Review of Deathgasm (2015) by Cory T — 09 Oct 2015

A spiritual cousin to 1986's Trick or Treat, Deathgasm is a blazingly fast-paced, occasionally side-splitting B-movie that targets headbangers and heavy-metal enthusiasts. Hailing from New Zealand, this import is in the league of other Kiwi gorehound extravaganzas as Peter Jackson's Dead Alive and Bad Taste.

Perhaps director Jason Lei Howden should be prescribed Ritalin because he dashes through character introductions and story beats at a whiplash pace. The chainsaw comeuppance of a non-possessed bully is hilariously rationalized ("I think I heard him say something about Satan").

Howden steers the film towards some uproarious sight gags such as a simulated re-decapitation in the villain's lair (which is ironically an eggshell-white chateau instead of a dank and olive-black dungeon) over a tarp.

Maybe I'm desensitized to the 80's nostalgia of entrails-strewn antics because of the overkill in Turbo Kid, but it could be argued that the carnage around a dice-shooting paintball gun, tapering dildos and a belt-sander is rather excessive.

Medina's (Kimberley Crossman) transformation from smutty object-of-affection to a Ash-esque antihero with "ax" puns is too jokey. At such a blistering speed, the audience is still heartened to Brodie's (Milo Cawthorne) outcast plight where his garage band is the only expressive outlet for his rage against conformity and his Christian uncle and aunt.

The finale culminates with a Tommy Wirkola rollercoaster of demon-slaying enjoyableness but it never crests on such a massive scale.