DUDE BRO PARTY MASSACRE III (2015)

Studio:       Snoot Films
Director:    Tomm Jacobsen, Michael Rousselet, Jon Salmon
Writer:       Alec Owen
Producer:  Michael E. Peter, Sarah Farrand, Ben Gigli, Dave Gare, Jon Worley
Stars:     Alec Owen, Paul Prado, Ben Gigli, Mike James, Joey Scoma, Michael Rousselet, Kelsey Gunn, Jon Salmon, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Brian Firenzi, Maria Del Carmen, Jimmy Wong, Greg Sestero, Andrew W.K., Patton Oswalt

Review Score:

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Summary:

Brent Chirino pledges a fraternity plagued by the serial killer Motherface in order to discover the murderer’s true identity and avenge his twin brother’s death.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In the 1980’s, Ronald Reagan banned the film “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” and had all known copies destroyed. However, a teenager recorded the movie at 4am in Minneapolis when it aired as Channel 5’s Midnight Morning Movie. His VHS tape is the only known surviving copy of the film.

East Chico University student Brock Chirino sees the school therapist to discuss his ongoing issues stemming from two previous massacres on frat row. The first massacre of Delta Bi fraternity brothers was committed by a disfigured sorority housemother known as “Mother.” Following Mother’s death, her daughter took her place during junior year by donning Mother’s face skin and becoming “Motherface.” Brock ended the second murder spree by killing Motherface himself. After Brock reveals that he has a twin brother named Brent, the therapist kills Brock with a pair of scissors.

Brent Chirino transfers to East Chico University to avenge his brother’s death. Joined by handicapped student Nedry Headcheese, Brent pledges Delta Bi to learn more about Brock’s fraternity brothers. Derek shows Brent around the frat house and introduces him to several frat brothers and pledges including dimwitted jock Samzy, stuffed shirt virgin Todd, Todd’s baby-obsessed girlfriend Samantha, beer-guzzler Spike, videographer Z.Q., vegetarian pledge Sizzler, and loudmouth Turbeaux.

For their pledge hazing, Brent and Nedry are tasked with infiltrating the local radio station and announcing on air that “Dean Pepperstone eats farts.” However, they sneak into the airport’s air traffic control tower by mistake and inadvertently cause a plane crash.

Secretly working under the instruction of police chief Rudy, Dean Pepperstone punishes the Delta Bi brothers for their history of death-causing pranks by banishing them off campus to the old sorority house by the lake. After the boys leave her office and she places a call to Rudy, Dean Pepperstone is killed by the new Motherface.

Chief Rudy secretly plots to have the Delta Bi brothers eliminated by occult means. Rudy assigns officer Candace Buttiker to escort fellow officer Sminkle to the lake house and use him as a virgin sacrifice for the necessary ritual.

At the lake house, the Delta Bi brothers meet paddleboat operation owner Paddy Paddleson as he grieves for his family lost in the Delta Bi prank that flooded Old Parchtown. The Delta Bi brothers go out on the lake, except for wheelchair-bound Nedry, who is forced to go into the forest alone. Motherface stalks Paddleson from the shore, but Paddleson commits suicide with a gun while out on one of his paddleboats.

Candace and Sminkle’s van breaks down on the way to the lake house when Sminkle runs over a man.

The Delta Bi brothers find fellow brother Rip Stick waiting for them inside the cabin. The men clean up the place and begin to party when the power is cut. Motherface electrocutes Derek in the shed when Derek goes to fix the fuse.

Z.Q. and Sizzler are sent on a beer run. Brent discovers that Motherface had a twin sister before he seemingly kills Samzy on accident. Motherface kills Spike in the forest by puncturing his skull with a beer tap.

Samantha arrives at the cabin uninvited. The brothers banish Samatha outside and send Todd with her. Todd and Samantha set up a tent and Samantha tricks Todd into impregnating her. Motherface kills Todd just after he climaxes, but Samantha falls asleep and does not notice his death.

Trees collapse on Z.Q. and Sizzler and trap them. Motherface captures Z.Q. and tears him in half using a rope pulley, but Sizzler escapes.

Candace and Sminkle repair their van and get back on the road, but Sizzler runs out and they crash while swerving to avoid him. Candace and Sminkle are ejected into the lake.

Samantha wakes in the tent the next morning and sees Todd’s mutilated body. The frat brothers swimming in the lake see Z.Q.’s torn corpse ziplining above them and realize a killer is loose. Turbeaux, Samzy, and Brent run back to the cabin, as does Samantha. Suspecting that she is the murderer, Turbeaux has Samzy knock out Samantha with a bat. However, Brent points out that it isn’t possible for Samantha to be Motherface.

Brent angers the frat brothers when he reveals that he only pledged in order to avenge Brock’s death. Sizzler brings back the videotape Z.Q. shot of his own death and everyone realizes that Motherface has returned. Samzy reveals that the person Brent inadvertently attacked upstairs earlier was Samzy’s robot duplicate.

Motherface initiates chaos in the cabin by throwing a severed head through the window. Motherface chases Samzy to the pier and kills him by using a remote control device.

Candace and Sminkle recover. Sminkle professes his love for Candace just as Motherface pulls him away. Candace begins having doubts about sacrificing Sminkle.

Brent and Turbeaux reconcile. Motherface kills Sizzler in the bathroom. Turbeaux kills himself while surrounded by dogs that trigger his fear of a small penis. Samantha finds Sizzler’s body. Motherface kills Samantha and the unborn baby that she just conceived with Todd.

Brent finds Turtleneck Bro and Flannel Bro dying in the forest. Motherface confronts Brent as the last remaining Delta Bi brother. Brent has a fantasy that Motherface’s true identity is Ronald Reagan, but realizes in reality that she is the original Motherface’s twin sister who masqueraded as the school therapist. Nedry returns with animal protectors to rescue Brent, but Motherface kills him.

Candace rescues Sminkle from a sacrificial altar. She then has sex with him so that he no longer has virgin blood.

Brent has a vision of his brother’s spirit. The spirits of all the dead Delta brothers then enter Brent and he becomes the hulking Brotherface. Brotherface pummels Motherface to death.

Imperial Dark Majesty Eric calls Chief Rudy at the police station and uses his powers to explode Rudy over the phone. Sminkle discovers that Candace is actually a bag of oranges that he hallucinated was a real person.

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Review:

Sometime during the decade, 80s icon and U.S. Commander-in-Chief Ronald Reagan exercised his presidential power to have all copies of the gonzo slasher flick “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” wiped from existence.  Luckily, or unluckily depending on what you ultimately think of it, some teenager in Minneapolis stayed up late one night and recorded a 4am airing of the movie on a good old-fashioned VCR before the ban hammer struck.  This slightly garbled and static-scratched VHS version now stands as the only known copy of the ill-fated last chapter in the “Dude Bro Party Massacre” trilogy.

Brock Chirino and the boys of East Chico University’s Delta Bi fraternity already survived an initial extermination attempt by the murderous sorority housemother known simply as “Mother.”  A second slaughter at the hands of her face-skin-wearing daughter “Motherface” was then thwarted by Brock himself.  So when a new Motherface emerges for a third reign of terror on Greek row, Brock becomes the first frat boy to meet her blade.  Now, Brock’s twin brother Brent must infiltrate the ranks of Delta Bi’s beer-swilling, prank-playing, loudmouth roster to avenge Brock’s butchering and unmask the latest Motherface serial killer.

As should be expected from the premise and the production style, “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” is a silly horror-comedy.  Unfortunately, the film is fine with continuously wading in this shallow end of a juvenile entertainment pool, only rarely breaking its routine of lowbrow laughs to present brief moments of creative cleverness.

Rather than being an out and out lampoon, the movie virtually celebrates the surfer and film frat brother stereotypes to the point where characters quickly arc from comedic caricatures to overbearing annoyances.  I get that “Dude Bro” is half of the movie’s title, but the unendingly obnoxious macho growling and bizarre habit nearly everyone has of yelling dialogue overplays the “brah” angle into utter irritation.  90-minutes is too much time for an already thin gag to wear out through repetition.

Which is a habit much of the humor has.  One bit sees a character fantasizing about running a bookmobile with which he can create a “bang” in a child’s mind.  His partner tries hinting at the sexual connotation “bang” has, but the character continues proclaiming his desire to “bang” children, get them aboard his “bang bus,” give kids a “bang” in the back, etc., etc.  It isn’t the molestation theme that is a turn off.  It’s that the movie still thinks the joke is working after the umpteenth repeat.

That’s also the general caliber of comedic writing being dealt with.  To announce that he is on his way, one frat brother says, “I’m coming.”  Arriving at his destination, he adds, “alright, I came.”  Get it?  Homoerotic humor.  Dick jokes.  Even the East Chico University mascot is a “rapier” so one more easy target innuendo can make it into the movie.

In keeping with the “only surviving videocassette copy” fiction, the film employs the telltale trademarks of a slightly soft-focused, overblown video veneer to provide a retro look and feel.  Then the movie confusingly adds modern techniques like whip zooms and a “whoosh” sound effect accompanying rapid arm movements, undercutting the idea of being a throwback treasure.

Trying too hard to oversell campiness is what erases effectiveness.  Low-rent straight-to-video slasher sequels of the 1980s possess midnight movie madness in the 21st century because they didn’t know enough, or have enough, to put in more effort.  “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” goes over-the-top when it doesn’t have to.  It could easily extract humor inherent in the concept and build from there instead of being so intentionally on-the-nose with obvious setups involving countless Ronald Reagan visages and constant cocaine snorting.  Just once I would like to see a camp comedy sending up the era of the eighties without featuring a Rubik’s Cube as a prop.

There are moments where “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” knows how to get it right.  Similar to the faux trailers of “Grindhouse,” “Dude Bro” stays true to its phony “taped off the TV” origins by adding snippets of parody commercials being recorded around.  These are more hilarious than the movie, including a quick clip of “Gremlins” ripoff “Pizza Goblins” and an ad for a hair metal compilation album featuring Heaven’s Devils singing “I Want to Bang You Twice.”  This is the kind of style the movie needs more of.

From an unlikely cameo by Larry King as a college sports coach to a slightly likelier cameo by Nina Hartley as the aging sexpot dean, “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” is oddly intriguing in an intentionally weird way.  But nonsensical non-sequiturs employed out of laziness for creating something more cohesive and endlessly recycled elementary school wisecracks overshadow instances of inventive imagination.  (A wildly wicked kill with a beer keg tap is unlike anything seen before.)

On one hand, my personal tastes don’t make me the target audience for frat house buffoonery, so maybe I’m raining on the movie’s parade of dirty jokes and dimwitted dudes.  On the other hand, I’m an 80s kid reared on late night horror movies and “Porky’s”-style comedies, so maybe the movie missed its mark after all.  Either way, judging by the ridiculously long list of Kickstarter donors thanked in the end credits (4,789 backers pledged nearly a quarter of a million dollars), some sort of audience out there seemingly exists for “Dude Bro Party Massacre III,” and maybe they will have more fun with it than I did.

Review Score:  45

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