Friday, May 17, 2019

Movie review: Masters of Horror: Peter Medak: The Washingtonians

 
 The Frank’s family has moved into Grandma’s house now that she is dead. Almost immediately they find a portrait of George Washington and a letter that completely contradicts what history has said about him. Things get even stranger when the family is threatened by a band of white wig and makeup wearing characters who demand the letter.

Johnathon Schaech (Mike Franks), Venus Terzo (Pam Franks), Julia Tortolano (Amy Franks), Saul Rubinek (Prof. Harkinson).

This Masters of Horror entry proposes something quite unique, that George Washington was actually a cannibal. And in honor of his legacy a group of people called Washingtonians worship George while trying to protect his secret and keep the cannibal tradition alive. The movie takes the first 15 minutes or so to build the plot and give us some character development. After that, the fun begins with freaky white makeup, wig sporting, fake wooden teeth wearing nutballs who apparently love to bang loudly on doors while grinning and demanding THE ITEM be turned over to them. It isn’t long before cannibalism becomes the focus and the bloodletting begins. That’s also about the same time the movie becomes campy and all the serious development is lost to poor gore effects.  If the second half of the film could have been as serious and freaky as the first half, it would have been great. Since it wasn’t, this one fell flat.

Acting was decent by everyone right up until Harkinson walks in with a government swat team and proceeds to massacre everyone.  Then it just got ridiculous. It didn’t help that the gore scenes were so overdone as to be laughable. Someone apparently had a sale on fake blood and intestines.

Camera work was decent as was sound. Dialogue was ridiculous in parts and as mentioned, sets with gore missed the mark completely.

If you like a good campy gore flick you will probably enjoy this one a great deal. If you are looking for something spooky however, skip this one. Plenty of guts and gore so save it for older teens and above.

Released: 2007
Reviewed: 5.8.19
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Horror, Cult Horror, TV Shows, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

copyright ©2019 Dave Riedel

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