Actress Apocalypse (2005)
DIRECTED BY: Richard R. Anasky
REVIEWED BY: Mario Dominick
Microbudget Florida filmmaker Richard R. Anasky (I Am Vengeance) brings us this campy and funny tribute to exploitation films and the slasher genre presented in “mockumentary” style that follows the misadventures of a three-man low budget film crew. David Lincoln, his brother Vance, and their sidekick “The Golden Terror” set out to make a horrific slasher film with bloodshed and naked women. A documentary filmmaker follows them around with his camera and records them interviewing actresses for parts, fighting with actresses during auditions, and screaming and swearing at a each other when things don’t work out. One of them gets the crazy idea to turn the project into a snuff film when an actress dies on the set. This leads to much infighting amongst the crew. At one point one of them even decides the best way to settle everything would be a “circle jerk.” Despite the shortcomings and mishaps they run into, they continue hunting down young actresses for parts and get them to strip naked. One of them decides to go ahead with the snuff film idea and kills one of the girls. This leads to them preying on more unsuspecting starlets until one of them is shot. Have these crazy goofballs finally met their match or will they keep rolling with the project in spite of everything? Watch and find out.
Actress Apocalypse is an enjoyable microbudget horror-comedy filled with laughs, T&A, toilet humor, and more. It’s an overall nice homage to the golden era of exploitation films and it’s depictions of movie set madness like actresses fighting with directors over nudity, infighting amongst the crew, etc. are very true to reality as this stuff more often than not does happen on the sets of these low budget movies. This takes it a step further by exploring what would happen if a crew member flipped out and started killing the actors and turned the thing into a snuff film. That being said, it’s an overall very tongue-in-cheek look at low budget filmmaking and an entertaining spoof of slasher films as well.
Extras on the Mondo Crash DVD of Actress Apocalypse include deleted scenes, bloopers and outtakes, cast interviews, a trailer for Anasky’s I Am Vengeance, “Sexy Stripper Vignette,” and a CD containing the film’s soundtrack.
If horror spoofs/homages are your thing, you certainly can’t go wrong with this. The DVD is a nice package with some cool extras as well. Let’s hope IAV (which looks like it has a very Cinema of Transgression vibe to it) sees release sooner rather than later.
