Directed by Michael Tarzian and released in 2005, Screech of the Decapitated is low budget buffoonery of the highest order that is deliberately so. Below grindhouse standard, it revels in the paucity of its effects and the campy knowingness of the deliberately pantomime acting. And, because it does all this, the film manages to raise itself up by its own bootstraps.
It follows showgirls Raquel (Brittany Petros) and Wanda (Shannon Noelle Garrigus), international showgirls, strippers (not that the film plays the nudity card, to be fair) and part-time jewel thieves and agents. They are in Buenos Aires (actually Burbank, but let’s not quibble), driving along and squabbling when they see a man on the side of the road with an axe. Convinced he might be the serial killer known as the Decapitator they stop the car to confront him – after all he is killing in alphabetical order and only up to “E”.
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| werewolf |
The man seems to be in a trance but then suddenly drops to the floor, starts sprouting hair and then becomes a werewolf (and the werewolves are created by the sfx of plain old, cheap end rubber masks). It will transpire that the werewolves are clones created by the alien Nadir (Ed Flanagan, Way of the Vampire) and his concubine Queen Maquzita (Debbie Rochon). So werewolves, aliens… but where are the vampires you might ask.
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| old fanged ghoul |
After escaping to a windmill and bashing the werewolf with an axe, the women find an old man in the building. Getting him to turn around he reveals fangs and so there are more whacks with the axe. Now he has yellow gunk for blood and is credited as Old Fanged Ghoul (Marvin Morgenstern) – but the lines between vampire and ghoul are blurry and he looks the part. Later they end up in a wrestling match with luchadors and one of them turns into a werewolf but the other turns into a bat – indeed there is also a bat attack when Raquel showers that is described as a vampire bat also.
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| vampire |
The other appearance seems to be at the end when the women pick up a handsome hitchhiker, whose eyes glow red as he shows fangs. Enough, through this, to suggest that we have a fleeting visitation of a vampire or two and some definite crap bat moments. I said this was knowing and it was so knowing that it was just likable all the way through, the leads were incredibly natural and clearly in on the joke but it is probably consumed with a side of your favourite beverage and a group of mates.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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