Decampitated is a 1998 American comedy horror film directed by Matt Cunningham (3 Demons; The Spore; The Mangler Reborn).
The movie stars Mike Hart, Jonathon Scott, Thomas Martwick, Steve Ladden, and Cristina Patterson Ceret.
Decampitated was distributed on video by Troma Entertainment. The film features a nu-metal and punk soundtrack which was released by Glue Factory. It features ten songs, including music from H20, Strife, Coalesce, Sheer Terror, Death-Machine and Hatebreed.
Plot:
After doing business with a strange travel agent, a group of teenagers head out for a cabin in the Colorado woods. They accidentally crash their car while driving to the cabin, so, while the rest of the group set up the camping equipment, Vince leaves to attempt to locate the cabin. He instead finds the residence of a transvestite, Jake, who takes him captive.
Meanwhile, Garret tells the group of the legend of psycho killer Myles DeCamp, and later that night, Toby’s throat is slit. He survives after the group cover his wounds with duct tape, but the next day, the murderer attacks April, hacking off her arm, and impales Roger…
Review:
Some well-orchestrated set-ups, editing and camerawork cannot make up for the puerile, supposedly self-referential humour that soon grates (there are fart jokes and Three Stooges slapstick violence – so it’s no wonder Troma picked this up). The juxtaposition of big band music and nu-metal is a welcome attempt to make the movie aurally interesting, however, the overuse of a ‘surprise’ musical motif is simply painful.
The slim ideas in Decampitated may have worked as a short but as a feature the material is over-stretched. And even back in the ’90s, using fear of transvestites is pretty lame. Despite the aforementioned stylish shots and a few laughs that work, this attempt at a horror comedy is more likely to induce yawns than guffaws.
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES and MANIA
Buy Decampitated on Troma DVD from Amazon.com
Buy Decampitated Soundtrack CD: Amazon.com
Trailer:
