With the rise of the direct-to-video market in the 80s, several low-budget productions popped up that were made expressly for VHS. It’s a strange period, because while a lot of these films found followings in renters, in many cases the actual quality of such productions were at their lowest. Video was still in its infancy and the images were notably softer and less defined than that of a typical shot-on-production. Many of these films died out with the VHS format and are nearly impossible to find.
This week, Olive Films are releasing one of these titles. Shock ‘Em Dead is a haphazardly-made, low-budget effort that was clearly created to take advantage of the video market. Described by its writer/director and associate producer as a, “rock ‘n roll-horror-T&A-comedy” it literally combines all of the elements requested to them by the production financiers.
Martin (Stephen Quadros) is a dorky and slight pervy kid who works at a pizza joint and dreams of being a Guitar God. When he fails an audition for the glam heavy metal band Spastique Kolon, the frustrated amateur visits his local voodoo priestess. Using her powers, the practitioner turns him into Angel Martin, a guitar player with almost supernatural abilities. However, to keep up his talents and enormous hair, he must use a voodoo knife to kill and suck the life from humans at regular intervals.
So now that he has unfathomable talent, what does he do? Nope, he doesn’t decide to start a solo career. Instead, he re-auditions and joins the scrappy little band he initially tried out for. Then, he attempts to push out the group’s prima donna leader Jonny Crack (Markus Grupa). In the process, Martin develops feelings for group manager Linday (Traci Lords). Naturally, this doesn’t sit well with her boyfriend and Kolon bassist, Greg (Tim Moffett).
While its tongue is firmly-in-cheek, it’s a very uneven effort that does look hastily put together. Literally any dopey joke (many are of questionable taste) and bad double entendre is used at every opportunity. There’s a lot of gratuitous nudity and the performances are all over the place. The lead role is played a little broadly for my liking. Martin comes across as annoying at first, and immediately turns to obnoxious after being granted his heavy metal fantasy. While Traci Lords is listed as the star, she’s merely a supporting character. And there isn’t much in the way of actual horror or elaborate murder sequences.
Unexpectedly, the movie’s star performer is band front man Jonny, whose enjoyably over-the-top performance harkens back to the character of Beef (Geritt Graham) from Phantom of the Paradise. And as performed, Spastique Kolon’s original song “Virgin Girl” is kind of funny, at least in a tactless sort of way.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the movie are the ridiculous fashions and hairdos. It’s all the funnier considering when this film was produced. The 80s heavy metal craze already appeared to be at an end – it just seems like no one involved got the memo that “grunge” music was about to break through in a few mere months.
Again, the Blu-ray and DVD aren’t the epitome of striking image quality. This movie was made for the straight-to-video market (it wasn’t even cut on film). According to the director, the only existing film prints have completely vanished. So, this is as good as it’s going to get. At least this release preserves the title so that it won’t completely vanish from the annals of history. There are some great bonuses, including a director/producer commentary track, director interview, cast and crew reunion, audition footage, deleted scenes as well as a photo gallery and trailer.
Shock ‘Em Dead is a pretty dated and cheeseball effort. But for some viewers (particularly those who like heavy metal in their B-movies), this will be exactly what they find amusing about it. Add some impressive special features and it should please those with an interest in campy cinema.