If ever there was a film that falls into the "WTF did I just watch???" category, then Splatter Disco would be it. This 2007 horror/comedy/musical is very light on the horror. For having the word "splatter" in the title, most of the murders are very light on bloodshed. The few scenes you get are of a weapon being held up high, ready to strike, followed by dramatic music, and then cut to the next scene. What it does deliver is absolute absurdity and ridiculous musical numbers, as well as you, the viewer, frequently thinking to yourself "someone wrote this?!?"
Kent, the owner of a fetish nightclub, is dealing with angry protesters who want to shut down his "sinful" club, as well as his father (played by Ken Foree, who's been in a number of horror films throughout the years), who is dying. There's also a psycho killing patrons and employees of the club (called Den O' Iniquity), but like I said, the murders are the least interesting aspect of this goofy film. Kent goes to a city board meeting, filled with angry protesters holding up signs, and an uptight congresswoman (played by genre actress Lynn Lowry) who wants to shut him down. She comes up with a secret scheme to plant drugs in his club in order to frame him and close down his establishment once and for all. The rest of the subplots involve the father, who, despite dying of heart failure, is still the life of the party, and the love lives of the various patrons of his club. Most of the characters have bizarre names, such as Shank Chubb, Echo (a nerdy kid who has an odd affliction where he repeats the last word someone said to him before he can respond), Jellybean, Carpet. Some of them dress in fetish wear, such as animal constumes, etc. Even more bizarre are the ridiculous musical numbers that pepper the flick, complete with equally absurd dancing. Despite the inanity of it all, the songs are actually catchy, and probably the most enjoyable aspects of this weird thing.
The acting ranges from passable to bad, but it's obvious that everyone seemed to have a fun time making this, as each actor gives it their all, no matter how bad the results turn out. This enthusiasm helps to make the film strangely enjoyable. Make no mistake, it's still a bottom of the barrel, z-grade atrocity, but one that I just couldn't stop watching, no matter how bad it got. The climax of the movie takes place during the club's New Year's Eve party, where the identity of the killer is finally revealed, and leads to a cheesy showdown between the psycho and everyone in the club.
Splatter Disco is so abysmally bad that you can't help but admire it. The filmmaker clearly tried to make a goofy musical comedy (with very little, blink and you'll miss it horror), and despite it's low budget effort, by leaning into it's absurdity, it manages to be strangely watchable. It's available to stream on YouTube, from a channel called Horror Central, which boasts a large selection of some of the worst horror films you'll ever see. I think i've started to watch half a dozen of their offerings, only to turn it off within 5 to 15 minutes, because of how fucking atrocious they were. I guess this flick gets a thumbs up from me, because it actually held my interest for it's entire running time. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or not. LOL!
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