Woodchipper Massacre

I've never actually seen this film but can tell you one thing about its production. While a comedy/oldies radio DJ in 1988, I got a call from the production company. They asked if I'd write and record a bit they'd drop into the soundtrack as sounds eminating from a TV (the television screen itself would never be shown). I said sure, wrote a parody of '50s sci-fi monster clichés, rounded up some sound effects and called in another DJ, Pam Landry, to play the female part. As she happened to be on the air at the time, she put on a long song, joined me at the mike in the production room and we cut the voicetrack in a single take. Giggling, she then went back to her show while I mixed in the goofy sound effects. We'd have never done it if we'd known that "Woodchipper Massacre" was going to be such a turkey -- but, then again, we never got paid for our efforts, either! -- Gary Theroux

You'd think with a name like 'Woodchipper Massacre', you were in for some really cheap video nasty. Well, it is cheap, but I don't know about how nasty it is. There's about as much sadism and gore in the film as there was in Weekend at Bernie's..

I somewhat get the feeling that the title was foisted by the distribution company who released this thing on VHS..

It ended up reminding me more of something John Hughes would have made if he'd only had a budget of 400 dollars, could only get amateur actors, and had decided on a somewhat darker plot than in the films he did become famous for making. It's three kids, each a funny kid stereotype, whose parents aren't around that week, finding themselves committing woodchipper misdeeds.

And despite the amateurish execution, it's all pretty fun and funny.

Definitely one of the best shot-on-video movies to come out of the Northeast in the late 80's. Tom Casiello's air guitar scene makes this movie worth renting alone.

Another amateurish late '80s SOV horror film filmed in rural Connecticut. It's essentially a sitcom with a horror-themed plot. Three kids are left at home when their father goes on a business trip out of state and leaves them in the care of their vile, abusive aunt (played by writer-director Jon McBride's mother), when she is accidentally killed, the kids dispose of her body via a woodchipper and then have to deal with the aunt's deadbeat son who comes for a visit. Okay for its weird theme, but nothing really special.

I didn't know what to expect other than a killer killing people with a wood chipper. The story was funny and predictable but entertaining overall.