Terror Toons 4 (2023)
Terror Toons 4 (2023)Due to several reasons I have not been doing reviews as often as I used to but I needed to write this one. I NEEDED to write it. Let me set things up with expectations. I was a big fan of the first film literally 20 years ago. Not because I thought it was amazing but because it was just shockingly silly , bizzare and that kind of nonsense that would shock normie film fans. It was a lot of fun to show people just for their reactions. Then parts 2 and 3 came and went and I was not too much of a fan. It was a bit of the same and just didn' do anything for me and I'm sure would be too weird for those pre mentioned "normies"… but.. but then came part 4. I was told it was an anthology and the post covid world of low budget anthologies don't exactly excite me anymore. So I went into this worried but only 30 seconds in, things changed… forever.The opening of this film explodes into visual overload and insanity so fast it feels as if Horonamus Bosch met Terry Gilliam in the digital age. it felt like that magnavox commercial where the screen literally exploded in your face. Then the movies starts and the screaming begins. The first short starts and gives us a mixed slash warped origin of the classic Terror Toon villains. It's so much a step up in concept , feeling, pacing and technical excellence then previous with a darker , scarier atmosphere. Imagine watching Adam Wests Batman one week and then seeing a multimillion dollar Batman movie the next week.So not to give any spoilers I will just say it feels like Alex De le Iglesia directed the hell scene in Bill and Teds bogus journey . Douglas Epps take on the less cartoony yet just as insane Dr Carnage is amazing. The killer gorilla Max Assassin is legit scary now. But it's the new sweet and innocent yet completely terrifying character Derrick or was it Eric that we meet that will change your life.I won't explain anything about him but you will know him when you see him. We get several other shorts but they definitely come in second to the first short however they are needed. Brinke Stevens stars and directs a short that is a much more sensible short that may have been fine on its own but felt a bit out of place, again only because the rest of the show was so wild. Brinke had made this short before thinking of connecting it to Terror Toons 4 , I'm pretty sure. It's a nice mellow out and does get us more Linnea Quickly and Debbie Rochon. Hell the cameos in this are wild.The third and fourth shorts come at you wild and fast giving no mercy. After the second short I was literally saying to myself "wait a Joe Castro film with no sexual symbolism, that's weird." but then the short The heads of Mr Switch comes at you and picks up for sexual lost time. This short is shocking, hilarious and ends so quickly you also want to know what happens next so badly. The most original villain in eons, all that and oh my god, Lizzy Borden is back.The final short gives us a 21 gun salute and takes us into the apocalypse . Oh look it's Rob Rhine of Girls and Corpses magazine , but of course he is here again. More cameos from more scream queen and b movie legends than you can shake a stick at in this octane charge non stop visceral explosion into madness as if Aphex Twin remade Monty Python's Meaning of Life.This is a huge achievement for the B movie world and even for those normie film nerds that may not understand this film , they will still be effected and never forget this facedive diving board launch into madness. So yeah I loved it. I'm exhausted.