THE ONCE AND FUTURE SMASH/END ZONE 2 - FrightFest review

Directing duo Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein's Mockumentary THE ONCE AND FUTURE SMASH, which recently screened at London's FrightFest, is an entertaining farce. Examining the cultural impact of an obscure lost horror classic entitled “End Zone 2”, which supposedly came out in 1970, as there's renewed interest in the film and it's predecessor, now that a belated sequel is apparently in the works.

 

The film itself, a follow up to an even more obscure 1965 Drive-In B-movie horror entitled “End Zone”, the story revolved around a high school football player, who was beaten so brutally by his team mates, after losing a game, his face was left permanently disfigured, and he was no longer able to eat solid foods.

 

Having been given the nickname Smash-Mouth (nothing to do with the 1990s American rock band of the same name), he subsequently went on to exact a bloody revenge on his team mates by liquidising them in his blender.

 

The sequel, (supposedly) made some 15 years later, saw him track down the cheerleaders from that fateful day and similarly grinding them up in his blender. But despite the film's huge popularity back in the day, it has since sunk into obscurity.

 

The mockumentary attempts to tell the story behind the sequel through interviews with the surviving members of the cast and crew, along with other horror icons who describe how the sequel and indeed the original influenced 80s slasher movies as well as trying to find out what happened to the final reel of the movie, which has been missing since it's original release.

 

Some of the more hilarious aspects revolve around exposing the events that lead up to the actor originally hired to play Smash-Mouth (Michael St, Michaels of “The Greasy Strangler” infamy) getting fired and replaced during filming and his relationship with the actor who took over the role for the remainder of the film (played by Troma films stalwart Bill Weeden), which no one really saw as all his scenes were in the missing final reel.

 

Of course, you can't have a mockumentary about a fake film (and it is a fake film, no matter what the IMDB says), without their being a fake film to mock, and so when this was shown at FrighFest, a “newly restored” version of “END ZONE 2” was shown straight after, so people could see what all the fuss was about.

 

Obviously intended as a spoof of 80s slasher films “End Zone 2” features some thoroughly ridiculous kill scenes, as the deformed footballer Smash-Mouth goes around trying to kill off the cheerleaders who eluded him some 15 years previous. My only complaint would be it takes far too long to get going, with the first 40mins comprised of dialogue and all the action crammed into the last 20 mins (the film being only an hour long as all the final reels have gone missing, of course).

 

If you like fake documentaries, like Spinal Tap, or Top Knot Detective (which I reviewed a few years back), you should love this. It's packed full of interviews with various horror directors, actors and writers, such as Troma films president Lloyd Kaufman, Eurohorror producer Claudio Fagrasso (Zombi 3), Victor Miller (Writer – Friday the 13th) Jason Isaacs (Director – Jason Goes to Hell), Todd Farmer (Writer – Jason X) and many other horror alumni discussing their love for the film.

 

Indeed, half the fun of watching, for me at least, was recognising where you knew the various horror stars, who are being interviewed, from. Which included various actors from the Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street and Maniac Cop films, amongst many others.

 

I imagine the “End Zone 2” spoof film will be included as an extra when this is released on Disc, so if mockumentaries are your thing, I'd definitely advise seeing this. 

 

View the trailer for THE ONCE AND FUTURE SMASH on YouTube.

View the trailer for END ZONE 2 on YouTube.

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