Director: Jordan Downey
Writers: Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart
Cast: Lance Predmore, Lindsey Anderson, Ryan E. Francis, Aaron Ringhiser-Carlson, Natasha Cordova, Chuck Lamb, General Bastard, Wanda Lust, Jordan Downey
Runtime: 70 mins.
2008
A great deal of the fun that comes from watching bad movies is marveling at the incomprehensible story and design choices the artists made. Sometimes a line of dialogue or a prop or an edit is so baffling that it becomes absurd, and you get to wondering how the mind of a creator could possibly perceive such a thing as entertainment. All of this becomes more complicated as you delve into the realm of intentionally bad movies, an issue I discussed in my Zombeavers review. The people who make the Sharknados of the world don't have the demented creative energy of an Ed Wood figure; they just have an appreciation (or a disdain) of these creators, and the desire to somehow replicate their work with an added layer of irony. These bad-on-purpose movies don't tend to come out nearly as interesting.
Zombeavers circumvents this issue by putting genuine care into its story and craft. Everything about the movie is ridiculous, but it's played straight so it works on a dramatic level. Thankskilling does not share this trait, nor can it reach the heights of bad-movie-as-hilarious-commentary as something like The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Movies like Cadavra are thoughtful about why bad movies happen, and they critique those cultures. That commentary bleeds into the camerawork, composition, editing, etc. Unfortunately, within the realm of bad horror movies, Thankskilling represents the idiot teenager giggling at dick jokes.
