For the past two years, I have been an avid fan of The Cinema Snob, a character created by Brad Jones. His reviews are hilarious, and I have yet to be disappointed by one. Over at his site, Brad posted his second feature film Cheap, with an open invitation for review. How could I not respond?
FILM- Max Force is the number two producer of amateur porn in the state. He's a cocaine addicted rapist, who just so happens to have a pregnant wife. He uses small time gay porn director Derek Diamond to create ripoff of his most successful movies, and sells all this junk online. What does every number two porn producer want? To be number one of course! He's looking for that one film to push his site to the top of the porn totem poll.
Jack Stone is a failing porn director. After some charades with random women, he decides to finally direct something groundbreaking, something original, and something profitable. He enlists two young girls to star as the actors, and his child molesting friend Manny to work the camera. After kidnapping a homeless man, the camera starts rolling. The shoot ends with the murder and dismemberment of the bum, all committed by the two masked actresses. Jack sends his film to Max for publication.
Believing the film to be faux snuff, Max sees this film as his ticket to the top. The film is a huge hit, and soon becomes the number one seller on the porn scene. Of course Max wants more, and Jack obliges him. The duo communicate through Jack's masked girlfriend, while Derek Diamond is already starting production on his own fake snuff film. After a binge on the world's unsexiest drug, Max gets a little too rough with Jack's girlfriend, resulting in Jack's third film being a little more personal than Max would have liked...
Alright, this film is low low LOW budget, but I knew that before viewing. It was shot on a VHS camcorder, adding to the cheap and low budget look, as well as adding a pseudo- voyeuristic touch. The camera goes in and out of focus at times, but it adds to the charm of things. Despite some small issues, the film has some very good cinematography (like the opening scene), which came as a surprise to me. I love Shot on Video films (even sold my soul to the "Devil" for one), so seeing this style alive and kicking in the post 90's made me all warm and fuzzy inside. The effects are what you can expect, so you either love or hate this style of film.
The plot is very good, and for the subject matter, very realistic. Not many people remember this, but most 80's porn companies tried to branch out into horror films (Spine being the first to come to mind). It's entirely feasible that some wanna be Hugh Hefner would jump on the chance to branch into other extreme genres. All the characters are vile, and you don't feel sympathy for a single one (except maybe the hobo, but he's only on the screen for a few seconds). The leads pull of their characters well, and the supporting actors are alright for the most part. Nothing outstanding here, but again it's what you expect with this kind of cinema.
The film clocks in at about two hours. A little long, but I never lost concentration- mainly because of the homages to other horror films. There's references about Blue Sunshine and Caligula, and of course tons of snuff film related jabs (like the ending, a great homage to Last House on Dead End Street and Snuff). The movie is put together very well, with professional editing and a surreal soundtrack of oldies hits (really, does it get any better than oldies and dismemberments)? If you want to see a good, low budget horror film done by fans of who know what they're doing, then give Cheap a watch. 8/10.
Cheap is available to watch for free at www.thecinemasnob.com, so what's stopping you?
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