Grosshouse(DVD) — Grosshouse(DVD)
The film plot tells of Bertha a fat hooker who mercilessly abuses her tubby Christmas tree sweater wearing son Marty, as well as getting him to rob & bury her clients. The pairs strange & unhealthy life is turned up-side down when Bertha's hooker daughter reappears on the scene. And the film (mostly) speeds by in a series of very crude jokes, ultra bad taste humour, very cheap looking gory, and real passion to creating an entraining film, on zero budget. It literally features a hand-full of actors( a few appearing as one or two characters in different bad wigs) and one location a suburban American house.
The two main roles are taken up by Michael Q. Schmidt- who plays Bertha in the worse gone-to-seed middle age drag ever.. like an extremely lo-rent, yet funny Divine. And young/ up-coming actor James J. Coker- who plays the part of Marty with really geeky vigour.
The film comes in fairly short & ( grossly) sweet a one hour & fifteen minutes mark. And really(save for one sofa based dialogue scene) the whole thing flies by in a wonderfully manic & enjoyable manner, as you wait to see how they can top the last bit of bad taste, while still pushing the plot forward to it’s depraved hotdog themed finale ( don’t ask!).
The second/ bonus film is entitled Don’t Touch That Dial. And it’s plot revolves around a once popular Public access show that’s been closed down, and on their last show they play a host of air banned PSAs, sick commercials, vile cooking shows and obnoxious talk shows. Michael Q. Schmidt appears as Donny Defeyo's, the shows host, and he’s joined by Moronica (James J. Coker in drag as a bumbling middle aged women), and Pigasso( a pig snouted assistant). Sadly this film is less effective, and it just seems a series of very bad taste, often racist sketchers, which mostly aren’t very funny. I don’t think the films length really helps, as it comes in nearing two hours. And added to that once again the budgets ultra lo, and it just doesn’t really stretch to what they are trying to do…so it just often feels like bunch of buddies dicking around with a camera.
On the whole this is certainly worth picking-up for the main feature;if you like trashy yet inventive lo-budget film-making that has bad taste humour & high energy…. Don’t Touch That Dial, is an ok bonus, but really didn’t do much for me, I’m afraid.