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 What do Elvis, the Terminator, and multiple decapitations have in common? Not much really, except for Massacrator.
Massacrator is essentially a silent movie, but a very uncharacteristic one. It is shot in the unique style of Grindhouse - an American style of film named after the now-defunct burlesque theatres on 42nd street in New York City, characterized by excessive sex, violence, and generally outlandish subject matter. (Many of you may be familiar with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s homage to this style in their Grindhouse double feature in 2008.)
The film opens with the main antagonist appearing in the style of the Terminator - in a flash of light, crouched down, and in his birthday suit. Noticing a young man and his motorcycle nearby, the antagonist promptly takes the kid's head off with one blow of his fist, takes his clothes - including the Bauhaus t-shirt - and rides away on the bike. He arrives at his intended target's apartment - a young woman - and proceeds to chase her both through the apartment, down the street, and into a cemetery. In the cemetery, the ghost of both Elvis and his motorcycle are resurrected to engage in battle with the Massacrator.
Though Grindhouse films usually end in a sadly tragic or ironic way, there is a little bit of campiness underlying this film - mainly due to the character of Elvis - and I was hoping that the King would be victorious. Sadly, he and the young heroine ended up with their respective headless bodies on the floor. At one point in the battle, Elvis plugs in his guitar and almost destroys the Massacrator via music and massive speakers. The Massacrator also shoved his head into a television set, which was perhaps an homage to the real Elvis shooting his set. (However, I hoped for a showdown involving a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich cooked up at the last second by the heroine and given to Elvis to use as a weapon or a burst of strength in the manner of Popeye.)
With the style and effects of this film, I was surprised to learn that there were no computer effects added. The opening title of the film, which looked amazing, was of soldering lead being melted in a frying pan and played in reverse. The decapitation of all three victims was put together with creative editing and traditional special effects. Even the Massacrator's point-of-view shots—which were tinted red, but included great graphic novel-esque images rather than the typical computerized lettering—were animated photographs with transparencies laid over them.
CGI is a great tool, but far too often every other technique gets thrown out the door in favor of this 'quick fix.' The best example of this is the Star Wars movies. For the first trilogy, George Lucas used every creative trick in the book; for the blowing up the Death Star in Episode IV, he bought tons of plastic battleship kits and stuffed all the pieces together with little explosives. He ran the camera back and forth, blowing up little bits as he went to create those low tracking shots over the surface of the Death Star - even today that effect looks good. And even though Episodes I-III look technically better (at least, at times!), the fact that he threw out all that creativity in favor of a computer is a bit disheartening, which is why it’s a relief to see a filmmaker bucking that trend.
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