As with all of my reviews of films for The Creepercast, I fully recommend that you check each and every one of them out. I am one man and this is my opinion. I've seen plenty of movies that received reviews that were the complete opposite of how I saw the film. These writers, directors, producers and actors all put a lot of time and love into these projects. They deserve to be seen and appreciated for what they are. Everyone has a dream and I fully support the people that take the time to make theirs a reality. With that being said....
Sometimes you're thrown a curve ball in life and sometimes you turn it into a giant ongoing gag, that never really worked to begin with. That seems to be the theme of this movie, 'Peelers'. Here, at The Creepercast, we try to always keep an open mind and go into each and every film with fresh eyes. No judgements, prior to a screening, just the desire to see as many horror films as possible and bring our thoughts on them to you. When I was giving the assignment of seeing 'Peelers', I had absolutely no idea what I would be in for. The poster was vague, at best, and I stayed away from any reviews. For all I knew, this was a movie about a strip club being targeted by some kind of serial slasher. What I got instead, was a bizarre mess of a zombie film that used a very odd premise, while attempting to be clever and original. Now, I give the creators credit for bringing something new to the table, but this was a mess of a movie.
The story begins in a hospital, with a sick man who is soon attacking the staff. Foreshadowing? We then move onto a rather clever intro, but one that feels more like a late night Cinemax film, than a zombie movie. Soon we're meeting our protagonist in the film, Blue Jean. A former stripper, turned strip club owner, who has a police motorcycle, a bit of a temper and a thing against being called “BJ”. The club, called 'Titty Balls', is in the process of being sold to a rather greasy man who seems to be a bit of a bad guy. As the night wears own, a group of 5 guys getting off of work, stroll into the bar. One of them is celebrating his birthday, but has been injured on the site. Before long, he's in the bathroom throwing up and turning into a zombie type creature. What happens next it an odd mix of 'From Dusk Till Dawn' meets 'Zombie Strippers'. We find out that these are not merely the undead, but some kind of oil infused living dead creature. Ones that are fully capable of using weapons and have some form of intelligence. It turns out that the 5 workers had stumbled across some kind of oily substance in the mine and were fairly certain this was their ticket to a fortune. In reality, it was soon to be the beginning of a potential apocalypse. The strippers, co-workers and Blue Jeans' son, are soon in a fight for their lives, as it seems nothing can stop these monsters from staying dead.
Written by Lisa DeVita and co-written and directed by Sevé Schelenz, 'Peelers' tries too hard to be something new. It also attempts to push the envelope, riding somewhere along the lines of a Troma movie and an early Peter Jackson film, 'Bad Taste'. Sadly, none of it seems to really work. The special effects are above average and the music is good, although the pacing is so off that it doesn't help to maintain a kinetic story line. It's very disjointed and right in the middle of some very gruesome sequences, the characters stop to have heartfelt moments. They're so jammed into the scenes that it feels like the kind of thing a first year film student would try. The same can be said for the characterization of Blue Jean. The overuse of her love of baseball and the many bits of baseball themed dialogue that are thrown in, make her a very one dimensional character. Which is sad, because Wren Walker (who plays Blue Jean) is very charismatic and likable. You find yourself drawn to her and want her to succeed, but every time she says another throw away line about the world's favorite pastime, you lose a little more interest in her survival. They also take the bit about these creatures being oil based to a weird and unsatisfying resolution. Because of their primary substance being oil based, then of course, water is their natural enemy! Not since 'Signs', has their been such an audible groan from the audience. The revelation also leads to some rather unconventional killing methods. The use of beer as a weapon, as well as one of the strippers, who is pregnant, having her water break over one of the creatures. I get it, but I really didn't want too. Not because it shocked me, but because it was solely included in the hope of a gross out moment. However, on the flip side of that moment, when the pregnant stripper is killed. As she lays dying on the ground, BJ's son hands the baby to her, so she can hold it for the first time and the last. It's these kinds of things that the movie needed more of. Not moments like a creature on a motorcycle continually calling Blue Jean “BJ” over and over, before getting beaned in the head by a baseball bat while charging hero on the bike. Then getting pissed on, by her son, in order to kill the monster.
The overall film is not without some merit. As I mentioned earlier, the music and special effects are quite good. The cinematography and direction are pretty well done, for a low budge creature feature. Perhaps with a more clever script and a better concept, this could have been much more enjoyable as a film. Instead, by the end, I was counting the minutes until it was over. But wait, there's more! Throughout the first part of the movie, Blue Jean is asked how she came to own a police motorcycle. She never tells the real reason why, until we get a cut scene at the end. A rather long cut scene, that really didn't fit anywhere else in the film and could have been explained with some exposition at an earlier point. There was no need for this scene to even exist, other than to allow her to strip and get one more set of baseball themed antics into the story. However, that wasn't even the end. There's one last little cut scene after all the credits have rolled. As if we hadn't had enough already. I wish I had some more positive things to say about 'Peelers'. There's just too many negatives, to add up to anything positive. For me, it's a 2 out of 5 star film. I really wanted to like it, as it started off with some promise. I get what the writer and director were going for, but instead of making a bad/good cult classic, they just kind of made a bad/bad forgettable film. Even the posters for this one, left a bad taste in my mouth. Both of them had nothing really to do with the film we were shown and were a tad bit misleading. Maybe that wasn't the film makers fault, but it's three strikes and your out. This ball game is over.
If you'd rather see something else, check out: 'From Dusk Till Dawn', 'Zombie Strippers' or 'Braindead' aka 'Dead Alive'
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