TERROR FIRMER

Terror in Tromaville

There's a plot hidden beneath all the gore, noise, sick gags, violence and overacting in this latest offering from the Troma factory, but don't let that stop you from checking it out. After all, this is a Troma picture, so there is a certain sense of priority at work.

Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger series) directs and stars as blind movie director Larry Benjamin, hard at work crafting his own special brand of cinema du chaos on both sides of the camera. Terror Firmer purports to be an adaptation of Kaufman's book All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger : The Shocking True Story of Troma Studios. However, it's actually a horror comedy set behind the scenes during the shooting of Troma's latest Toxic Avenger adventure (in which Toxie appears to give birth to his own mother!).

There's a vicious female serial killer on the loose in Tromaville, committing all manner of heinous violent crimes - the film opens with her beating a man to death with his own leg. Most of her victims have some connection to the film crew, but most of them are too busy at their jobs (running around shouting) to worry about it much. After a good 15 minutes of mayhem, things settle down slightly to introduce a romance plotline. Casey the Boom Boy (Will Keenan, star of Tromeo & Juliet) is trying to get a date with innocent young P.A. Jennifer (Alyce LaTourelle), irking rival Jerry the F/x Boy (Trent Haaga). The killings continue and with the local fuzz immersed in their own delirium, it's up to the Troma crew to find out who- or what-done-it, building to a truly repellent climax. Followed by an equally repellent climax.

Like Troma's Class of Nuke 'em High series, Terror Firmer is like a teen comedy mashed together with a grindhouse gore flick at Pee Wee's Playhouse. There's always something funny, stupid, arousing, scary, or disgusting happening - and sometimes all at once.

Which is all part of showman Kaufman's style. His films have the same cleanly photographed look and frantic editing as those of Russ Meyer, along with the gritty funk of the New York gore films of the '80s. He's not afraid to cross-cut between mismatched shots, change camera angles for no reason, or use split-screen. Performances range from overacting to over-overacting, with plenty of outrageous and quotable dialogue ("I've been pissed on by an independent filmmaker!", "Get that bud out of my ass!"). They remind me a bit of those game shows on Nickelodeon - they never get far away from a fart joke, and someone is always likely to be doused with bright green slime.

They're also very noisy. In addition to traditional musical cues, Kaufman fills his soundtrack with constant music by bands known and unknown (Lunachicks and Lemmy Killmister of Motorhead appear on camera), and many characters have their own theme song.

Terror Firmer, despite the weak title, is one of Troma's wildest flicks ever, a fine example of "irritainment" at it's best. If you can't catch its (limited) theatrical release, it should be available soon on tape and DVD from Troma Video.

Psycho killer; axe fu; knife fu; leg fu; car chases; explosions; excessive blood & gore; lesbians; various spewed bodily fluids; castration; bong enema; pickled punks; Sgt. Kabukiman; castration; man-eating escalator; heads roll; full frontal nudity; Mad Cowboy; crucified puppet; asses of fire; p-faves Kaufman, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Debbie Rochon, Roxanne Michaels.

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