In 2005, writer/director Philip Cruz and co-writer James Hyde offered fans of horror and comedy the film, Andre the Butcher. I must admit, the only name I recognized in the cast was that of Ron Jeremy, which say something about me that could be good or bad. The cast includes; April Billingsley (Jasmine Tyner), Maury Sterling (Hoss), Heather Joy Budner (Cookie), Justin Capaz (Jimbo), Terry Mross (Sheriff Cooper), Ron Jeremy (Andre the Butcher), Faye Canada (Deputy Hollingsworth), Elizabeth Mullins (Kristy), Kevin Campbell (Levi) and Alan Fessenden (Tober).
The 'Beavers' are heading to a cheerleader competition in Florida and naturally along the way they make a wrong turn and end up lost, but as is often the case, someone else also tends to make the same mistake and they are soon joined by their main rivals for the competition, the 'Gamecocks'. All appears to be well, until a van crash forces the two groups to look for some help. Luckily, they see a farmhouse down the road and trek to the house to try and get some help and get themselves back on road and to their destination. As one might expect, the domicile they've located happens to be the home of Andre the Butcher, who seems to have a love of butchering those unfortunate enough to cross his doorstep. Plenty of screaming, killing and strangeness ensues.
This DVD is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and overall is an acceptable offering. Audio options offer English (Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0) and Spanish subtitles with no English captions made available. Bonus features include:
Commentary Track With Writer/Director Philip Cruz, Co-Writer James Hyde and Star April Billingsley
Deleted Scene: Is That Ron Jeremy?
Trailer: Andre the Butcher
Trailers For Upcoming DVD Releases: The Zodiac and The Choke
I saw this DVD a while back and based on the cover art, I was very tempted to pick this title up.....thank God I decided to save my money as this film simply didn't do a thing for me. Maybe I'm just a little tool old to appreciate some teen-based films or maybe I've seen this same kind of film just one time too many times and better done in the past. Now, this film does have plenty of moments of some pretty good blood-letting and gore, but not nearly enough for it to qualify as an all-out horror film and then you have the attempt at comedy.....yuck! Goofy one-liners just ruin a film for me as a rule and this film tries way too hard to combine horror with comedy and unfortunately, fails miserably for me. I was hoping this might end up being one of those films that I'd watch and enjoy it enough to pick it up, but thankfully, it was a rental and no money was lost in this seriously poor effort. As for me being a bit level-headed and not making a blind-buy and regretting it in the end, all I can say is, 'Rah....Rah'!
Buy Andre the Butcheron DVD at Amazon.com
