Lunch Meat (1987)

   
Produced, Written & Directed by: Kirk Alex

Starring:

Kim McKamy .... Roxy
Chuck Ellis .... Benny
Joe Ricciardella .... Frank
Elroy Wiese .... Paw
Robert Oland .... Harley
Mitch Rogers .... Elwood
Rick Lorentz .... Cary
Bob Joseph .... Eddie
Marie Ruzicka .... Debbie

Patricia Christie .... Sue

Release Date:
Direct-to-Video: 1987

       

Rating:

 

 

Six highschool teenage seniors are going on a camping trip but make a wrong turn as a bunch of canniballistic backwood rednecks run by a family man named Paw (Elroy Wiese) are spying on them and plan a trap for them in which they are tricked by his retarded son Elwood (Mitch Rogers) who is always hungry for fresh human flesh.
This canniballistic family slays them one by one and plans to sell their parts to a hamburger joint where they stopped there to have lunch before continuing to drive to their holiday trip.
A couple of teenage survivors named Benny (Chuck Ellis) and Roxy (Kim McKamy) struggles to try and escape from these maniacs in the wooded area and plans to seek revenge on them while running away from and tries to turn the tables.

 

I was watching the film at the beginning the screen is black with the opening credits as they look very cheesy on how it was done in which I was thinking to myself that this must be a made for video flick and then it shows some burly guy named Elwood running away through the woods in which I had a feeling I was in trouble for a real bad movie in which this didn't look dark or convincing like the story was supposed to be set out and then we spot his Paw whipping him in which this looked quite tongue in cheek.
In another scene we spot a bunch of teens driving in their vehicle in Los Angeles as it was very dark seeing who was who as well as alot of the audio was quite distorted. I just knew that this didn't stand a chance going to theatre's the quality was pretty bad as if someone used a really bad movie camera from the 1970's like from Andy Warhol's early films and was using it for this. Then everyone stops at a burger joint for lunch before driving to their campsite as these canniballistic hillbilly's are spying on them which also looked incredibly hokey ina Troma Team type of fashion. But yet it is a gross feeling with these group of friends eating the burgers in which we all know what's inside of them.
It seems to get interesting when these kids are realising that they have to make another turn on the road in which it leaves an impression that the backwoods hillbilly's are responsible but then when we see these idiotic hillbilly's there's more corny one liners while they plan this.

There's a real mysterious moment though as they spot someone supposedly lying dead on the dirt road but it's too dark to see this body due to a poor budget but yet when one of them named Cary gets closer you have a feeling that this is a set up and it's just that as this body happens to be Elwood and there's some good horror violence happening here which almost looked intense to watch but some of the gruesome moments looked a bit fake too. Also things were happening way too fast it was hard to tell what was going on. It looked quite trashy.
There's of coruse the chase with the group of teens running away separately from the redneck hunters while they track them down as well as trying to kill them and two of them look so pathetic not being able to escape properly that it didn't look intense like it was supposed to be. Alot of the times the camera shakes so badly as they obviously couldn't afford good equipment to film this seadily almost making you think of the Blair Witch Project. Yet there's a moment with one of the killers named Frank hacking away one of them with a machette even if some of it seems amateurish it still gives you an unpleasant feeling.
There's good surviving moments with both Roxi and Benny showing good scared emotions on what to do as well as fighting against these killer rednecks in good vangeful fashions as this looked impressive making it up a bit for an awful budget that it carried. Still it didn't make up for the lame plot.
There's a dull scene with Paw trying to get at Roxi from underneath a vehicle as she keeps rolling from one side to another as this was pretty long and tiresome. Seems the filmmakers were doing this to kill time of the story.
It does get exciting with Benny seeking revenge on most of the surviving family members like a fellow named Harley and is interestingly gruesome on what he does in order to kill him which was done in a slow painful motion too.
Then there's a new twist with Elwood seeking revenge against his Paw for abusing him as this looked gruesomely disturbing in what he does with an object as well as a chase with him against Roxi as she runs away in a oadway and some cars are dirving by in which it looks a bit silly that most of the drivers don't pay attention to the terror going on with all of this.
Bottom line is the film was barely made on anything and alot of it seemed quite amateurish as if watching a similar budget like a porn flick back then but nowadays flicks look alot worst but not by much. The makers tried to make this film as creative as possible yet didn't succeed as we've seen similar scene's in movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hills Have Eyes and Just Before Dawn as these one's showed alot more class. I also found that this film was also a tribute to the horror flicks done by Herschell Gordon Lewis too. At least it was saved from bombing from the positive points that I mentioned from above and could tell someone was eager to make a movie on what he could afford too.

