Troma returns to select silver screens this year with their release of Astron-6 Video International’s highly anticipated Father’s Day. To bring you up to speed Astron-6 is a group of 5 multimedia artists who after meeting at the Winnipeg Short Film Massacre Festival decided to join forces taking their love of 70’s and 80’s cult flicks to the next level. By the next level I mean they have now dedicated their lives to creating the most terrifyingly funny things their grey matter happens to spew out and capture it on video. It is hard to provide a synopsis for a movie as off the wall as Father’s Day, but I shall do my best.
Father’s Day follows a small group of victims who are both hunting and being stalked by a fiendish entity known as Chris Fuchman. Fuchman, pronounced Fuck-men, as his name states violates men, in particular men who have sired offspring both before and while in the process of murdering and eating them, earning him the media title of “The Father’s Day Killer”. Of course Fuchman has managed to gain some life long enemies through this venture introducing us to our vigilante heroes; Ahab the leader of the group is a one eyed ex-con who killed an innocent man while hunting the Fuchman, Ahab’s stripper sister Chelsea, Twink a boy toy male prostitute who’s been accused of the murders, and Father John Sullivan a man abandoning the cloth to avenge the death of his mentor. Slowly the vigilante group joins forces as we see the Fuchman’s latest reign of terror effect the lives of our lowly protagonists through both flashbacks and in real time. After I had some time to bond with these characters, I found myself gaining a buddy comedy kind of attachment to them. Think of these characters and their situation as the Breakfast Club meets Harold and Kumar in a Broken Lizard tribute to exploitation made for Troma and you won’t be far off.
The story daringly runs full steam through a script that makes only enough sense to check every box on the exploitation list of cliches, and in no way is that a bad thing. In fact it’s pure bloody genius. Father’s Day is every funny, disgusting, and offensive moment fans of trash cinema have come to know and love without any of the filler. Luckily the team at Astron-6 are talented enough to pull all the right punches, challenging the audiences range of emotions nearly seamlessly.
The gore too comes in all grades from realistic and grimy, to full comic book splashes of red depending on what fits the scene in question, bring your umbrella, and then upgrade to a boat or you may drown in it. When this is released on video fans of 70’s and 80’s cult flicks should gather and play a drinking game taking a drink every time they see a tribute to a cult classic. I would list them now but then I will completely ruin the movie so I prefer to conceive this review with a less is more approach. I’ll wet your appetite with Army of Darkness and you can pick out the rest.
What more can I say? I cringed, laughed, and nearly vomited simultaneously while possibly feeling slightly aroused at the same time. To fans of trash cinema this will be required viewing and really cements the fact that this new Ode to Exploitation genre (consider that title coined) we have been seeing of late is the greatest thing to ever corrupt the sleaze ridden abyss of our mind. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy a healthy helping of depravity with their comedy should probably see the next carbon copy romantic comedy Hollywood farts out instead.
