Porkchop (2010)

Well Deserved Praise

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

We all know the drill: A group of young campers venture into the remote wilderness for a wild weekend of sex, booze, and all-out inane merriment at an abandoned summer camp. Naturally, a husky and ferocious chainsaw-wielding bloodthirsty maniac called Porkchop (burly hulk Rob Cobb) starts bumping folks off left and right in assorted grisly ways. Director/co-writer Eamon Hardiman concocts an affectionate and entertaining trashy homage to lowdown scuzzy 80's slice'n'dice fare that covers all the essential winningly tacky body count bases: There's a decent smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity, a handy helping of in-your-face graphic and unflinching gore, funny and colorful stereotypical redneck secondary characters, the young adults clearly mark themselves for doom by swilling hooch, skinny-dipping, and engaging in premarital copulation, an amusing sense of raunchy humor, and several inventively nasty murder set pieces (a brutal anal rape by chainsaw rates as the definite stomach-turning highlight). The game cast has a ball with the blithely rubbishy material: Ruby Larocca as the snarky Deborah, Charles Sullivan as the amiable Mike, Chris Woodall as hapless bumbling nerd Richie, Erin Russ as the sweet and perky Rachel, Brandon Raker as crude and annoying British slob Ian, Sierra Ferrell as slutty bimbo cheerleader Courtney, Brian Gunnoe as hearty hick Burt Fleming, and Hardiman as effeminate hillbilly Teddy. Richie's pesky robot creation Elron (voiced to irritating nasal perfection by Dan Hicks) provides hilariously obnoxious comic relief. The generic noodling synthesizer score hits the quivery spot. The copious witty 80's references further add to the movie's campy charm. The plain cinematography gives the picture an appropriately static shot-on-video nickel'n'dime indie 80's look. Good scroungy fun.

This is the first movie that i grade with 1! 1! And only because there is no 0! Now start reading and read carefully! Look at a trailer, see how this rubbish thing is filmed, and if by any chance whatsoever, dunno how but you still want to check it out, here are the reasons why NOT to do so:1. The camera work: if the trailer looks good, then it is edited like nothing i have ever seen in my life. Rarely does one get to film with a phone and call it "art" but here, this guy got lucky! Really lucky! 2. The acting: there is NONE! That is not acting, they could have read from the scrip directly and it would have looked better. 3. Gore: that is gore? If any of you is truly afraid of ketchup and some expired paint, OK, maybe you will get a kick from this. 4. Dialogue: i can't even begin to describe it.Trust me, i could go on forever, seriously, first, CHECK THE TRAILER OUT, look how it is filmed, I DO BELIEVE IN INDEPENDENT MOVIES, especially horror, BUT IT IS JUST NOT THE CASE! Watch an old Scooby Doo episode, by far, faaaar better than this! Dear God i pray that you read my comment first and not the other one, probably posted by someone who was involved in the making of the "movie"!

This film truly sucks, don't listen to the long review. he must work for them or something. I was bored enough to sit through the entire monstrous mess and if there was any way of me getting this time back I would take it. I can't begin to explain how many levels this film fails on. To list them all would take someone even more bored than I am now - and believe me - for me to be bothered to write this - if you knew me - you would know that this is really really bad.All I can do is write this review in the hope it may save some of you people making the same mistake as I did. If this is meant to be some sort of 'parody' it fails because at the end of the day its not entertaining and the actors 'pretend' wooden-ness just comes across as plain old wooden-ness.You have been warned. Watch at your peril!!

Porkchop from Independent Entertainment and Alternative Cinema is a well-done satire homage to classic low budget 80s slasher cinema. Directed and produced by Eamon Hardiman, a native of Charleston, West Virginia, a location not to far from The Liberal Dead's main headquarters in eastern Kentucky. The film revolves around a group of six young campers and a robot that retreat into the backwoods of West Virginia for a weekend of booze, drugs, and wild sex inside the abandoned Camp Wood. Soon, a weekend of debauchery turns into a fight for survival when the campers are hunted by a chainsaw-wielding psychopath in a pig mask looking to spill the blood of all those who roam into his territory. The film stars Ruby LaRocca, who readers may remember from Evan Makrogiannis' The Super, Erin Russ (Devil Sister), Ford Austin (Dahmer Vs. Gacy) and Brian Gunnoe. Porkchop will be hitting DVD on December 6th and digital markets.A lot of filmmakers these days try to recreate the look and feel of classic grind house and 80s era film, but often fall short of really capturing the true look and feel. That is not the case with Porkchop; this film pays very close attention to every minute detail when it comes to creating an authentic low budget 80s horror experience. From a opening featuring an 80s thrash metal theme song that shares the title of the film, to the clever use of 80s products and pop culture references, it is hard to believe this is not some lost film that has been discovered from the era. There is two scenes in particular that really made me take notice of this, both featuring a duo of backwoods store clerks, one of whom is reading an issue of the Alf comic at one point and later in the film an actual classic issue of Fangoria Magazine from the proper era.I found myself constantly laughing during my viewing and remembering all the hours I spent watching films of this nature as a kid. The film does a great job at creating a high level of nostalgia for old-school horror fans that grew up with horrible acting and micro budget special effects. This is most definitely the perfect type of movie to watch with a group of friends while munching out and cracking wise. One of my favorite aspects of the film is the fact it does not take it self to serious, this is where many attempts to recreate the feeling of a classic 80s slasher start to fail, people seem to forget that a lot of 80s horror was very campy in nature and notorious for poking fun at itself. With that said keep in mind that Porkchop features one of the best robot kill scenes known to man.My only complaint with this flick is it really needed more gore; this is the only factor that held it back from being the perfect recreation of the genre and era. While there are some fairly gory kills, it really could have been amped up and in my opinion should have been. The gorier kills do all look good considering the filmmaker's dedication in keeping things legitimately 80s feeling. There is one scene, towards the very end of the film involving a foot stomp that I must admit put a smile across my sick twisted face. However, other than this minor complaint, I really had a blast watching Porkchop in the wee hours of the morning as if I was a mere boy sneaking up to watch horror films on HBO once again.If you want to take a trip back to the days of when Wizard Video, Paragon, and Super Video filled your local mom and pop video store shelves with over sized VHS boxes, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Porkchop then sitting down with some friends for a night of campy fun. - The Liberal Dead