Chillerama (Review)

Chillerama. What is there to say about Chillerama? Well, it’s a good horror-comedy…but, with titles like Wadzilla and The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, you have to realize this isn’t your run of the mill genre movie. Somehow, not that I think it is particularly difficult, Chillerama was able to combine horror and dirty humor in a way the Scary Movie franchise wasn’t able to. The mini-movies in this anthology film were funny without overdoing it like you see so often in other horror-comedies. Another great aspect of the movie is how it looks and reads like an old grindhouse film, to the point where it resembles Grindhouse in several fashions. As a fan of Grindhouse, Chillerama was a cool throughback to another time in movie making. Obviously, if you picked up this film, you’re not looking for another life changing or thought provoking. In film school, when we watched films we were often encouraged to look for the themes in them. I think it’s safe to say that there are no underlying themes that you have to look for. The only thing that bonds Wadzilla, I Was A Teenage Werebear, The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, and Zom-B-movie together is…blood and sex. With that said, let me break down the films for you. So beware! There be spoilers ahead!

Wadzilla (by Adam Rifkin) – Wadzilla deals with a man who is “shooting blanks.” Or, well, not so much blanks – more like his low sperm count is a count of one. To increase his sperm count, a doctor perscribes him a new medication that hasn’t been approved yet. The medication ends up having an adverse affect and ends up causing the one sperm to grow to giant portions! As it eats, it gets bigger. Its only goal is to find a big enough woman to fertilize. The Statue of Liberty, maybe? … I never thought I’d see a creature feature about a giant sperm attacking New York. It was still pretty creative. My favorite part of this mini-movie was all the puns and inuendos used by the characters. The special effects were very cheesy and the green screen use was even worse. But I have to say, and I don’t say this often, I actually ended up preferring the terrible effects! It fit the movie concept perfectly! Wadzilla stars award winning Ray Wise from Robocop, Jeepers Creepers II, and Reaper.

I Was A Teenage Werebear (by Tim Sullivan) – A throughback to the teen beach party films of the 1960s! In Werebear, Ricky is torn between his confusing homosexual feelings and his feelings for Peggy, an attractive young woman played by VH1’s Scream Queen’s Gabby West. Peggy meets an unfortunate accident, leaving Ricky to the advances of a “bear” and his two minions. If matters couldn’t get any worse, the “bear” bites Ricky’s ass, thus passing the werebear affliction onto him…and these “bears” are anything but cute and cuddly. They plan on attacking a beach party the next night and want Ricky to join them. Gay or straight, good or evil – Ricky has some choices to make! … Werebear features a few musical numbers that are obviously homages to the old beach party films. I mentioned Gabby West before and I’m happy to say she has a much bigger part in this film than I thought she did; even if the character is a little bat shit crazy. I feel like Werebear was aimed at a certain audience, but I still enjoyed it anyway.

The Diary of Anne Frankenstein (by Adam Green) – Hatchet director Adam Green brings us a mock story of what really happened to Anne Frank and the Nazis during World War II. It appears Anne’s father had an ancient book that contained a way to reanimate the dead; just in this case it’s a mega-Jew Frankenstein who is slower in mentality than the orignal Frankenstein. Has Hitler finally created a way to win the war with this monstrocity, played by Kane Hodder? Easy answer – No. … Anne Frankenstein is by far the funniest short film in Chillerama. I laughed so hard during this one. From Hitler’s histerical entrance into the Frank’s hiding spot to the fake German langauge the actors speak – all funny. Another great part is when Jew Frankenstein kills a soldier and Hitler and Eva scream. Then the guy proceeds to die very slowly and the characters are obviously annoyed by having to yell for so long and start faking it. Anne Frankenstein had its moot parts, but the comedy more than outweighed anything average about the film.

Zom-B-movie (by Joe Lynch) – Zom-B-movie is different than the other short films in Chillerama because it plays as intermissions and outroughs throughout the film. In the final film, a man tries to have sex with the corpse of his dead wife. She inexplicably returns from the dead and bites…him…causing him to be infected with a zombie-like virus. He ends up going to work at a drive in movie theater were he accidently infects another couple. This is a zombie film, so you can guess where it goes from there. … Zom-B-Movie is by far the most horror related film in Chillerama. It reminded me a lot of Zombie Land for some reason, and I’m a sucker for shoot ’em up zombie films. What made Zom-B-Movie different from other zombie films is that the zombies craved deranged, disembowling sex just as much as they did blood and guts. Richard Riehle from Ferris Bueller, The Hebrew Hammer, Grounded For Life, and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II is heavily featured as the drive in owner. Awesome short zombie film, definitely my favorite out of the four.

Chillerama ends with a what could be iconic final scene including all four directors as they leave the premier of their own movies. As a huge horror fan, both indie and straight-to-DVD, this was very cool to see the future of horror sitting together in a movie theater. I would recommend going to see Chillerama. It’s currently available On Demand for $6.99, but I would recommend going to see it in theaters. I think it would be more enjoyable on the big screen than it would be on TVs. Great work, Chillerama gang!