DVD REVIEW: ‘Chop’ chops together horror and humor

Chop recently arrived on DVD from Bloody Disgusting Selects and The Collective. The humorous horror entry is a blood-spattered revenge flick that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. The DVD is light on bonuses, featuring only outtakes and deleted scenes.

Below you can find Hollywood Soapbox’s thoughts on the movie:

Bloody Disgusting Selects and The Collective continue their chilling foray into the horror genre with Chop, a gratuitously funny movie that plays like a Saw sequel, but with a severed tongue stuck in a rotting cheek.

Lance Reed (Billy Bakshi) is a typical everyman, and that seems to suit him just fine. He has a loving wife and nice house, and all seems well in his distorted view of utopia. It’s not until his car breaks down on the side of the highway that we begin to learn about the real Lance Reed.

A mysterious man (Timothy Muskatell) offers his help and agrees to drive Lance to the middle of town. This being a horror movie, we know almost instantly that Lance is in for some unintended violence.

What proceeds is a Grand Guignol display of amputation and bloody revenge. Here’s a quick recap: First, Lance is ordered to ax his brother in the head, otherwise his wife will be raped and killed. He follows through with the unthinkable act, only to find out that his wife is safe and sound (though she was cheating on him with his brother).

With the guilt of his brother’s murder on his shoulders, Lance is let go from the stranger’s grasp and tries to live a normal life under the scrutiny of two homicide detectives. But the mystery man keeps returning to continually screw up matters. One by one, the closest people in Lance’s life (and his closest limbs) begin to fall under the wrath of this man who continues to claim he’s seeking revenge for some past injustice.

Trent Haaga, a Troma veteran, directs the effective, albeit trite 84-minute romp. The laughs are there and the blood overflows, but the whole premise of Chop feels like a short movie bloated to feature-film length. The cast is skilled enough, especially Bakshi, who also goes by Will Keenan, but it’s difficult to sustain the humor and the horror for too long.

As the plot progresses, the ruination of Lance’s predicament becomes stranger and stranger. He has run-ins with a prostitute wielding a knife and a pedophile with a sharp ax. Each encounter grows more outlandish and disjointed. By the movie’s end, after some dark secrets about Lance are revealed, it’s hard to think of him as a character anymore.

It’ll be up to each individual viewer when the hysterics become too much to handle. For genre fans, I imagine Chop will be a welcome treat. It utilizes many horror plot twists and conventions to tell its blood-soaked tale.

But, like anything with potential, the old adage “less is more” still holds true. Chop is a genuinely interesting short story needlessly elongated to just shy of an hour and a half. As the blood continues to spatter, you’ll probably start scratching your head (not exactly the intended response).

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Chop

• 2011

• Directed by Trent Haaga

• Written by Adam Minarovich

• Starring Billy Bakshi, Timothy Muskatell, Tanisha Mukherjee, Elina Madison, Mark Irvingsen and Jeff Sisson

• Running time: 84 minutes

• Not Rated

• Rating: