Film Review: ‘Father’s Day’ is Grindhouse Holiday From Normalcy

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – If the word Troma means nothing to you, then you may want to avoid “Father’s Day,” a truly twisted and sadistic slice of horror-comedy that makes other recent attempts at grindhouse insanity (“Machete,” “Hobo with a Shotgun”) look “The Help.” It’s a bit inconsistent (especially in the first act) but the sheer balls-to-the-wall (literally) approach to filmmaking here is so far over-the-top that one has to admire the audacity of the filmmakers, a quintet that goes by the name Astron-6.

How simply crazy is “Father’s Day”? You mean outside of the fact that it’s about a serial killer named Fuchman (pronounced how fans of Troma films like “The Toxic Avenger” and “Class of Nuke ‘Em High” will know it should be pronounced) who rapes, dismembers, and kills fathers? Hmmm. Where to start? “Father’s Day” features things that you probably think you’ll never see on film (and much of America would say you never should). Like a serial killer slicing a man’s throat and, while he’s bleeding to death, chomping off his penis. Or injecting drugs into his own penile member before mutilating it. Intestines, puke, incest, and buckets of blood — “Father’s Day” is remarkably crazy even in grindhouse terms. It doesn’t quite have the whimsy of the best of Troma (especially in the first reel), but I’d take it over many of the high-profile attempts at grindhouse horror and it’s even more remarkable when one considers that the legendary company gave Astron-6 $10,000 to make it. I’m slightly terrified to think of what they could do with $10 million.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Father’s Day” in our reviews section. [15]

Believe it or not, despite the ludicrous gore, “Father’s Day” is also pretty damn funny. The first act takes itself WAY too seriously (and the opening scene, featuring Fuchman using a decapitated head to give himself oral is too dark a note on which to open the film) but it clicks into a gear somewhere around the 30-minute mark when the three heroes of the piece have been united. “Father’s Day” is a film about a priest, a gay prostitute, and a one-eyed vigilante trying to stop not just a male-raping serial killer but a centuries-old creature from Hell (the Fuchmannicus, of course). The story is SO increasingly crazy (incorporating drug-induced dream sequences and trips to Heaven and Hell) that one has to simply admire the insanity of the accomplishment. The film should be 80 minutes but runs 100 instead and I would have cut most of that from the too-intense first act, but “Father’s Day” should still connect with the target audience for which it was created.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Father’s Day” review. [15]

Father’s Day
Photo credit: Troma