Chillerama starts out in a cemetery where some guy who works for the drive in theater is getting busy with a corpse. This is until the corpse comes to life and..well unmans the guy. He then staggers to the cinema in time for the first show. Along with this, is the various patrons of the drive-in begin to show up who are then introduced as main characters, defining the multitude of sub-plots.
The first clip opens with Cecil Kaufman, the owner of the establishment, talking about the last night and how it will be full of unreleased movies, shown for the first time. After this, he throws the switch and “Wadzilla” begins to play. This is a Godzilla spoof about a giant sperm trying to eat/destroy the country. It is destroyed in a unique and disgusting way that provides random, disgusting entertainment.
Flash back to the drive-in where Chillerama shows a geeky kid trying to get with a young concession girl. She grabs some butter that has been infected with ball blood from the necrophiliac employee who is slowly turning into a zombie. Cecil then starts his second monologue and begins the movie “I Was a Teenage Werebear”. This is a skit about a kid who has to come to grips with his gayness after he is turned into a werebear. These are creatures who transform when they are in lust for other men. The young kid manages to save his peers and slay the evil werebear.
Chillerama flashes back to the car park as the movie winds down and shows the viewers getting on with their sub-plot stories; including another love interest in the making. This is all happening until Cecil throws in the third film titled “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein”. This is an interesting mix of the two stories. Hitler finds a diary belonging to Frankenstein, and ends up making a giant Jewish zombie. The zombie ends up slaughtering him.
Bam, back to the drive in where people are getting busy and turning into zombies; complete with zombie semen. The worries start to mount, but it is all put aside for the fourth and final production; which was just disturbing. I won’t go into this segment other than to say that it was the first case of female nudity that I saw in the film; and this was to take away from the disturbing nature of the snippet. Chillerama then fades back to the drive in theater where people are ignoring the disgusting movie since the zombies have begun eating the moviegoers and turning them; or having sex with them. This continues until the two young heroes and old man Cecil fight the zombies in a blaze of glory and excrement.
For a random, Indie movie, the actors are well known faces and do an admirable job at their roles. Chillerama stars Richard Riehle. He is a huge character actor, and you will know him as soon as you see his face. He is joined in the movie by actors such as Ray Wise, Joel David Moore and a bunch of relatively recognizable faces. As stated above, these actors, combined with the host of unknowns, do a great job at bringing Chillerama to life. There is a bit of forced acting; but the experienced professionals are able to carry these slip ups.
The quality of the Blu-ray for Chillerama is hard to describe. As a whole it is plays to the genres and time frames that each mini-movie is set in. The scenes in between these clips are well done, if at a medium quality. I was not impressed; but I was also not disappointed. Where Chillerama really shined was in the olden quality of the mini-clips. Each one was done in the same “feeling” or style as the corresponding spoof. For example, Wadzilla was done in a grainy technicolor manner, that was reminiscent of the old Godzilla movies. This was enhanced by the black and white, grainy and gritty appeal of the Diary of Anne Frankenstein. This is also impressive because the writers and directors used period wording and phrases; and in one case period language with subtitles. In short, the Blu-ray experience was expected and had some nice twists; but not overly impressive in HD quality.
As with many Blu-ray releases, Chillerama provides a great amount of special features for viewing enjoyment. Firstly, comes the option of the directors’ commentary. This is a quality special feature due to the fact that each mini-movie was directed by a different person. Having each individual explain the thoughts behind factors of the snippet really helped to enhance the experience. Along with this, there are deleted scenes and trailers from the snippet Wadzilla. Also, the making of The Diary of Anne Frankenstein was interesting, and showed an interesting background to the snippet. These are all wrapped up with more behind-the-scenes, deleted scenes and directors interviews that help to really provide interesting twists and features to lighten up this intense comedy.
Chillerama should be watched with a grain of salt and a huge warning label attached. It is a “What the F&$*” movie in all of the glory of the phrase. While watching the movie, I transferred between laughing, feeling dirty and being disgusted. In short, it was an intense horror comedy spoof. Chillerama earned its unrated status and if I had to rate it would be NC-17. Frankly, be careful who you let watch it and do not watch it after eating. However, if you like strange, demented indie films then Chillerama may just be for you.