While I hate to deprecate any low-budget effort that actually gets made, BLOOD DINER, like the refrigerated body parts it delights in, stinks on ice.
I delight in pop culture and can appreciate a good horror spoof more than most, but the whole idea of a satire is to be FUNNY, even if only in silly ways.
I saw this film at a "Grindhouse"-series screening with the equally bloody but vastly superior LA HORRIPILANTE BESTIA HUMANA {NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES}(Mexico-1968), which had the audience in stitches. The writer of BLOOD DINER, who then introduced his film, said BLOODY APES would be "a tough act to follow". His fears proved all too well grounded, as the audience got a master-class on the difference between a hilariously inept film that actually WANTS to be scary and a disastrously inept one that tries for Troma-style archness through gross laughs and mega-splatter but fails to generate a single guffaw.
When the writer, along with a producer and one of the stars, reminisced before BLOOD DINER, it was obvious that they had a wonderful time making the film, despite the difficulties they each had with the reportedly touchy and humorless director, Jackie Kong (who wasn't even TOLD of the screening...lucky lady). Their "we-survived-Jackie" repartee was far funnier than anything in the film itself, which overflows with amateur attempts at comic overacting and with gags, both verbal and visual, that consistently overestimate their ability to shock, amuse or even generate a blip on the audience's EEG. (If this EVER comes out on DVD and someone forces you to watch it, choose the commentary track -- if they're bright enough to record one; the film's actual sound is as poorly recorded as it was written.)
The recently released THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVERA proves that a well-conceived horror satire can be a howl, just as the classic THE REANIMATOR shows that "the-bloodier-the-better" philosophy of film-making can have take an audience beyond fear into helpless laughter. Despite its smugness, BLOOD DINER merely feels desperate, like a 5-year-old trying to tell gross jokes to get attention and failing to make enough impression to even be sent to his room. (Though if he was in the back seat of the car, I probably WOULD say, "Don't make me turn around...!")
On reflection, maybe the smell coming off this film had nothing to do with all the body parts. It was just the collective flop sweat of some seemingly nice guys who wasted their chance by aiming too low with too much contempt for both their subject and their audience. When will people learn that MST-3000 humor actually requires the filmmakers to have more than a collective IQ-80?
I delight in pop culture and can appreciate a good horror spoof more than most, but the whole idea of a satire is to be FUNNY, even if only in silly ways.
I saw this film at a "Grindhouse"-series screening with the equally bloody but vastly superior LA HORRIPILANTE BESTIA HUMANA {NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES}(Mexico-1968), which had the audience in stitches. The writer of BLOOD DINER, who then introduced his film, said BLOODY APES would be "a tough act to follow". His fears proved all too well grounded, as the audience got a master-class on the difference between a hilariously inept film that actually WANTS to be scary and a disastrously inept one that tries for Troma-style archness through gross laughs and mega-splatter but fails to generate a single guffaw.
When the writer, along with a producer and one of the stars, reminisced before BLOOD DINER, it was obvious that they had a wonderful time making the film, despite the difficulties they each had with the reportedly touchy and humorless director, Jackie Kong (who wasn't even TOLD of the screening...lucky lady). Their "we-survived-Jackie" repartee was far funnier than anything in the film itself, which overflows with amateur attempts at comic overacting and with gags, both verbal and visual, that consistently overestimate their ability to shock, amuse or even generate a blip on the audience's EEG. (If this EVER comes out on DVD and someone forces you to watch it, choose the commentary track -- if they're bright enough to record one; the film's actual sound is as poorly recorded as it was written.)
The recently released THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVERA proves that a well-conceived horror satire can be a howl, just as the classic THE REANIMATOR shows that "the-bloodier-the-better" philosophy of film-making can have take an audience beyond fear into helpless laughter. Despite its smugness, BLOOD DINER merely feels desperate, like a 5-year-old trying to tell gross jokes to get attention and failing to make enough impression to even be sent to his room. (Though if he was in the back seat of the car, I probably WOULD say, "Don't make me turn around...!")
On reflection, maybe the smell coming off this film had nothing to do with all the body parts. It was just the collective flop sweat of some seemingly nice guys who wasted their chance by aiming too low with too much contempt for both their subject and their audience. When will people learn that MST-3000 humor actually requires the filmmakers to have more than a collective IQ-80?