Subversive Cinema | Review by Louis Fowler | Available from Amazon
Any horror-nuts growing up in the 80s probably remember FUTURE-KILL fondly; released during the video boom, it's box cover featured an H.G. Giger interpretation of main villain Splatter, done in his usual creepy, metallic way that to this day, ranks up there with some of the best cover art ever. Of course, it was never enough to rent the film, but damned if it hasn’t stuck with me all these years. [ED. NOTE: FUTURE-KILL is one of those VHS boxes that I could probably draw in my sleep thanks to seeing it over and over for years. For more on great VHS box covert art check out this site.]
It stuck with me enough that, when I went to an independent video store not too long ago, and, being smarter about these types of things now more than I was then, I rented it. I was ready to see if the movie was as good as the cover.
Five minutes into the film, the tape snapped.
Like so many of those VHS films with great cover art – remember MUTANT HUNT? – it never got rented. The boxes stayed on video shelves for years, gathering dust until the DVD wave came in to take their place. They withered and became weak. When I told the clerk, she said that that’s happening more and more, and proceeded to throw it on a box filled with snapped tapes that they had no intention of repairing.
It was as if a piece of me died with that snapped tape.
Leave it to Subversive to bring back that lovin’ feeling with their new-to-DVD issue of FUTURE-KILL in all it's Giger-esque glory. And, after all this time, how is this mysterious film?
Well, it’s a cheesy mélange of frat boy comedy and post-apocalyptic mutant horror, all by way of THE WARRIORS. So it’s fuckin’ great. Yeah, it’s a little too long and it’s special effects ridiculous, but who cares? It’s got maniacal mutant named Splatter, who has a really cool metal claw-hand, as he chases a group of frat boys, in a prank gone wrong, across the city during it's punk heyday. That’s all I really need to be happy. It’s got explosions, gore, lame dialog, nasty, saggy breasts and a totally-unneeded-but-I’m-glad-they-put-it-in radioactive penis/oral sex sequence.
Filmed in Dallas and starring two veterans of the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, FUTURE-KILL is a mostly amateurish film, but it’s as if it’s synth score mesmerizes you into putting the remote down, and watching the whole thing in slack-jawed awe. On another level, it's also a great view into the early days of home video, when independent film meant much more than another Tarantino rip-off. People with little-to-no money, but with huge cinematic ideas, just making and film and, in a few weeks, it’s in the mom and pop video store, it’s cover promising more than it could deliver, but who cares. Most straight-to-video films don’t have those lofty goals anymore. No one uses the kitchen sink approach anymore. It’s all about ripping off whatever’s the hottest trend. And it’s that difference, that non-conformist vision that seems to be long gone that makes FUTURE-KILL so damn watchable. It’s a sleazy, lo-fi good time and sometimes, that’s the best thing in the world.