The acting was quite off for the most part but some of them pulled it off not too badly so let's take a look at what I can do while going through these cast members that I remembered in their performances:
Kim McKamy (Roxy) seemed to do her part quite well showing off some unimpressive attitude towards the beginning of her performance in her vehicle with her friends whenever someone was being sarcastic. She also seems to do well with her scared emotions when the terror starts to happen along with her sobbing seeming to do not too badly yet needed a bit of improvement in little spots. She does well losing control at times which has a bit of energy in this spot. She seemed to show off as much energy as possible in her struggling moments and can pass on this.

Chuck Ellis (Benny) comes across not too shabbily as the male lead in the film and his aggressive and heroic attitude showing off a nice vengeful behavior but yet when he gets sarcastic with his dark humor it seems to fall flat. Of course that's mainly due to bad writing. He seemed to make the film happen a bit but not too much. He almost came across as a character actor but needed a bit of lessons to improve his techniques. Shows good energy when attacking someone else.
Elroy Wiese (Paw) tried his best to have an intimidating and intense attitude but yet he seems to fail by doing this in which he's a little too over the top but yet he sometimes came across nicely with his sneering behavior and was energetic in what he did. He was a little too hokey in alot of spots though. However he comes across okay towards the camera sometimes as a horror type of personality. At the same time he couldn't be taken too seriously. He doesn't seem to show a great amount of energy while raising a boulder in a scene and then plunging it down for example.
Robert Orland (Harley) plays his eldest son and does a better job showing off some nice menacing reactions along with his attacking others which looked not too shabbily done either. He also had the right looks to portray this type of role which was another plus. He wasn't spectacular but pulled his weight too badly for a badly made flick like this one. He does react well by being intense in pain when he is attacked.
Mitch Rogers (Elwood) had the good masculine looks to portray the retarded vicious one in the film and can seem convincing at times but yet acts a bit too silly at other times almost like you'd see in a Troma Team flick such as Toxic Avenger. He was okay at times acting vicious eating body parts but sometimes goes a little over board. He seemed to try way too hard with his energy and was mellodramatic by doing all of this. Shows some great energy pressing down a shovel and really getting into what he's doing making himself look brutal by what he is doing as he was energetically performed here.
Rick Lorentz (Cary) played the sarcastic one of the bunch of teenagers and tried to get into character but seemed to mostly say his lines without showing any emotions while doing this. He brought out the odd energy into what he did but does not pass by any means being considered an actor.
Marie Ruzicka (Debbie) was the worst of the bunch and couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag and seemed lazy with everything that she did not showing any energy at all with her screams or fears on what's happening. It just seems that she was chosen by a possible friend on one of the filmmakers. She was also stale crying on set too. She doesn't react well when someone attacks her with a machette either.
These actors remained virtual unknowns and if they continued doing this kind of work they will stay that way.

Elwood yanks out insides of Eddie's throat and eats them
A decapitated head is revealed but looks pretty fake
Elwood also eats body parts too
A cut off hand is revealed in a cage with a chicken
Cary's foot is mangled
Debbie is hatcheted but when it shows the results there's fake blood over her and nothing too graphic due to an awful budget
A bloodied corpse is seen in a tree
A machette is stabbed inthe body of Frank
Harley is bloodily stabbed as well as his neck being cut off
Benny is holding a decapitated head
A shovel is plunged through Paw's head

The music sounded interesting here and there with low gloomy cheesy sounds as well as some lame twangy guitar playing too. Also there's wavy type sounds and sometimes buzzing type violin playing. In other spots there's synthesizer music with high pitched playing that doesn't seem to suit the picture itself. There's many good drum beat sounds which sounds like heartbeats when the terror scene's happen. All of this was composed by Rick Neigher.