Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires

I have to admit to thoroughly enjoying this claymation gem. Yes some of the humour didn't quite land for me but a good 80% did and the immature little boy in me did giggle at some of the toilet humour as it all fit and generally worked in this messed up 80's throwback. I loved the clichéd action tropes and dialogue and I just loved how balls to the wall messy gross and insane this film was. It really committed and delivers a truly unique film experience in my opinion.

Obviously the best thing about this film was the claymation style they went with and wow did they do a magnificent job. The rich gory details and designs of the Trampires and other various monstrous creatures were just a marvel to behold. As was the whole film but major props have to go to the aforementioned creatures. Horror and Sci Fi really do lend themselves well to this style of film making and I hope to see more animation films in this style.

Nice to see this was made in Wales, being Scottish myself. Like his first Chuck Steel movie, it looks great, this one even better. Incredible given the small budgets. Must have bust balls to produce the movies on such a low budgets. The humour is off beat; given it is a homage to 80s genre movies, that not surprising. Did like the fact Mike Mort branched in to horror more with this sequel. His character Chuck Steel was more developed and funnier in this movie than the original. Director has a history with the Wallace and Gromit team, and this is evident in the model sculptures-but he takes the animation much further technically. There are elements of Sam Rami, Peter Jackson, among a few. Adult animation is clearly struggling looking at the low number of reviews thus far. I can't imagine why, as it is hugely entertaining. Us British have a habit of making American style movies better than the Americans. Ridley and Tony Scott are an example of that. Even Grand Theft Auto the video game is partially created in Edinburgh for some reason. They did a grand fine job of it regardless. Hope again that it finds the audience it deserves & it get a decent distributor.

If you're reading the other enthusiastic, high-mark reviews on IMDB and thinking FAKE FAKE - you'd be wrong!

Whilst some of the non-PC humour is a bit hit and miss, the SXF and outstanding animation more than make up for it. It's so fluid, it's actually hard to believe it's all claymation. There are several laugh-out-loud moments, mostly involving the background characters and one or two things you won't see coming.

Lots of homage moments to Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, lots of gunfights, and some nice one liners.

Worth a watch if you're not easily offended.

HARRYHAUSEN!!!

This is a stop motion animated film, and a damn fluid one at that. The animation is beyond spectacular and never feels clunky. It also plays close attention to detail, like the constant flowing candlewax in the Wise One's face, and considering each trampire dies by a very gory explosion you can really feel the level of effort it went into making this.

Plotwise this is a pastiche of 80's action flicks, never taking itself too seriously and constantly poking fun at the tropes of the genre. Where I think the humor falls a bit is the anti-therapy message; take it as you will.

The monster designs are fantastic. You'd expect this film to just be populated by bum vampires, but there are quite a few surprises with stellar designs.

Overall a flawed product, but clearly a labour of love.

It's 1986, and Chuck Steel is the LAPD's best, baddest and most maverick cop. He may be unorthodox, but boy does he get the job done! When the Governor starts advocating a clean-up in California liquor laws, important and not-important people start to disappear, leaving nothing but a pool of blood. Everyone is baffled by this, until Chuck comes across Abraham Van Rental, who whispers the tale of the trampires: vampires who have fallen on hard times on Skid Row and can only survive on the blood of inebriated victims. And the pair soon learn that the Master of the trampires is about to arrive, intending to usher in the death of humanity.... Claymation is a very specific form of filmmaking that audiences either love or don't; one thing it does is to let the film-makers be as inventively gory (or sexy, or absurd) as they can imagine, which is to say that this short (88 minute) film is steeped in gore, heads exploding, massive blow-ups and the like. And it's really hilarious while it does those things! A note to parents with small kids, there's a ton of swearing and, well, gore in this film; it's definitely intended for mature audiences, preferably with a warped sense of humour!