I attended a special screening of Betamax on Feb 21, 2015 at the Egyptian in Hollywood, CA. I was happy with what i watched. Very happy. Betamax is a satirical comedy first and a gory horror flick second. There were some gruesome and uncomfortable moments but four of the five stories were certainly written for laughs. Plenty of inside jokes about the Format Wars themselves as well a really clever segment involving students studying modern day gore effects at a Tom Savini film school. There was one segment that was not trying to snag some laughs, and while it seems slightly out of place it was certainly an original and witty take on tired clichés, like the stoned lesbian vampires seducing self aware androgynous Frankenstein zombies cliché that we've seen so many times now. ;)
It is possible that some changes may be made to the final movie after the premier, but what i viewed was well enough, because it gets away with being intentionally "bad." I give it ... 6 out of 10. Very generous for a schlocky B horror film but there were plenty of comedic payoffs. I sincerely hope Betamax receives a cult following.
