Retardead

2009

United States

Directed by Dan West, Rick Popko

Brain Damage Films

R1 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

This film is the followup to MonsTURD, and still doesn’t manage to lift itself out of the gutter.

The evil Dr Stern has escaped from his apparent tomb in the sewers and got himself a new job teaching retarded people. He is actually achieving pretty good results with the serum he is injecting into them, if it wasn’t for an unfortunate side effect. Sooner or later they turn into flesh eating zombies and must be locked away in the basement of the school. .

Meanwhile, the inept local police force has its hands full with a serial wanker known as the Weenie Wagger who is terrorizing the female population. He also works at the school. Of course, the zombies break loose and start to eat the town, as zombies do. It is up to the last police officers and the Weenie Wagger to stop them.

The film quality is quite patchy. Although the cinematography is far better than I would have expected, the makeup is a bit patchy. The special effects are as good as any I have seen, and the usual buckets of blood and gore should satisfy the most ardent zombie fan.

I really liked the trashy intro offering food from our cafeteria – “Soda pop in all the colours of the rainbow – red, yellow and brown” and popcorn “topped with a rich yellow buttery-like substance” – and the spoof trailer for Frankenstein and the Bloody Beast of Ghastly Terror. These set the scene for what was to follow.

For a budget film it’s pretty good, even allowing for the occasional wooden acting or dodgy makeup. It will appeal to Troma film fans especially. Buckets of fun. And gore.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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