In honor of their 25 years in the low budget arena, and the release of Lloyd Kaufman’s book, All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger, Kaufman and partner Michael Hertz are at it again, with their most offensive film to date. In their early days, the duo were responsible for releasing straightforward horror flicks like THE LAST HORROR FILM and MOTHERS DAY, until they finally struck gold with THE TOXIC AVENGER. Lloyd Kaufman has followed the TOXIC AVENGER blueprint for success, and has showed little progression in his directing skills. Troma’s 2000 film, TERROR FIRMER continues their obsession with bathroom humor, gory violence, naked women, and punk-laden performances. The producers continue giving their friends cameos including Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Joe Franklin, Sgt. Kabuki Man, the Toxic Avenger, and Lemmy of Motorhead (who also appeared in TROMEO AND JULIET).

Larry (Lloyd Kaufman) Jameson is a blind filmmaker for Troma pictures, trying to keep his production of the next Toxic Avenger movie from falling apart. The film is a veritable zoo, with an assortment of punks, creeps, and weirdoes working on the film crew. A love triangle develops between microphone operator K.C. (Will Keenan), production assistant Jennifer (Alyce Latourelle), and psycho special effects artist, Jerry (Trent Haaga, who resembles Steve Buscemi). As Larry and his crew struggle to complete the low budget independent effort, a disturbed psycho killer makes things difficult for everyone.

The one saving grace about TERROR FIRMER is the movie explores actual low budget filmmaking. There are moments during the film where the cast forgets the script and improvise with the materials and crew members at hand (just like reel life cheapies!). The characters argue about which direction to take the characters within this movie-inside-a-movie (their low budget film focuses on the Toxic Avenger, and his sexual activities with horny women). Several times in TERROR FIRMER, Kaufman preaches the values of independent cinema, and proclaims the U.S. Constitution protects his rights to produce bad films. Then he uses TERROR FIRMER for shameless promotion as he plugs everything Troma, including the upcoming TOXIC AVENGER film, the Troma Web site, and even his own book, All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger. Kaufman goes on to knock mainstream Hollywood by having his disturbed killer be a maniacal fan of Steven Speilberg. The rest of the picture wallows in bad puns and inside jokes, choppy editing, and a sleazy attitude that is either refreshing or bothersome depending on the viewer’s age and IQ. One of my major complaints is that there is too much male nudity in the film. Luckily, there is enough female flesh to help overlook this, including a hilarious scene of a girl masturbating with a pickle.

The three main characters actually deliver some decent performances (although I can’t say that about the rest of the unappealing cast). Will Keenan is appropriately creepy and confused as the macho anti-hero K.C. The script paints K.C. as the strong and caring protagonist, but then takes the character an absolute 180 degree turn. Keenan pulls it all off, to some extent. Alyce LaTorelle is the typical Troma leading lady: intelligent, compassionate, and suitably sexy. LaTorelle explores the mental and sexual aspects of her character with equal aplomb. Trent Haaga delivers the most singular performance as the spastic special effects guru, Jerry. The character’s behavior is so obnoxious that even the punks don’t like him. Similar to the character of K.C., the script implies that Jerry is the antagonist, then switches gears toward the conclusion. Much like the character actor he is often compared to, Steve Buscemi, Haaga gives a rude personae when necessary, then promptly shifts gears as his character progresses. Lloyd Kaufman turns in an admirable role as the blind director, but basically he is playing himself. I respect these Troma films for they embody the art of guerrilla filmmaking, but that doesn’t mean I want to see these films every weekend.

When you sit through this display of blood, urine, feces, and other bodily fluids, you’ll become one jaded viewer. The opening moments of the film features a particularly bloody sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. A female psychopath rips the leg off his victim, and beats him upside the head with his leg stump, until the victim’s head caves in. Disturbing as this over-the-top scene is, it would have made no impact at all, if it were shown anywhere else in TERROR FIRMER. This movie tries so hard to shock and gross out the audience, that seeing this kind of mayhem every few minutes loses it’s shock value quickly. If only the producers worked as hard constructing storylines and defining characters and less time on gross-outs and toilet humor, Troma may actually turn out some decent features. But, this is what Troma fans want, so if you consider yourself a fan then you’ll be all over TERROR FIRMER.

Here is a taste of the mayhem in TERROR FIRMER:

• The killer beats a college kid over the head with the kid’s large bong—and chunks of the kid’s brain matter fall out.
• An eyeball falls into a woman’s cleavage.
• The killer rips the fetus out of a pregnant woman.
• A crew member is electrocuted until his face turns brown and his eye pops out.
• A punk rocker is crushed between two trucks—the lower half of his body erupts into a bloody mess.
• The killer causes a woman with fake breasts to explode in a bloody mess.
• A fat guy who is streaking has a car drive over his skull, crushing it like a melon.
• Another fat guy gets axed in the head and thrown underneath an escalator which promptly chews him up into hamburger.
• A guy gets his hand sliced off, and he decides to eat some his bloody stump meat.
• The killer rips the leg off a victim and uses it to bash the guy’s brains out.
• A crew member commits suicide by throwing himself on top of an exploding bomb—his limbs, organs, and head fly everywhere.
• A guy gets a knife thrust into his temple.

On Disc 1 you can play the director’s cut, or use a separate seamless branching option to incorporate the deleted scenes into the director’s cut. This branching function is not exactly seamless, as the re-instituted footage causes brief pauses that last as long as a layer change on an RSDL DVD. Also on Disc 1 you can access 10 alternative scenes, 20 deleted scenes, the teaser (FF, DD 2.0, :51), the trailer (FF, DD 2.0, 2:12), a long outtake reel (called Terror Fucked Up), auditions for actress Alyce Latorelle, and Storyboard comparisons for the escalator evisceration scene.

On Disc 2, the main feature is the called FARTS OF DARKNESS: THE MAKING OF TERROR FIRMER. This detailed making-of documentary is 135 minute look at all elements of the film including behind-the-scenes footage, cast and crew interviews, and the premiere and promotion of the TERROR FIRMER. It is narrated by Lloyd Kaufman and includes tones of footage from the film. Then there is a menu called Boner Material, which includes odds and end that don’t fit in anywhere else. There are rock videos from LUNACHICKS ("Say What You Mean"), ENTOMED ("Seeing Red"), and D.J. POLO ("Freek of the Week"). There is product information for the TERROR FIRMER CD soundtrack and Kaufman’s book. There is a brief with chat with Charlotte Kaufman (Lloyd’s preteen daughter, who has a small role in the film). Then there is an amusing short interview with star Alyce Latorelle who tells Kaufman initially she was not happy upon seeing TERROR FIRMER. Included are a handful of Troma trailers, including:

• TOXIC AVENGER IV: CITIZEN TOXIE (WS, DD 2.0, 2:40),
• CANNIBAL THE MUSICAL (FF, DD 2.0, 1:10)
• UNSPEAKABLE (WS, DD 2.0, 2:30)
• PARTS OF THE FAMILY (FF, DD 2.0, 3:27)

- Victor Bryant

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