New from Arrow Video is the Blu-ray/DVD release Microwave Massacre, an absolutely delightful horror-comedy that could easily be considered an offspring of the cult director John Waters.
The story is about the aging construction worker Donald (Jackie Vernon), who has grown tired of his wife’s attempts at fancy cuisine and an upscale lifestyle. He gets fed up with her cooking and kills her.
When he accidentally tastes her flesh and finds it delectable, he turns to murder and cannibalism to satisfy his new taste in food.
Fans of low brow and tongue and check humor or the shtick of Rodney Dangerfield or Jackie Mason should completely love this one.
It’s more comedy than humor, with some great dialogue, one liners, and sight gags. The character of Donald may come off as lighter version of Dangerfield, which come as no surprise since he was a comedy cut from a similar clothe.
Listen closely and you may recognize that he is the voice of Frosty the Snowman. Vernon is great as the likeable and sympathetic character of Donald.
No one else could have delivered the dialogue the way that he did, except for the aforementioned comedians. His expressions and occasional breaking of the forth wall are priceless, and should garner some great laughs.
There’s a host of other quirky characters that make this feel like it’s somewhat Wateresque, yet nowhere near the level that he was able to deliver.
It’s a low budget horror film, so the special effects are lovingly bad whenever they actually show them. Most of the time the murder sequences are shot off camera in order to save on production costs.
The bad effects are something that in my opinion makes this one more enjoyable. There is also a large amount of nudity put into this, in order to please the exploitation audience.
This one isn’t going to be for everyone. Often labeled as a bad movie, this is an acquired taste that is only going to appeal to a certain niche cult audience. There’s no divide, you’ll either love it or hate it.
The picture quality is superb and Arrow has done a wonderful job on this restoration. While the limited amount of extras is somewhat disappointing, they make up for it with a great restoration of this cult classic. This is a must own for fans of this film and similar low budget cult cinema.
Extras
– Brand new 2K restoration of the original camera negative
– High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray (Region A) and Standard Definition (480p) DVD (Region 1) presentations
– Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– Brand new audio commentary with writer-producer Craig Muckler moderated by Mike Tristano
– Brand new making-of featurette including interviews with Muckler, director Wayne Berwick, and actor Loren Schein
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork to be revealed
– First pressing only: fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Nightmare USA author Stephen Thrower
Taste of Cinema Rating: 8/10
Author Bio: Raul J. Vantassle is a jazz musician whose key strokes move about the page creating an explosion of formlessness to form, or just total bullshit. His heroes include John Waters, Robert Crumb, Charles Bukowski, and the Cobra Commander. His Knowledge of film goes across the board but he specializes in Asian and cult cinema. He may be the filthiest person alive. You can visit his blog here.