In Review: Fathers Day
Doing the rounds on limited release throughout various theatres in the USA and coming soon to the UK is the latest offering from Troma Entertainment, who over the years have given us such B-Movie classics as Class Of Nukem High and Toxic Avenger to name but two of their best or indeed worst offerings from the 1980s.
Their newest film is called ‘Fathers Day’ and is a tale of a demon that has his wicked way with the fathers of this world straight before killing them in some rather gruesome and creative ways.
If you’re a card carrying member of the church or a member of any organization, which promotes family values and such. Then this movie isn’t for you!
What we have here is a very sick, twisted and somewhat demented comedy, which admittedly is a speciality of Troma and my main reason for wanting to see this movie.
To try and summerise Fathers Day with a synopsis is somewhat of a mute point because there is no simple way to convey the sheer lunacy of this movie. In short its the kind of movie you can enjoy while having a few beers. The characters are all pretty thin in regards to backstory and depth, and the plot is somewhat shallow, which makes it better in some ways than the Grind-house Exploitation movies that the film is blatantly pointing fun at.
The film has a healthy dose of sex and violence, but its more like a very cartoon sort of violence, which quite often you’ll just wind up laughing at and then pinching yourself because you can’t for the life of you figure out why you are laughing when you know its just wrong.
The plot centres on Ahab (Adam Brooks), an eye-patch-wearing vigilante whose life and family were shattered when “The Father’s Day Killer” raped and murdered his Dad. Helping him seek vengeance are his stripper sister (Amy Groening), a priest (Matthew Kennedy), and a teenage male prostitute named Twink (Conor Sweeney). As to giving you anything else. That would just spoil the experience of this movie for you.
The one thing Fathers Day isn’t is family entertainment. The movie is an orgy of full frontal nudity and other genitalia amidst an absurd plot that has a few science fiction and supernatural twist. Simply put there is enough sex, nudity and violence in this movie that it’d likely make Caligula blush.
Fathers Day is also rather shocking as well. Thing is we all know that Rape is a bad thing, but over the years we’ve perhaps become desensitized to the representation of female sexual abuse in movies and television. Fathers Day turns this completely on its head by showing some rather uncomfortable scenes of male-on-male rape. You will never forget the horror of seeing fathers — middle-aged, balding men in glasses and windbreakers — being savagely ass raped by a cannibalistic lunatic. The gore is excessive to the point of comical.
The movie also has some impressive stunt work. All the more impressive given that the film did not have the budget for stunt doubles. So what you see is the actors doing the stunts in full frame. One sequence of note is when some of the characters midway through the film are seen leaping from moving vehicle to vehicle while hanging from doors and car windows. The stunts are far more raw and much more real than your average Michael Bay Blockbuster. It’s surprising none of the actors were killed while making the film.
To sum up. I feel that this movie will eventually enjoy a cult status within geek culture that has only been achieved a select few movies. However, I don’t think the film will do great with the more mainstream audience. It’s too daring of a film for your mainstream audience, which would not get it anyway.
You can find out more about this movie and where it will next be screened at: www.thefathersdaymovie.com
Score 4/5
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