Death on Demand

Film review by Thomas M. Sipos

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Death on Demand  (2008, dir: Adam Matalon; cast: Jerry Broome, Suzannah Lawson Matalon, Bridget Megan Clark, Daphne Ciccarelle, Hilary Greer, Elisabeth Jamison, Dan Falcone, Terron Jones)
 

 

 

 

In Death on Demand, a mountain climber goes crazy and massacres his entire family, then hangs himself. This prologue is nicely rendered in eerie, pastel greenish-yellow hues. It's the only scene in the film that's nicely shot.

Fast-forward 20 years. A sleazy producer creates a Halloween night webcast starring three young couples who go on a scavenger hunt in the dead mass murderer's decrepit house. Of course, the mass murderer's ghost returns and the body count mounts. (Yes, the story is lifted from Halloween: Resurrection.)

This film has some really bad acting. Mostly mugging for the camera, and fake Jerry Springer type catfights, and guys oogling at nekkid girls' breasts.

Yes, there is a fair amount of soft-core porn in this film. One of the couples is lesbian, sort of. One member of this couple is a flaky, bimbo type lesbian (the sort you might see in male porn films featuring "lesbians"). The other "lesbian" is not a lesbian at all, but a working porn star whom the sleazy producer hired to pretend to be a lesbian. She gets bonus pay for every contestant that she seduces.

The gore is extremely graphic. Some extended shots of the killer extracting muscle tissue, and pulling out organ after organ, from his screaming victims. There's also some "comic relief" when one guy uses a Viagra type pill to obtain a huge erection -- only to have the killer tear off his looooong penis.

 

 


This is a really stupid film. I'm guessing the filmmaker set it on Halloween night so as to inject some atmosphere into the proceedings, but there isn't much atmosphere. You can't even tell it's supposed to be Halloween night, apart from a cheap string of Jack O'Lantern lights in the video control room. And some of the horny webcast viewers watching at home are in costume.

If you don't require good acting, characterization, logic, or atmosphere, just plenty of graphic violence and nudie shots, then this is the film for you.

Review copyright by Thomas M. Sipos

 

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