Years ago I served as the film history teacher at the Toronto Film College and, outside of opening young minds to everything from the majesty of Orson Welles to the legacy of Roger Corman, one of the joys of that gig was the end of year student film showcase, wherein a cavalcade of no-budget wonders were screened for faculty and colleagues.
It was always a hit or miss affair, sometimes frustrating, sometimes inspiring but always interesting to watch people work hard to make little entertainments or artistic statements when crushed with loose change and luck for a budget.
I feel the same way about anthology films like Dread Centrals MONSTERLAND (out now on DVD from RLJ Entertainment), the follow-up to their previous short film collection ZOMBIEWORLD. But where that picture was bit of a random mash, MONSTERLAND feels far more cohesive and thus, is a much more satisfying experience.
Which is not to say every featured flick is great. But most are good and they all feel like they belong together.
This is due in no small part to goofy and cool framing story (by horror stalwarts John Skipp and Andrew Kasch), in which a hapless survivor of a CGI monster apocalypse steps over a stack of corpses and makes his way to a cinema (why wouldnt he?) where he tries to enjoy a cavalcade of crusty creature features.
Things get off to wonky start with the opening tale, in which a bunch of horny teens (groan) go skinny dipping and end up dead. Not much to see here, save for some boobs and blood. Which, come to think of it, is pretty okay. Frank Henenlotters BRAIN DAMAGE gets a nod with The Grey Matter, in which a dude gets a head injury and wakes up with a worm in his brain that controls him. Directed by Peter and Like McCoubrey, this is a comedy and a fairly amusing one at that. Curiosity Kills is another iffy clip, with an eye-straining visual FX palette that makes the killer mutant rat tale at its core hard to sit through. Director Eric Gardners Hag is a more serious affair, a story of a man whose wife is possessed by the spirit of some sort of malevolent ghost witch that appears at the foot of their bed at night. Only a goofy final sequence that literally winks at the audience stops this from being as scary as it should be.
Monster Man is an animated joint that really doesnt go anywhere but is only a few minutes long and as such, is an acceptable aside. House Call is an EC comics-approved premise about a guy (Sean Keller) who holds a dentist hostage and demands he removes his teeth before he turns into a vampire. Its silly, campy stuff but Dick Grunerts script is witty and Graham Denmans direction tight.
Skipp and Kasch return with the ludicrous and gross Stay at Home Dad in which a team-playing pop opts to pick up the domestic slack and undergoes an experimental surgery that causes him to grow massive breasts in order to feed his newborn baby. His wife is turned on by her mans tits and they have wicked weird sex but soon, things start to unravel, bloodily. The great Marc Shostrom handles the FX here and theyre wonderfully messy. Its probably the best short of the bunch and makes up for the annoying final tale, Hellyfish in which nuclear radiation turn jellyfish into giant digitally rendered monsters.
All in all MONSTERLAND is a fun way to kill some time. And if it feels more like a festivals short film program than an actual feature film, well, there aint nothing wrong with that!
