Chillerama - DVD

Content: The Kaufman Drive-In Cinema has to close its doors forever. But its owner, old Cecil Kaufman (Richard Riehle) of course doesn't want to just say goodbye to his audience without a sound. A big movie night with exciting horror shorts is supposed to make the audience's blood run cold one last time. Whether it's Wadzilla, in which unassuming Miles Munsen (Adam Rifkin) suddenly produces monster sperm, I Was a Teenager Werebear, in which teenage Ricky turns into an advertising bear (!) after being bitten on the butt, or the horrors of The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, which reveals how Adolf Hitler (Joel David Moore) used a very special creature to carry out his plans for world domination, these films are meant to offer patrons of the old drive-in one last time all the things that made the Kaufman Drive-In so popular. Too bad that during the screening of the horror flicks a disgusting zombie virus spreads in the cinema. And soon, it's not the closing that's the biggest problem for Cecil. Along with his young companions Toby (Corey Jones) and Mayna (Kaili Thorne), it's just a matter of bare survival...

For Chillerama, a wacky homage to B-horror films that were favored in American drive-in theaters especially in the '50s and '60s, directors Adam Green (Hatchet), Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs), Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2), and Adam Rifkin teamed up to give their viewers a wild mix of comedy and gore. Despite the obvious pleasure all of these filmmakers took in the project, however, the quality of their individual contributions varies significantly.

For instance, Adam Rifkin's Godzilla variant Wadzilla, despite some very funny moments and amusing guest appearances by Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and Eric Roberts, is simply far too long, stretching its absurdly funny basic idea far too far to be amusing. And Tim Sullivan's very special werewolf story with weird musical interludes can't entertain for its entire running time either. Only Adam Green's utterly irreverent and highly original Diary of Anne Frankenstein hits the spot. It's particularly amusing that Green shot his episode in German, with only Hitler actor Joel David Moore (Avatar) speaking completely unintelligible fantasy German, with the occasional familiar Nena tune creeping in. It's so wonderfully silly that it's just a great joy. Besides this episode, it's especially the second half of the Zom-B-Movie frame story that scores with a lot of pacing and nice touches.

The problem with some parts of the film is that the humor turns out to be arguably infantile, and the actual charm that underlies this B-Movie homage keeps getting lost as a result. This is a shame in that everyone involved, whether in front of or behind the camera, took obvious pleasure in what they were doing and, more importantly, had a certain passion for the genre. As such, Chillerama unfortunately didn't turn out to be the utter delight that this horror episodic film could have been. The bottom line is that the positive moments are enough to offer good entertainment to fans of twisted horror comedies - provided that you can overlook a certain form of fecal humor and get involved with the intended trash factor. Then also applies, despite the sags: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: As with, for example, the Grindhouse homage by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Roudriguez, some of the shorts here the material was deliberately trimmed to old. Soiling, slightly washed out colors or small image failures are absolutely intentional and should therefore not be evaluated negatively as a stylistic device. In the scenes that serve as a frame story, it becomes clear that the film can definitely come up with rich colors and a decent image sharpness. The same applies to the sound, which here and there deliberately uses quiet cracking or noise, but otherwise scores with well understandable mixed dialogue and some nice surround effects. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, the DVD does not have much bonus material to offer. Only two interviews with the filmmakers (a total of about 14 min.) is included here in addition to the trailer for the film. This is a bit meager.

Conclusion:Chillerama is a nice idea, but not always quite successfully implemented. For this completely over-the-top homage to old B-horror films, such as those that were seen in American drive-in cinemas in the 50s and 60s in particular, a number of genre directors have joined forces, whose contributions are at times absolutely hilarious, at other times grossly over-the-top or just flat out. In the end, there are at least enough successful moments to keep lovers of weird and completely absurd horror comedies entertained. Even the rather meager bonus material on the DVD doesn't change that. Therefore, the following applies: Who can ever laugh at some low humor, like it bloody and also not bothered by other bodily fluids, this episodic film could well offer two very entertaining hours

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp