Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 43/52 | Slasher
As my grandparents used to say, “John Ratzenbergers don’t give meat — you have to take it from them.”
Siblings Vincent and Ida run a combination motel / smoked meat farm. A combination more classic than Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. But there’s a secret ingredient to Vincent’s renowned smoked meats — human. He goes out hunting at night, setting up traps on the road to create wrecks, and then salvages the bodies from the wrecks. With the help of Ida, they bury the bodies in a secret garden, cutting their vocal cords to keep them from screaming, and feed them a special diet until they are ready to process.
One day, Vincent traps a couple on a motorcycle, and he decides that he should keep the woman, Terry, alive. Vincent and Ida’s younger brother, Bruce, is the town sheriff. When he comes poking around the farm, he sees Terry and instantly falls for her. But Terry likes her men like Vincent likes his meat: aged to perfection.
Will the terminally naive Bruce catch on to Vincent and Ida’s doings? Will Terry survive? What will be the fate of that secret garden?
The film leans hard into comedy, fully aware that it’s riffing on a weird combo of Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The jokes aren’t that funny, but the movie does have some heightened moments of silliness that help it out.
What I find most compelling about the movie is Vincent and Ida’s ethical code. They believe that, by harvesting these people, they’re taking care of two of God’s most significant problems: overpopulation and too little food to go around. While their logic is distorted, it’s more coherent than the motives of Norman Bates or Leatherface. But those incoherent motives are part of what makes the other killers so scary.
Its biggest flaw is its pacing and construction. Director Kevin Connor and cinematographer Thomas Del Ruth prove they have no experience with horror, draining almost all suspense by giving us the step-by-step of Vincent and Ida’s actions. At times, it leans more toward a farming tutorial than a movie.
Still, the movie has its charms and witty moments. It never hits the scares, but it creates an enjoyable and somewhat distinct atmosphere.