Over the years, I’ve accumulated a fairly extensive collection of films that I keep on my shelf, occasionally gazing at them with a vague, distant sense of accomplishment. Some may call this “hoarding” or an “obsession”… … … I haven’t watched a decent chunk of them, and I think it’s about time to change that. But why keep the fun all to myself when I can ramble about my viewing experiences to y’all!
So there I was, going on nearly a day without sleep (nothing but good decisions when it comes to ol’ Giallo Jules), trying to decide which of two choices to watch: Winterbeast or Night Feeder. A Vinegar Syndrome (VinSyn) or an SRS Cinema release. Given that I have seen way more of VinSyn’s library, I opted to show some love to SRS Cinema and see what they had to offer.
A bit of context: SRS Cinema specializes in bringing old-school schlock to the BluRay market. Similar to VinSyn, but way more obscure with its content. Like, I’m talking flicks that were made on a budget of $5 and a pack of gum… practically home movies on a Beta Max cassette. This is stuff I haven’t even heard of, probably because the only copies were collecting dust in a basement somewhere. I have no idea where they find this shit.
Anyway, let’s talk Night Feeder!
“Fear chokes the free-wheeling underbelly of San Francisco’s punk scene as a killer stalks the night to feed an unspeakable appetite. Community suspicion focuses on Disease, a band that is tainted by groupie deaths allegedly induced by the drug DZS, and on “The Creeper” a misshapen outcast from the bowels of the city. A writer probes the gruesome murders and the story hits close to home, as the web of death devours neighbors, friends, and lovers.” – via IMDB.
I’ll tell you what, ‘80s direct-to-video flicks sure do hit different. Just something about how they’re filmed. Maybe it’s because a lot of them were shot on videotape, which inherently has a distinct quality to it. They just feel surreal sometimes, uneasily so, like they were shot somewhere similar to our plane of existence… but cheaper. Our world through the eyes of some omnipotent creator that’s cutting corners in reality to save a buck. This movie is no exception.
Someone is going around killing San Francisco residents by sucking out their brains through their eye socket. This catches the interest of “Reporter Lady” (they introduce her as such, so that’s what stuck in my mind… I don’t remember the character’s actual name), who just moved into the area and begins to investigate the involuntary hemispherectomies. Also, she’s married to a lawyer who doesn’t like the fact she’s a journalist, while also dating a punk band’s bassist who’s associated with the deaths of three women who OD’d on a new street drug they’ve been distributing called “DZS (pronounced “disease”), which is also the band’s name, and was originally used to treat schizophrenia by the government, which stopped due to side effects in pregnant women involving mutant fetuses… catch all that or do I need to explain it all again? You’re good? Good! Yeah, it all makes about as much sense as you think. It’s incredibly silly, and I love every single bit.
I’d like to talk about the film’s acting… I’d like to, but I’m not sure if it has any. Okay, that’s not fair, there’s acting, it’s just in-between really bland and really bad. Not in the fun way, either. It is what it is. No one stands out, at least not enough to say anything other then “this performance is boring/terrible” several times in succession. Unfortunately, this movie is full of conversations, so we get to immerse ourselves in sub-par acting for most of the runtime. Which drops it a letter grade, but this kind of thing is just par for the course with these types of flicks.
Thankfully, something this film does have is effects! Pretty decent practical ones that look way better than they have any right to. There’s a scene where you see a corpse’s face get pulled back so a coroner can cut the skull open with a bonesaw, which is pretty neat. Besides that gruesomely delightful scene, I’m happy to say the creature effects are pretty killer as well. Without giving too much away, it’s a nice bit of what I’m assuming is puppet work. It looks suitably creepy and unnerving, which are two things I look for in a body horror-esque monstrosity. All this praise comes with the caveat that these are the only scenes with SFX worth talking about, and they’re only about five minutes a piece… take that for what you will.
From what I’ve read about the film, it’s apparently praised for being made during the “tail end of San Francisco’s robust post-punk era”… which suggest this flick should have more of a punk attitude than it does. I mean, a punk band shows up and plays music at one point, and there’s people of punk culture playing extras in a scene, but is that really enough to constitute a “punk film”? Those weren’t even big parts, just padding and an excuse to have someone die in a bathtub. I don’t know, maybe there were more punk songs on the soundtrack than I realize, I wasn’t really focusing on the music.
This came out a little more negative than I intended. I don’t hate Night Breeder. For a low-budget feature shot on video (and only released in Poland in PAL format originally, so I’ve read), it’s not too shabby. It holds an atmosphere, has a few good FX scenes, ends on an unexpected note, and managed to hold my interest without being too boring. There are parts where not a lot happens and are obviously there just to fill in the runtime, but I think the ambiance ups the ante just enough to get by. If you need a cheap horror flick to put on, you could do way worse. For the best experience, I recommend only watching it between 2am – 6am, while being bundled up in a blanket surrounded by your favorite snacks. Really gives you those nostalgic late-night movie feels.
I don’t know where you can watch it digitally, but you can buy it from SRS Cinema’s store physically here.
Until next time.
Ciao, friends!