There is nothing I like more than being surprised by a new film. It’s extremely hard to be surprised by most mainstream films, because by the time you’re sitting down to watch one, you’ve probably been completely inundated by commercials, ads, trailers, and everything else big studios spend massive money on to get you in the theatre.
That’s one of the best things about extremely independent cinema, and underground horror movies in particular – I go into nearly every single one completely blind. When I sat down to watch the short film The Chunkblow, co-directed by Ben Shutts and Jamie Chimino, I had no idea what I was getting into, but what it turned out to be was pure gold.
The film runs at only 16 minutes, and takes place in two rooms of a house. Downstairs in the kitchen, mom is making a cherry pie. Upstairs, two head-banging teens are listening to loud music, waving a gun around, and moshing. When one of them breaks out a bag of (what they think) is cocaine, the real fun begins.
I was totally and legitimately blown away by the practical FX in this movie. They are literally some of the best I’ve ever seen, and the entire thing was a perfect throwback to sleeze-horror like Street Trash. I am a sucker for a good effects, and when they work so well, it’s hard not to gush about them. The bizarre, filthy-looking gore and melting flesh is an eye-catching, stark contrast to the opposite scenes of mom sensually baking that cherry pie.
I do not want to go too in depth into the story, because being such a short film, it makes more sense to say that you should just watch it, versus having anything spoiled. Short or not, I wish I had seen this earlier, as it would definitely be one of the tops of my list of 2016 indie horror flicks. I rarely, if ever, will straight-up say in a review that a movie needs to be seen, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t immediately try and see The Chunkblow.
