Friday, September 5, 2014

Podcast: Future-Kill (1985)


We go back to our B movie roots with an independent sci-fi monster flick shot right here in the heart of Austin, Texas: 1985’s Future-Kill. Despite its ultra low budget and muddy cinematography, the filmmakers somehow convinced famed surrealist artist H.R. Giger to create the poster image, which is far and away a hundred times better than anything in the actual movie. Giger’s rendering of the main villain “Splatter” is mysterious, ghostly, and terrifying.


While Future-Kill’s Splatter looks like this.


After a brief intro with Splatter and Eddie, the leader of the mutant punk protest movement, Future-Kill moves over to a zany frat party full of a bunch of reprehensible frat dudes displaying amateurish pranks. The balding frat president says these no-goodniks must make up for their antics by performing the zaniest prank of all: go downtown into mutant territory and kidnap a gang member. Needless to say it does not go well and they end up running for their lives in a world without pay phones or public transportation.

Some Notes:
  • For those of you who read Austin area theatre criticism, Austin Chronicle writer Robert Faires makes a brief appearance as the rival frat's president.
  • Featuring two of the "stars" of the The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, if you consider "Hitchhiker" to be the main character.
  • One bright spot of the second and third act slog is a brief visit to a punk club where they watch a band called Max and the Makeups. Even though it was almost certainly used for padding, it was still an enjoyable musical interlude.
  • If you're keeping track at home, the frat guys are (from order of most horrible to least horrible): Jim Carrey, Fat Elvis/Steve, Balding Frat President, Rufus Sewell, Scrawny Guy, and Other Leader Scrawny Guy.
  • We could not find it streaming anywhere online, but there is a horrible version in multiple installments on YouTube featuring awful "comedy" commentary, so avoid that at all costs and go rent it.
Direct download.

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