Direct to Video: Straight to Video Horror of the 90s
This is, without a doubt, the worst documentary I've ever seen. It doesn't even qualify as a documentary. It's a set of DVD extras taped together.
What Direct to Video is is a tiresome set of talking heads with actors and creators, all filmed from the exact same angle, telling behind-the-scenes stories. "I audition for this part, but I got that part!" and "To achieve this special effect, we had to ..." and so on. Each movie that gets discussed gets anywhere from a minute to five minutes of time, but no more than that. In between these stories are the 30 second trailers for many of the movies; there are at least a dozen of them, and they run in full. It is bloat of the highest order, and it is shameless.
And that's all DtV is. An hour and forty five minutes of "hey, remember that movie?", and then a trailer. I criticized In Search Of Darkness for being a lot of that and only doing surface-level exploration of topics about horror in the 80's, but at least they did surface-level exploration. DtV is nothing but member berries. It could've used the time to look at topics like:
How small production companies like Troma and Full Moon came to be.
How Republic Pictures went from developing the careers of Gene Autry and John Wayne to being a DtV distributor.
The challenges of doing horror on a much smaller budget.
How sex and nudity became a calling card for DtV horror even more so than the mainstream slashers of the 80's.
The stars and directors that got their start in DtV horror.
How DtV horror became a landing spot for stars past their prime to get a paycheck.
Standing out in a video rental market against studio movies and blockbusters.
The overall stigma of DtV horror.
Mainstream franchises that went from theatrical releases to DtV and what that meant for their legacy and quality.
Had this documentary touched on just 25% of that list, this could've been interesting. Nope, let's get Tiffany Shepis to talk about her honest-to-God five seconds of screen time in Tromeo & Juliet and how much fun it was even if she was only on set for ten minutes. WHY. WHY BOTHER AT ALL. This feels like Dustin Ferguson got to book interview time with a bunch of actors and crew he looked up to, got to hear them tell old war stories, and filmed it as a justification for the meeting. There is no insight to be found here into this unique niche of the movie industry, just some low-budget director having fanboy discussions with his idols and crushes. It's an only slightly more exploratory version of that SNL sketch where Chris Farley "interviews" Paul McCartney. If you want to remember Dollman vs. Demonic Toys or Return Of The Living Dead3, do yourself a favor and just look up their Wikipedia articles, or find a video about them on YouTube. Save yourself the time. Don't give your time to this. This may be about DtV movies, but the only place this "documentary" should go is directly to the trash bin.
What Direct to Video is is a tiresome set of talking heads with actors and creators, all filmed from the exact same angle, telling behind-the-scenes stories. "I audition for this part, but I got that part!" and "To achieve this special effect, we had to ..." and so on. Each movie that gets discussed gets anywhere from a minute to five minutes of time, but no more than that. In between these stories are the 30 second trailers for many of the movies; there are at least a dozen of them, and they run in full. It is bloat of the highest order, and it is shameless.
And that's all DtV is. An hour and forty five minutes of "hey, remember that movie?", and then a trailer. I criticized In Search Of Darkness for being a lot of that and only doing surface-level exploration of topics about horror in the 80's, but at least they did surface-level exploration. DtV is nothing but member berries. It could've used the time to look at topics like:
How small production companies like Troma and Full Moon came to be.
How Republic Pictures went from developing the careers of Gene Autry and John Wayne to being a DtV distributor.
The challenges of doing horror on a much smaller budget.
How sex and nudity became a calling card for DtV horror even more so than the mainstream slashers of the 80's.
The stars and directors that got their start in DtV horror.
How DtV horror became a landing spot for stars past their prime to get a paycheck.
Standing out in a video rental market against studio movies and blockbusters.
The overall stigma of DtV horror.
Mainstream franchises that went from theatrical releases to DtV and what that meant for their legacy and quality.
Had this documentary touched on just 25% of that list, this could've been interesting. Nope, let's get Tiffany Shepis to talk about her honest-to-God five seconds of screen time in Tromeo & Juliet and how much fun it was even if she was only on set for ten minutes. WHY. WHY BOTHER AT ALL. This feels like Dustin Ferguson got to book interview time with a bunch of actors and crew he looked up to, got to hear them tell old war stories, and filmed it as a justification for the meeting. There is no insight to be found here into this unique niche of the movie industry, just some low-budget director having fanboy discussions with his idols and crushes. It's an only slightly more exploratory version of that SNL sketch where Chris Farley "interviews" Paul McCartney. If you want to remember Dollman vs. Demonic Toys or Return Of The Living Dead3, do yourself a favor and just look up their Wikipedia articles, or find a video about them on YouTube. Save yourself the time. Don't give your time to this. This may be about DtV movies, but the only place this "documentary" should go is directly to the trash bin.
Mini Review: This is, without a doubt, the worst documentary I've ever seen. It doesn't even qualify as a documentary. It's a set of DVD extras taped together. What Direct to Video is is a tiresome set of talking heads with actors and creators, all filmed from the exact same angle, telling behind-the-scenes stories. "I audition for this part, but I got that part!" and "To achieve this special effect, we had to ..." and so on. Each movie that gets discussed...