Like Tim Sullivan’s terrific 2005 original, this shot-in-12-days sequel (with a new punning title replacing the long announced BEVERLY HELLBILLIES) is an extended cinematic love-letter to Grindhouse exploitation movies, specifically the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Even more so than its predecessor, this one drops any pretence of seriousness and becomes a cartoonish, relentlessly un-PC living comic book whose tone is reflected by the framing device promoting the Avatar publications spin-off. Given the nature of the antagonists, Sullivan could effectively keep making these movies for years, without a need to change much except the protagonists, the creative death sequences and the backdrop and / or time-frame. FIELD OF SCREAMS amiably follows the structure of the original, even delivering a similar stinger-ending – meting out a deservedly splashy fate for the two that (apparently) got away.
In less affectionate or enthusiastic hands, this ran the risk of being merely obnoxious, but Sullivan – who started out as a young genre enthusiast working on the sublime indie gore comedy THE DEADLY SPAWN – knows the territory and knows his intended audience. Catch it in the right frame of mind, and it’s a blast. This time out, Pleasant Valley’s flamboyantly twisted one-eyed Mayor (George Dubya) Buckman – now essayed by Bill Moseley, a well cast replacement for Robert Englund – and the ever-crazy Granny (Lin Shaye) are disappointed by the absence of the usual stupidly unwitting Northerner visitors from their annual Guts N Glory Jamboree. For fresh meat, they are forced to head to Iowa, where a pair of air-headed sub-Paris Hilton blonde heiresses (Katy Marie Johnson, Asa Hope – both on-the-money) are at the centre of a predictably dire reality TV series entitled Road Rascals.
The use of the faux-reality TV show as a backdrop for the unfolding carnage may now be old hat (it felt like old hat even in WRONG TURN 2), but Sullivan has a lot of fun with his broadly sketched ensemble of stereotypes, from the penny-pinching Jewish director to the moody, womanising Latino, an obvious closet-gay and Johnson & Hope’s hot but startlingly vacuous babes, who express their sadness at the avalanche in New Orleans. Save for a couple of bum notes – Andrea Leon is just terrible as the show’s producer, and not even in a fun way – the fresh Northern meat in the cast is cannily chosen.
Like its cameo-heavy predecessor, FIELD OF SCREAMS sure boasts an eclectic cast, with Moseley perfect for this kind of tongue-in-cheek, OTT villainy and is reunited with his REPO co-star, “Ogre”, an engagingly off-the-wall screen presence here channelling Crispin Glover. Hold-overs from the original include buxom Milk Maid Christa Campbell and sheep-shagging simpleton Ryan Fleming. The two fans of Jar Jar Binks will appreciate the offbeat role for Ahmed Best, though it’s Sullivan regular Lin Shaye who, true to form, steals the whole thing.
Shaye’s latter-day entry into playing indefinable supporting grotesques in a range of movies from mainstream gross-out comedies (THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) to genre flicks (the underrated DEAD END) has been astonishing to behold. Even more so than before, Sullivan lets her cut loose with her inner lunatic, and she responds with incredibly demented meat-cleaver shenanigans, an awesome 80’s style full-blown music number entitled “Cannibals” (complete with mock-MTV credits) and a literally off-color punch line involving corn-on-the-cob. This 66 year old actress, whose horror film career dates back to 1982’s ALONE IN THE DARK and has always been a little bizarre, could well be the movie’s craziest, most memorable facet.
Infectious in its eagerness to offend, the flick has no shortage of gags about rug-munching and bestiality, with a cute BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN reference and a bigger titty count (fake or otherwise) than any genre flick in recent memory. (If you’re in this for hot bodies of either gender, you won’t be disappointed). The regular gore set pieces are staged with the same old-school élan that highlighted the original. Lewis’ notable spiked-barrel set piece is re-enacted and the splatter show-stopper has an almost naked blonde strapped to a table getting tormented with a feather…before her lady parts are rudely violated by an enormous buzz saw. Don’t expect the latter to show up in the Blockbuster-friendly R-rated cut.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
