I have to give a lot of credit when a film maker can stand back from the art form he loves and poke fun at it. It takes a lot to find humor in a field where you are making a living and hopefully enjoy working in. ‘Brutal Massacre: A Comedy’ by Stevan Mena is such a film. It finds humor in the horror film genre and does so with brilliance and skill. There are a lot of flicks around that combine comedy and horror; so many that this is rapidly becoming a separate type of movie. In 1931 there was one of the first; ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’ which, of course was flat out slapstick. Then in 1981 a little movie called ‘Student Bodies’ was one of the first to add an element of satire of the genre into the mix. This was formalized in 1996 with the first of the ‘Scream’ trilogy which also restarted the modern trend. ‘Brutal Massacre: A Comedy’ is a different sort of film although it does take a similar track. It appears that the trend for the horror comedy is following the general direction of the straight horror flick. They are juvenile; full of naked girls, vast quantities of mind altering substances and gallons of fake blood. It is so refreshing to see a film like this that returns to intelligently written humor presented with expert precision. I have to admit that when I first saw the title I rolled my eyes at the thought of just another poorly made excuse for a comedy. Within a few minutes of watching I was laughing out loud and completely captivated.

This is the brain child of Stevan Mena who wrote, directed and co-produced the film. He is new to the film industry; this is his sophomore opus. His previous work, ‘Malevolence’ was met with mixed review but was considered to be a strong first effort. It was a mixture of genres that included elements of the thriller, horror and mystery. As with this film he was involved with every aspect of production. He may be new to the all of these fields but he is one of the most promising people coming up in film today. What he has provided here as the scriptwriter is a story that is perfectly crafted. It concerns a man named Harry Penderecki (David Naughton). At one time he was a well known director of horror films. He was not in the mainstream but did carve out a good living with those ‘B’ movies that were the staple of grindhouses and drive ins all over the country. Now, he is facing the fact that his career is over but he wants to make one more film, his best, so that he will be remembered. He comes up with the idea for ‘Brutal Massacre’ and gets a documentary film maker to follow along recording the entire process. This mockumentary style has become popular in the last decade or so mostly propelled by Christopher Guest who has made this type of film into an art form. It has also carried over to the very popular television series ‘The Office’ but here in the States and over in England. Mena thereby combines a dark insider’s look at independent film making in a format that audiences love to watch. It sounds simple in the retrospect of watching the film but Mena had an original idea that panned out extremely well; that is a rare and wonderful thing. This film will find a special place among those you actually make low budget films. If something could possibly go wrong it does here. For fans of Indy films you may imagine who great it would be to be on a film set. This movie depicts the arduous work required to make even the worse possible flick. This script is old school dark humor the likes of which audiences have not seen in many years.

As the director Mena is fantastic. It is almost impossible to believe that this is only his second time up at bat. When you look at a movie like this you may want to dismiss it as being silly at times. It takes incredible control to make something seem so easy. A lot of the film appears to be improvised by the cast and that has to add another measure of difficulty for the director. Apparent chaos on film required he most control to pull off correctly. Another challenge that Mena faced in this film is the mockumentary style. He does afford him the opportunity to hide behind the ersatz director of the film within a film. It also means that he had to direct basically two films in one and make them work together. To accomplish this he seems to have taken a lighter hand in his direction. After all he assembled a great cast all with experience in horror films. He just had to gear them up and point them in the right direction. He does have most of his cast playing against type to add a different point of view and the inherent comedy of seeing familiar faces in completely novel roles.

The film opens by introducing the audience to Bert Campbell (Vincent Butta) at the Fangoria convention. He is the documentarian who is following Harry as he goes through the production of his next and possible last flick, ‘Brutal Massacre’. Harry is on a panel with real life horror legend Mick Garris. This does add a lot for the true horror fan to have this film approved by such a master of horror as Garris. During the pre-production the audience is shown the casting call for the prerequisite young lady who has to appear sans top. The reactions of the ‘actresses’ are priceless. One curses out the casting supervisor, Gladys (Betsy Baker) while another just giggles and pulls her top off. During one of the interviews with Harry he gives well prepared stock answers such as not being influenced by obscure directors and then names one that no one has heard of. He defends the graphic nature of his films as just giving people what they want. The production manager, Natalie (Ellen Sandweiss) has her hands full. She is loud and vulgar as she talks on the phone trying to line things up. It seems that everything aspect of this film is going wrong.

This film is filled with little inside jokes that are done so well that the general audience will get the humor. ‘Brutal Massacre’ is simply great fun to experience. The DVD comes from Anchor Bay and once again they score a direct hit with a film that most people are unaware of being out there. Sure, it your follow the horror sites and magazines you might of heard of it but this movie deserves a much wider audience and this DVD is their chance to get it. It is presented in anamorphic 1.78: 1 video and Dolby 5.1 audio. Both are very well done. For extras there is a set of extended and deleted scenes and a making of featurette. One thing that caught my eye was the insert. It had poster art from a few ‘Penderecki’ productions like ‘Sasquatch at the Mall’, ‘Fish who ate Flesh’ and ‘I’ll Take the Ring Back and the Finger Too’. This is one not to miss; get it.