What I'm Watching: Father's Day

I'm sitting here wondering if I have ever reviewed a movie from the infamous Troma Films company.  The guys who made Toxic Avenger!  Like Full Moon, they filled a lot of my VHS watching days, and their cheese is very special.

So it's great that I finally get to look at one of their movies, the newest release, Father's Day.  No, this is not a sequel to their other infamous holiday movie, Mother's Day.  Not even close.

If anyone is going to do a grindhouse homage, it should be these guys.  The blood, the gore, the sleaze...all of that are hallmarks of both grindhouse and Troma.  This is a good fit, in theory.

The movie is about a killer who likes to go around killing fathers, hence the name of the movie.  He is being hunted by a priest and the son of one of his former victims, amongst others.  But it's mostly about Father John and Ahab.

Part of the movie concerns Father John's quest to find Ahab, then his reintroduction to society and finding his sister whom he abandoned is now a stripper, and culminating in a final battle with the Fuckman, who keeps things gory while they're doing their thing.

Yes.

The bad guy of this movie is called The Fuckman.  Also known as Chris Fuckman.  And the Fuckmanicus.

That kinda sums up the movie right there, doesn't it?  This does not take itself seriously, not in the slightest.  The movie is downright insane at times.  The dialogue is bizarre in a good way, with Ahab trying to sound wise and insightful, but you know it's bullshit.  And the other characters know it's bullshit.

I loved watching this.  I knew going in this was going to be grindhousey, just by being Troma.  I was not disappointed, and the quality of humour while still maintaining a sensible story was a welcome change of pace from some grindhouse homages that are just gibberish.

The final act where the characters end up in hell trying to find the Fuckmanicus and end its threat forever maybe gets a bit too cutesy and referential, but on balance things work out.  You don't expect things to be serious, so it's not a jarring tone, just maybe a bit too much during a proper climax.  I could've done without a slave Leia and Jedi homage that was SO on the nose, as well as a slam on the Hollywood movie meat grinder being a bit much.

Actually, nevermind, I kinda liked the slam.  It was maybe just the wrong place for it.

I especially loved the lengths they went to, to make this seem like a late night movie found on some cable access channel.  It has bumpers to lead into it like you would expect, and a great cheesy trailer for another movie that doesn't exist but I want.  I love silly things like that, in these sorts of movies.

This might be my favourite Grindhouse homage right now.  Drive Angry, Hobo with a Shotgun, now this...it's a good time to be a Grindhouse fan!

Where ELSE are you going to see maple syrup being used as a weapon against a demon from Hell?