'Chop' DVD Review

An energetic, creative, genuinely funny horror-comedy buoyed by a smart script and great comedic performances.

When Lance's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a strange man offers him a ride...then proceeds to tranquilize and kidnap him. After forcing him to commit an unspeakable act, the man lets Lance go but informs him that he will continue to torment him unless Lance apologizes for what he's done. The problem is that Lance doesn't know who this man is, much less what he did to him.

It turns out Lance had some problems with drugs in the past, and he's done some bad things while under the grip of addiction, so this mystery man could be one of dozens of his victims. It's up to Lance to wrack his brain to figure out what exactly ticked this guy off before he finishes taking his revenge by surreptitiously taking Lance apart...piece by piece.

The most lighthearted entry in the Bloody Disgusting Selects series to date, Chop is a low-budget horror-comedy hybrid that generates more laughs than many more polished, big-budget comedies. While not the greatest actors in the world, the cast -- led by Billy Bakshi's (AKA Will Keenan's) manic performance as Lance -- knows how to bring the funny, flashing great timing and pitch-perfect comic deliveries that bring the inventive, gleefully over-the-top script to life.

The smartly written story mines humor from Lance's frustration at not knowing what he did wrong while constantly being one-upped by his tormentor, and at the same time it pokes fun at the well-worn "torture porn" horror sub-genre that drags out kidnap-and-torture scenarios for dubious entertainment value.

Trent Haaga, a genre veteran who wrote the controversial and deadly serious Deadgirl does a complete 180 with this, his directorial debut, showing a real knack for comedy that he honed in his acting career in Z-grade camp films with titles like Tales from the Crapper, Splatter Disco and Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker. Hopefully, Chop is a sign of better things to come from him as a director.

The DVD

Special features include commentary.

Movie: B
DVD: D+

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