"Tobacco-chewin', gut-stompin', cannibal kinfolk from Hell!"

The first title distributed by the good folks at Troma to become noticed as a Trivial Pursuit question, REDNECK ZOMBIES returns to DVD as the second title featured in the Tromasterpiece Collection, a Criterion-style series of reissues spotlighting many of the company's most infamous titles. In November of 2008, Trey Parker & Matt Stone's student film, Cannibal! The Musical, celebrated its thirteenth anniversary with a two-disc package that built upon the previous special edition release with new interviews and commentary from not just the creators, but some of the other personalities associated with the South Park duo's debut whose stories have been relatively untold. In 2009 alone, a whole slew of titles were announced for release: the late actor Joe Spinell's (of Manaic fame) 1984 vehicle The Last Horror Film, Buddy Giovinazzo's bleak cult classic Combat Shock, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz's pre-Toxie sex comedy The First Turn On, and Phillippe Mora's Mad Dog Morgan, starring Dennis Hopper as Australian bushranger/murderer Dan Morgan.

Beginning with 1985's Blood Cult, the home video market of the era was being graced with movies made direct-to-video, looking as if they'd been shot with a camcorder as opposed to a film camera (tracking lines were like the artifacting of their day). These were the unsung salad days of exploitation cinema, mainly because so much of the stuff remains junk even now. I owned The Ripper as a used VHS tape way before DVD and was mainly interested in it for the name "Tom Savini," but wouldn't you know that I was on the verge of discovering Maniac that same time, thus happily rendering that 1986 cheapie a mere footnote in my horror movie education.

Troma helped out a great deal, too, when USA were still airing the Toxic Avenger and Nuke 'Em High sagas on a nightly basis. When no-budget master Pericles Lewnes decided to shoot a goofy little movie about some bad hayseeds strung out on chemically-tainted mash (can you see the payoff or shall Boris Pickett sing it to you?), Troma offered to pick the film up and promote it. The result would appear to be successful, as I've yet to hear about a Trivial Pursuit question influenced by A Nymphette Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell.

An amateurish yet blissfully dopey cross-pollination between Hee-Haw and The Return of the Living Dead, Lewnes uses the old anti-radiation manifesto that defined Troma's vintage monster movies to set in motion the events in his story. Army lackey Tyrone Robinson (Tyrone Taylor) is transporting a 55-gallon drum of top secret experimental nuclear and chemical waste in a jeep across rural Maryland. One lit spliff-induced swerve is all it takes for him to lose the cargo and one shotgun-toting, overalls-wearing dingbat is enough to convince him to go back to the base empty-handed. When the aforementioned hillbilly, Ferd Mertz, is then immediately accosted by a FAMILY of shotgun-toting, overalls-wearing dingbats, he appeases them by offering the poisonous drum as a replacement for that old still he shot up. The Clemson clan accept the gift, and soon they've brewed up a batch of green moonshine all ready to be delivered to every household in the town.

When the Clemsons decide to celebrate with a few jars of the stuff (the buzz is so strong that one of them screams about aliens), they wake up the next morning with more than just a bad hangover. They wind up mutated monsters who proceed to systematically devour the group of city-dwelling campers who've been trailing the woods nearby.

Everything you really need to know about REDNECK ZOMBIES can be summed up by both the film's title and the company responsible for releasing it. What we've got are, indeed, a group of backwoods boobs who swill spiked shine, have their flesh melted down and spend the rest of the movie looking for some down-home entrails to snack on. Like any slasher movie, the campers are thinly defined, sporting now-kitschy 1980s fashions and usually getting into control freak fights that can only be tempered by a hysterical bout of overacting.

And although Troma have provided undemanding goofy splatter-comedy for decades, sometimes the results simply lack imagination and or a consistent sense of DIY craft. There were two Evil Dead movies, two Stuart Gordon-directed Lovecraft perversions, one Basket Case, and one classic Return of the Living Dead movie by the time REDNECK ZOMBIES came out. Lewnes' home movie, despite its micro budget origins, isn't as audacious as one would hope and has a finale that arrives too quickly and leaves a minor impression despite buckets of spilt blood.

Luckily, there's ample amounts of splatter and weird humor in between the picture to make it a minor treat for trash mavens. Bodies get ripped apart, eyeballs are popped in mouths like bon bons, objects like spoons and corncobs are impaled into flesh and there is a full head-crushing scene more hands-on than in The Toxic Avenger. Let's just say that a little Campbell's tomato soup does make things "mmm, mmm, better" in the case of this movie. And some of the supporting characters outshine the rednecks and their prey on several occasions, from the demented hitchhiker with a shaving razor and a Polaroid camera (a clear homage to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) to the "freelance butcher" to the immortal Tobacco Man, an Elephant Man-type chew peddler who predicts dark forces and mouth cancer with equal aplomb. The actor known as Bucky Santini, who plays the none-too-bright Ferd Mertz, steals every scene in both living and undead guises.

And of all the bad taste humor, dusted-off jokes and Three Stooges shout-outs that litter the movie, the scene where one of the campers, a budding veterinarian with a weak stomach, performs a zombie autopsy after ingesting a hit of acid was a bizarre highlight, wherein the tripping med student confuses chunks of entrails for inanimate objects like novelty squeeze toys and cans of lite beer ("It tastes good, less filling...but it could've been recycled!").

