I followed my recent viewing of Dead & Breakfast with a look at the newly released title, The Janitor. Both small budget splatter-fests designed to disgust viewers; poke fun at horror movies and to make the audience laugh, all thrown in.
The Janitor, which has noticeably tight budget strings, doesn’t let you down. A wonderfully entertaining festival of splatter. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. But in a very Troma-esque vein The Janitor delivers, and of course cleans up afterwards.
Andy Signore (co-writer and co-director) plays Lionel, a custodian who longs for more. Who longs to get out of the day-to-day grind of office clean-ups and into the world of hot sorority’s! But unlike other custodians (I hope!) Lionel doesn’t take the abuse lying down. He more or less brutally murders everyone in his path, but thankfully remaining one and in some cases two steps ahead of the Feds.
The Janitor gave me what I was looking for. Some shocking, funny, over-the-top mindless action and humour. And I got what I wanted, and then some. The blood, the guts, the fluids and killings are all well executed and brilliantly manufactured, reminiscent of early Peter Jackson classics. The humour as well is prominent in every scene, never becoming reliant on so-called ‘toilet’ humour (which is unusual when dealing with a janitor movie).
The plot itself is suitable and paced nicely for this kind of movie. The tongue-in-cheek styles are ever present, but are there to entertain. I wouldn’t have expected a movie like this to make me laugh out loud, but their were occasions when I just had to.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Over-the-top, gruesome, blood-filled entertainment. An absolute gem of a sick-flick to sit through on a dullish Friday night. Wonderfully energetic and well-executed performances all round. A must-see.
