100 Tears — 100 Tears( Blu Ray)
Several years before the appearance of Art the Clown & the Terrifier franchise, there was another brutal, gore-loving killing machine clown on the block. Gurdy- is a plump, white-suited, black balding wigged, and huge hatchet-carrying killer- who's the star of 100 Tears- which blends extremely brutal stalk ‘n’ slash, with investigation thriller, and light touches of humour. Here from Unearthed Films is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a director's commentary tracks, and a few other things.
100 Tears is from the year 2007, and was filmed in several locations across Florida, though it doesn’t really focus on the warm/ sunny side of the state. Instead, it takes in large, murky industrial buildings, dingy circus folk trailers, etc.
The films directed by Dunedin, Florida-born Marcus Koch. He has nine directional credits to his name- taking in stories in three horror analogies, and five other features. These take in vamp-focused horror Bad Blood (1997), punky body horror Rot (1999), downbeat drama/ thriller Fell (2010), extreme torturing horror of American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock(2015), and documentary Beyond Horror: The History and Sub-Culture of Red Films(2019). He also has an impressive one hundred and twelve special effects credits.
The film introduces us to journalist duo/ partners Jennifer ( Georgia Chris) and Mark(Joe Davison)- they are writing in the back pages of a local National Enquirer-like paper, largely focusing on weird ‘n’ wacky stories. One day, while chatting on their porch, Jennifer suggested they look into serial killers- in particular, a local killer who is known as the tear killer- as they leave a graffiti tear at each scene.
Then we get to meet our killer- Gurdy the Clown(Jack Amos), a large lumbering figure in a black & white clown costume, a blading wig, and carrying a truly huge hatchet. He takes out all the teens in the halfway house, decapitating people in wheel chairs spurting blood down staircases, slicing stomachs and pouring out guts, and stomping on heads.
As the film unfolds, we get a mix of the pair's investigation/ tracking down of the killer, and of course, Gurdy the Clown’s killings, which are long form slaughter’s- where legs are hacked off, heads fly from spurting necks, etc. Both elements of the film are entertaining- together, Jennifer and Mark make for a likeable pair- she is sexually frustrated/ but full of great ideas, and he is a guy full of quips/ sarcasm. And of course, as you’d expect, the gore is very well set up and presented.
I’ve been aware of 100 Tears for some years now, but this is my first time seeing it. I don’t know why, but I was expecting maybe a wholly darker/grimmer affair. Yes, Gurdy’s kills/ his look is grim, but the other elements here give more shade and light humour to the proceedings, which really works.
On the extras side of things, we get a good selection of things. First off, we get the original cut of the film, which runs at just over one hour and thirty-two minutes. I didn’t watch this, so I can’t really comment on it, but from what I gather, the scenes are laid out in a different order.
On the new extra side, we get a commentary track featuring director Marcus Koch and Unearthed Films head honcho Stephen Biro. They start off by talking about how the film has been off the face of the earth for the last five years, and that copies of its previously released versions are changing hands on eBay for thousands of dollars. They talk about Jack Amos, who plays the clown killer, and find out he comes from a stuntman background. They chat about the two journalist leads- he comes from an improvised comedy background and wrote the first ninety page scipt in just four days. And she enjoyed toilet humour; some of this appears in the film. We find out the halfway house was real, with some really sketchy characters living in it. Koch talks about how he and a colleague had to personally mop/ clean up all the gore before they left the locations. They chat about both the making of the killers hatchet and clown suit. Later on, they talk about how Koch wanted to be a hulking/ silent type, and he discusses creating some of the effects. He talks about how the fight scenes had to be choreographed to make sure no one got hurt, points out his favourite scenes and more. It’s an informative & chatty track- which is worth a play. Otherwise, on the new side, we get an onscreen interview with the director(45.27), which sees him answering fans' questions.
On the archive side, we have the following: Blood, Guts and Greasepaint- a making of(23.11). Original Behind The Scenes(20.45). Additional Behind The Scenes (34.26). Deleted scenes ( 10.52). Outakes( 4.45). Marcus Koch's childhood short film(20.44). And two trailers.
100 Tears is a really entertaining blend of an extremely gory slasher and crime investigation thriller, with well-placed moments of humour. This Unearthed Films release serves up a good selection of extras, and it’s great to have the film back in print again.