Director – Matt Enos (The Slim Duffy Show, Last Days in Waldo County)
Starring – Matt Enos, Donald Bulley, and Lyle Lord (The Jim Duffy Show)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 3.5/5
Everyone knows me and my love of horror. I’ve made so many friends in the horror community over the years and a lot of them send over news on their projects almost daily. While I love horror and everything to do with it, I didn’t start out writing horror reviews. My original blog that I started about 14 years ago, was focused on forgotten action and exploitation flicks. I was buying up all the discount box sets I could find at Wal Mart and Amazon at the time and wanted to talk about them in some capacity. It didn’t take long for my love of horror to take over and over time I became more focused on indie horror than other genres.
I think that is why I always get excited when something is sent my way for review that isn’t horror. While I love the genre, I sometime get a bit bored with it and could really use something different to recharge my batteries. Sometime back I was contacted by director and character actor Matt Enos. He sent me over a link to check out his film Battle Legends: The Legend of Battle Master. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie, but the artwork sold me on it. I want to thank Matt for sending this one over!
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows the legendary Battle Master (Enos) who is training his little brother to follow in his footsteps. However, during one of his brother’s scheduled fights, the Battle Master is challenged by another local fighter who is able to defeat him. He spirals into a depression but is eventually able to pull himself out of it to regain his title as Battle Master. **spoiler Alert**
When Matt Enos hit me up to review his film, he was kind enough to link his YouTube channel The Slim Duffy Show to prepare me for the film. I chose to disregard that and went into the video raw and dry. I’m glad I did because I absolutely fucking loved it. This is the kind of movie that gets me excited for indie cinema.
The acting in this one is fucking bonkers but it’s so much fun. Matt Enos takes on the role of multiple characters, as well as directing. I loved his energy and how he is able to spin each character into different personalities and traits. The supporting cast is solid as well, but Enos makes the film.
The story for this one is a lot of fun. This is the low budget martial arts film that we expected from Dir Wit Films but never got it. It has a lot of humor, references to the show that I missed out on by not watching it beforehand, and a decent story if this was a direct to video action flick from the late 80s or early 90s. The entire point of the film is to entertain, and it does exactly that. Enos is hilarious as all the characters he portrays and the plot works. There were a few scenes that made me wish it was trimmed down some, but the overall film has great pacing and flows very well.
Finally, the film has some fun visual effects that are almost a parody of the effects seen in the films it was inspired by. While it does have some cheesy effects, it doesn’t have any blood or gore. Overall, Battle Legends: The Legend of Battle Master is the type of film that fans of Troma and Dir Wit Films will eat up. It’s so much fun regardless of what genre it is. I’m going to be binge watching The Slim Duffy Show over the next few days because of it. I highly recommend checking this one out.
