Stage 1: Hallucinations.Stage 2: Organ Failure.
Stage 3: Total Body Melt.
I admit that the clubhouse has been rather skimp on the horror lately, but if there is any film that could make up for a week's worth of Trailer Terrors its Body Melt.
God bless those crazy-ass Kiwis for perfecting such a gruesome genre of horror films as splattergore/splatstick. Very much in the vein of Peter Jackson's Dead Alive or Jim Muro's Street Trash, but with the budget of Bad Taste, Body Melt is an indie horror film full of over-acting cast members, fountains of sticky body fluids (all kinds), and most importantly horrid melting monstrosities eating Kangaroos. Seriously, at one point two of the films less desirable mutation murders a kangaroo with a rock and proceed to devour its adrenal gland for the "rush."
Add to that some pretty sweet special effects, none of that CGI crap here, and a general plot so simple that you can still follow it while intoxicated and it leaves me to wonder why this film is more widely known. The music also plays a huge factor in the film, with a frantic, electronic sound that almost makes you feel as though you're at a rave for the clinically insane which is funny when you consider the social subtext that director Philip Brophy has cleverly inserted beneath the silly, crude humor. In the end, it proves to be this duality between blood-soaked satire and outrageous visual effects that grants the film a second life.
Body Melt is grotesque and ghastly, but in all the best of ways and I only wish that more horror films in the present day would take note of the subtleties that Brophy "injects" into both its presentation and plot... an unflinching view of drug use and corporate abuse. Although I rented it out of pure coureousity, I have since decided to scoop it up on Amazon (though the cover isn't half as cool as the European import). The price point is a little high, but for fans of splatstick its a must have.
Jesus! I'll be having nightmares now...