Fungicide — Fungicide( Blu Ray)
From the early 2000’s, Fungicide is a huge dose of bad cinema- the acting shifts dead-eyed or OTT, there are 90’s PC grade special effects, overload sound effects, cheap in-camera effects, cheap puppets ‘n’ gore, etc. We are very much in the same territory as that classic of so-bad-it’s great of Birdemic: Shock and Terror(2008), but instead of birds, the terror here is, as its title suggests, mushrooms, which are either portrayed by either bad PC graphics, teethy puppets, or someone dressed up in a mushroom suit. Here from Visual Vengeance is a Blu-ray- featuring new & archive commentary tracks, a RIFFTRAX version of the film, and a few more things.
Fungicide is from 2002 and was directed/ written by Dave Wascavage. In total, he’s helmed seven films, taking in the likes of bumbling creature feature Suburban Sasquatch (2004), kidnapped by UFO horror sci-fi Tartarus (2005), special forces marines picked off one by one action horror Infinities Lock (2008), and paranormal investigators send-up Adventures of the Haunted Hunted (2013).
The film opens in a decidedly dissonating/ WTH manner- as we get a mix of angular-toned synth scaping, and cheap blending/ blurring of the footage of a garden/ and someone well/ truly badly hamming it up, as a mad doctor mixing liquids in a test tube.
Next, we switch to a middle-aged couple chatting at the kitchen table, with a huge vase of flowers in front of them. They are rather inanely talking about renting somewhere, and we find out it’s for their son in the basement- the mad bespeckled & roughly bearded Silas Purcell (David Weldon)
We next shift to Silas' holiday destination- a forest-based hippy retreat run by Jade Moon(Mary Wascavage). And here he meets a selection of characters- there’s a wrestler who's taking pills, so he apparently doesn’t spontaneously combust. A suited man who wants to push Jade out to build a country mall, and a very on-edge military man who's playing some sort of war game.
The killer mushrooms come about after Silas spills one of his mixes under the retreat's wooden porch. We get a few different sizes of Mushroom- smaller, teethy puppet sized one, larger PC graphic-made ones, and the human-sized mush-suited ones. Along with this, we get very cheap-looking PC explosions, a bloody attack on a rather naff-looking human puppet, and very loud, in the mix, cheap sound effects.
You most certainly have to have a penchant for bad film to even start watching Fungicide, as it very much makes its intentions clear from the very beginning. And as we go on, we drop further and further down into the well of bad movie-dom.
On the new side, we get a director-approved SD scan of the film. This has great clarity/ depth of colour, but it’s cheaply filmed using even cheaper effects. So it’s not in any way HD. Next, we get a new commentary track from director Dave Wascavage and co-writer / co-producer/ actress Mary Wascavage. This features a fair bit of( largely) playful banter and a decent amount of background banter. They talk about coming up with the idea for the film over dinner. We find out that the basement used in the early/ cheap trippy Mad Doctor scenes was his grandmother's, and the parents were played by his own parents. We find out the film was shot on a digital Super 8 camcorder. They point out the neat shot used and discuss the different wigs. They talk about the ‘effects’, and much more.
On the archive side, we have the following: Three commentary tracks- one with Dave Wascavage, Mary Wascavage and David Weldon. One with Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum. One with Schlock And Awe Films. There is the full RIFFTRAX version of the film. Alternative opening credits. Deleted scene( 1.28). Outtakes( 5.14). Image Gallery, Troubled Moon Trailer Reel, Fungicide - Producer Trailer, Fungicide - Visual Vengeance Trailer, Visual Vengeance Trailers.
The first release of the film takes in a reversible sleeve featuring original home video art. A folded mini-poster. ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS sticker set. O-Card - 'Grow Your Own Killer Mushroom' seed packet.
Fungicide truly is bad movie gold, which gets worse/ better as it goes on. It’s great to see it getting the Visual Vengeance treatment. Let's hope they release some more of Mr Wascavage's films down the road.