An update and semi-sequel to the grindhouse classic, this film concerns a bunch of college twits who are heading to Florida for Spring Break, but they end up in redneck country, a small Georgia town called Pleasant Valley. Here in this quaint, slightly bent little town, a Civil War celebration is taking place, with Mayor Buckman (the inimitable Robert Englund) as host. But there’s something waaaayyy off about the townsfolk of Pleasant Valley, as heads start to role and the body count starts to rise. Giuseppe Andrews from “Cabin Fever” (wherein he was the only good thing, in my view) turns up as one of the strangest of the locals, with a shrill Lin Shaye the weirdest of all. “Deliverance” actor Bill McKinney, Peter Stormare Johnny Legend, and Travis Tritt also have small parts.
I’m being deliberately vague here so as not to spoil the story, but suffice to say Pleasant Valley harbors dark secrets, there’s lots of whoopin’ and a-hollerin’, and really over-the-top acting, not all of it very good, either. The Southern stereotypes are fun at first but get annoying real fast, and less funny real fast. It’s like a Troma film with a higher budget, and better photographed. Actually, it has the same gruesome comic spirit as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”.
Of the performances, veterans Shaye and Englund are the only notables (McKinney, Stormare et al have mere cameos). Shaye goes all out and then some, and Englund has one of his best non-Freddy parts, with his eye-patch with a confederate flag a nice touch. The rest are either amateurish and irritating, or amateurish and somnambulant. The protagonists are especially boring. Unless they are especially well-written characters, I suggest writers stop putting twenty-something characters as their leads in horror films. They’re all so generic.
Thank God for the gore and the hot chicks! Early on the opening titles having bloody Civil War images, and there’s a wonderfully disgusting (and very funny, in a cruel way) bit with an armadillo. But the film really picks up with quite possibly the greatest dismemberment I’ve seen in a decade (it’s a bravura moment), and a truly brutal scene that can only be described as a human shish kebab. Wow! That was nasty. The women are hot (especially the one who sadly gets dismembered), and hey, a couple of ‘em make out with each other, and that’s always nice. The film has a great ending, too.
OVERALL SUMMARY
An OK film for gore-hounds (remember gore, people?) and Englund fans, but with a better script and better acting, this might have been more than OK.
