most rare horror films they could find. But is that all they have in store?
This is a horror anthology put together by Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2) and Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen) in addition to Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan, and just like anthologies of old, this has a great old school and most (read:best) of all silly feel to it. Lots of practical effects, zombies, werewolves, lots of other things and not a sparkling vampire anywhere to be seen.
The four films in question are Wadzilla (Rifkin), I Was a Teenage Werebear (Sullivan) The Diary of Anne Frankenstein (Green) and Zom-B-Movie (Lynch). Most of them are fun in they’re own way, the weakest of which is I Was a Teenage Werebear and the best being The Diary of Anne Frankenstein.
Who’s In It:
Many cameos that are too good to spoil, but among the regular cast is Richard Riehle, Ray Wise, Kane Hodder to name a few.
If You Like…:
Blood, guts, zombies, monsters, boobs, werewolves, bikers, babies, the army. To make it easier, if you like fun, you’ll enjoy most of what this film has to offer.
Special Features:
- Director’s Video Commentary: An informative commentary where each director gets to cover his contribution to the film. It’s light hearted and pretty funny at most times. Worth a listen to at least once
- The Making of The Diary of Anne Frankenstein: Mostly an interview with Adam Green and stars Joel David Moore and Kane Hodder who plays monster “Meshugannah”. They mostly discuss the care they took to not disrespect the historical figure.
- “Wadzilla” Deleted Scenes: Mostly scenes that ended up in the film, but these are unfinished shots so it’s interesting to see this aspect of the films that were made to look much older.
- “I Was a Teenage Werebear” Behind the Scenes: An informative segment featuring interviews with writer-director Sullivan, co-producer Brian McCulley, composer Patrick Copeland, stars Lockhart and Troy and most of the rest of the cast.
- “I Was a Teenage Werebear” Deleted Scenes: There’s a wealth of material here including an alternate ending.
- “Zom-B-Movie” Deleted Scenes: There’s an extra scene from “Deathication” which is a portion of Zom-B-Movie that’s not for the faint of heart, and there’s more of Richard Riehle’s character preparing for the nights festivities
- Famous Monsters: Interviewed at Comic-Con on July 22, 2011 for www.famousmonstersoffilmland.com: The four directors discuss their influences and the origin of the project.
- Salfen Comic-Con Interview: Also interviewed on July 22, 2011, the four directors give a brief overview of the film to webmaster Paul Salfen.
- Trailers
The Technical Gist
Much of the film is made to look much older than it is, and it was shot on a micro budget so there are portions of the film that aren’t going to look great, but that only adds to the charm of it in my opinion.
The Verdict
There are things about this anthology that will not work for everyone. The good thing about CHILLERAMA is that if you watch it once, you’ll either want to watch it again or never again. That being said, my recommendation here is to QUEUE IT. It’s one of the few releases that’s available on Instant Netflix the day of release and it’s not too expensive a blu-ray to buy. It’s got horror, guts, zombies and plenty of other stuff that film nerds will love so there’s definitely an audience out there for this diamond in the rough.