So yeah, REDNECK ZOMBIES is a good enough camp classic if you just happen to have heard about it. It's all so ridiculous, from the fleeting bit of gratuitous nudity (from a random woman on a TV monitor) to the amount of townsfolk who foolishly ingest the smelly mash to the make-up jobs on all of the zombie extras, which were achieved simply with black makeup, honey and Corn Flakes. Despite the "color-corrected" transfer Troma has offered for this new digital reissue (it simply means the flesh and blood tones look less like something from a second-generation VHS transfer), the 1.33:1 presentation is often crude, faded and overtly bright and/or murky.

But having owned a Troma VHS release back in the day that was transferred in Extended Play, which meant that my finger was glued to the tracking button, I can take the cheap quality more at face value and admit it has a nostalgic charm. The Dolby Stereo 2.0 track needs no overhaul as far as I'm concerned, with mildly-distorted but clear dialogue and effects. I got reacquainted with the film's electronic musical score and the selection of original songs, including not one, not two, but three mock-country songs that mention redneck zombies.

In fact, I skipped the extras initially just to take in the glory of the CD soundtrack that is included with this 20th Anniversary package. Beginning with the film's voiceover introduction, it then leads into Cletus Tripe & The Juggs' humorously melancholy "Love Theme from Redneck Zombies" and the "Redneck Zombie Blues," featuring lead vocals by Meatwagon and a guitar solo from Rob Martin. The score by Adrian Bond, which seems to have been performed wholly on synthesizer, reaches its peak with a full-fledged "Gut Munchin' Suite" that seems to be begging for a disco remix. There are also tracks that are described as polka, a few ambient tracks and the usual horror sting music. Tolken Protein's "Redneck Zombies" arrives as the last song on the album, but there's also a bonus song tacked on at the end performed by none other than Elly May Clemson himself, Pericles "Zoofeet" Lewnes.

The director/actor reunites with editor/producer/Junior Clemson Edward Bishop for a full-length commentary track back on the first disc. The duo share memories of filming and a self-effacing sense of humor as they comment on the screenwriting, the shooting and some of the choices made in post-production. When they point out many of the actors and crew, they discuss whether or not they were available to talk about making the movie, pointing out that a few may be MIA (see the interviews segment). There are also plenty of on-set concussions, cast switcheroos and comments made on the film's love-it-or-leave-it reception that make it worth a listen, although I haven't felt the urge to do it twice in the wake of prepping this review. At least Lewnes confirms that the stock footage of chicks in a factory isn't as extremely cruel as one would imagine being used in the freelance butcher scene: they're merely getting their beaks trimmed.

As for the newly-recorded on-camera "incestuous interviews" with cast and crew, it's a large roster of participants squeezed together in one 46-minute reel, and about 20 of them feature Lewnes and Bishop. The remaining 26 minutes try to squeeze in recollections from about ten more participants, including lead actress Lisa M. De Haven, W.E. Bensen (associate producer as well as actor in both the Pa Clemson and Tobacco Man roles), Tyrone Taylor, composer Adrian Bond, Lewnes' son Alex (who plays a zombie toddler in the film), and Bucky Santini, revealing his true identity to the amusement of those who paid attention to the film's introductory scroll. There's not a whole lot of revelations to be found during these snippets (except for the fate of invaluable assistant Bill Decker), but a few of these sit-downs are good for some laughs as well as a chance for some "Where Are They Now?" surprise. Bensen confirms that he was the most trained actor on the set, and De Haven does discuss her infamous scene with the undead Ferd Mertz. You may be wanting to see and hear more, so I'd suggest heading over to the Troma page on YouTube for a generous amount of outtakes.

The deleted scenes reel ("Robert E-leted Scenes," 4:38) and raw behind-the-scenes footage compendium ("Denim Cut-Offs," 6:24) includes several alternate takes of the actors performing their own stunts, the previously lost scene of the rednecks making the toxic moonshine and extended opening and middle sequences. There's even a rare word or two from the actor who plays the silent camper with the whiskey bottles. The "I Ain't No Homo Promos" includes a trio of trailers for REDNECK ZOMBIES as well one for Pericles Lewnes' latest "hyperflic," Loop, which looks to be more avant garde than one might expect given the evidence of his debut. Lewnes also appears on-camera with Lloyd Kaufman and Tromette Homophobia in both the introduction to the film, modeled as an installment of "Kaufman's Kultural Korner," and an equally-long six-minute collection of outtakes from said prologue. The set also opens with previews which can be skipped over but accessible in the main menu.

Movie grade: 2/5.
Video grade: 3/5.
Audio grade: 3/5.
Extras grade: 3.5/5.
Final grade: 2/5. A welcome addition to the Tromasterpiece Collection, but I'd opt for the special editions of either Cannibal! The Musical, The Last Horror Film or Combat Shock over REDNECK ZOMBIES any good ol' day.

REDNECK ZOMBIES is a Full Moon Pictures presentation distributed by Troma (double trouble!), running about 90 minutes in its proper unrated version. As opposed to the existing R-rated version, the Director's Cut contains six minutes of gory carnage that merit the film the lack of a rating and otherwise contains some strong language, crude humor and nudity.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age