A bunch of terrified and infuriated sentient pine trees decide to strike back against the cruel and evil humans who have chopped them down to use as Christmas trees for the yuletide season. Director Jason Eisener, who also co-wrote the clever script with Rob Cotterill, maintains a zippy pace throughout, milks loads of sidesplitting sick laughs from the uproariously twisted sense of inspired black humor, and delivers plenty of hysterically excessive over-the-top graphic gore (among the grisly highlights are eyes getting gouged out, a man having one of his legs cut off, and a Christmas star being tossed into a guy's throat). Moreover, this honey warrants extra praise not only for its no-holds-barred attitude towards the loopy subject matter (a cute little cat, several kids, and even a crying baby all get gruesomely killed!), but also for the brilliantly subversive way in which people are made to seem like despicable monsters -- the chortling lumberjacks in particular are shown as total psychos wielding axes and chainsaws -- while the trees come across as pitiable and confused frightened victims (they actually speak in subtitles, too!). Great homages to the Lucio Fulci Italian splatter classics "Zombi 2" and "The Gates of Hell," too. An absolute riot!
... View More*Originally written for Screened.com*Have you ever thought how does it feels being chopped, sliced and decorated as Christmas tree? No? Well, neither do I. This movie how ever centers around a bunch of trees that somehow gained consciousness. We see from their perspective how horrible Christmas is to them and how the "things" (humans) treat them cruelly.The trees then dissatisfied and in agony, decide to strike revenge onto us puny humans, sending the movie into a plethora of gore and madness, ensuring you the most brutal Christmas Tree related movie ever. This is definitely Grindhouse material. It's ridiculous, silly and it's self aware of it. Beware as this movie is not for the squeamish.The acting is totally over the top and suits the cheesy-ness of the film and it is done perfectly. We never know the names of the humans as they considered animals by these trees so not much development comes from them. What's interesting is that we feel the agony of the trees while watching. The high pitch alien-esque voices of the trees actually is well played and we can actually sympathize them while laughing at the same time.I will never see Christmas trees the same anymore. Maybe this movie is an allegory (see what I did?) for the destruction of nature did by man kind or how badly man kind has taken little things for granted. Maybe it's just a fun film full of gory fun but what ever message you find here, you will start pitying the trees after this and think twice of chopping down a tree.
... View MoreTREEVENGE is a short horror spoof by Jason Eisener set at Christmas time where conifer trees decide they're enjoying Christmas as much as turkeys do and decide to strike back at the human race and one can't help thinking if Eisener has been influenced by The Christmas Invasion episode of DOCTOR WHO which also involved a Christmas tree taking on a life of its own ? Certainly there's much to indicate the influence of THE EVIL DEAD films where eyeballs pop out and other over the top blood splattered deaths take place but this seems slightly at odds with a scene set in a van transporting the trees which makes clear allusions to Jews being sent on trains to Nazi death camps There's a constant feel of high camp running throughout this short which is probably to its detriment , especially where the human characters are concerned . Of course the whole premise of trees having a revolt is pure nonsense but one can't help thinking the director doesn't want to upset the audience too much seeing as both a baby and a family cat are cruelly butchered by the trees and therefore takes away any accusation of bad taste by turning up the camp factor , but I would have preferred a slightly more menacing tone to TREEVENGE
... View MoreSit back, relax, and enjoy Treevenge for all its bloody goodness. It's a "they fight back" saga that one hasn't really seen before, unless perhaps one is so well versed in Troma knowledge that they could dig up an example and look like the smarty-pants of the room. But for the moment, I can't think of another example of photosynthetic comeuppance aside from this, where trees cut in the forest are cut down for Christmas, and fight back against their 'owners'. It's got subtitled tree dialog. It's got dumb-s*** humans in the sticks and trailer parks and homes. It's got so much blood you'd think that the blood coordinator from Dead-Alive stopped by to pitch in on the fun. And it's so much fun, on both an intellectual level and on that visceral bloody-fun level that only the best in Troma can bring out (or just creative comedy horror in general) can bring out. It also reveals that Jason Eisner, the director and also the force behind the little-seen Grindhouse trailer (only shown in Canada with the Rodriguez/Tarantino film but also infamous online), has a real potential career ahead of him. What Treevenge exactly spells of it I can't say with the best crystal ball. But there will be something, with blood perhaps.
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