My Bloody Banjo: Directors Cut (2015) Review

Peltzer Arbuckle (James Hamer-Morton) is a put-upon employee of paper company Reams For Less. His dictatorial, borderline psycho boss hates him, his dreadful work colleagues tease him and his girlfriend Deetz (Dani Thompson) doesn’t respect him one little bit.

Think things can’t get any worse? Wrong! An agonising incident during a particular vigorous bout of sex with Deetz leaves Peltzer with a gruesome injury and provides yet more ammunition for those looking to tear another strip off him.

When the suicide of the one other decent guy at Reams For Less proves the last straw for Peltzer, he turns to the Ouija board and accidentally resurrects his childhood friend Ronnie in a misguided attempt to redress the balance in an unjust world. Trouble is, Ronnie’s a bit overly keen on mass murder as a solution…

Presented on a shiny new Blu-Ray – featuring an updated Director’s Cut assembled from both the original sources and more recently retrieved footage – and having left a string of upset folks in its wake at various festivals, it’s difficult to view My Bloody Banjo without instantly leaping to its defence for its unshakeable commitment to being so genuinely offensive or consigning it to the depths of Hell for its purposely puerile sense of humour and its use of a school shooting as a plot point. I said it was offensive.

If you go into My Bloody Banjo looking for things to dislike, you will find so many things to dislike. Conversely, if you enjoy the rough-hewn stylings and questionable taste of many a Troma movie, you’re likely to award five stars to this right off the bat. So, here I go, likely to annoy both extremes of the argument.

Compared to the Festival Cut, the Director’s Cut runs longer and goes darker. The sense of ridiculousness is still present in this latest version but the ways in which the wacky comedy rubs up against some genuinely disturbing content is even more troublesome and unnerving and the subsequent tonal whiplash is often too much to take, even for those of us who like our exploitation served up raw with no garnish.

Yes, the characters are built up to be awful in an extreme way that brought to my mind the bad guys in the original Toxic Avenger and it’s no surprise that director Liam Regan is a massive Troma fan, even getting studio supremo Lloyd Kaufman in to cameo as a doctor.

However, whereas the OTT, cartoony antics of Tromaville’s villains went a long way to undercutting the disgusting crimes they were committing, there’s a meaner streak at play alongside the silliness in My Bloody Banjo, manifesting itself in sequences such as the one in which smarmy idiot Stiles Rembrandt (Clay Von Carlowitz) indulges in some frankly terrifying domestic abuse which doesn’t quite sit alongside a premise as undeniably bonkers as the one presented here.

And yet, there’s no denying that there are plenty of positives here. The performances are pitched at a slightly heightened level that fits the general lunacy very nicely indeed. There’s an air of the cast winking at the audience without going full panto, except for Damien Morter as Ronnie, who is allowed to mug to his heart’s content while delivering some cringeworthy zingers through a disturbing make-up job.

Call it childish if you want to, but some of the jokes are genuinely amusing (yes, even a couple of the ones that are in such poor taste there’s no way they can be reprinted here). The gore effects are ridiculous and generally fun, though the prosthetic of Peltzer’s injured wedding tackle, accompanied by geysers of blood, is staggeringly, gorge-risingly gross, regardless of how unconvincing it might look.

In contrast to the scuzzy antics on screen, the film has a sharp, clean look throughout. This is a project that hasn’t just been dashed off so the DVD can be plonked on a supermarket shelf as soon as possible.

The very definition of a movie that many will file in the pigeonhole marked “troublesome”, there’s a level of technical craft on display that must not be dismissed and the constant nods to the genre throughout make the film a game of Spot The Reference if you so desire. To those who threw a hissy fit after viewing this, that’s entirely your prerogative. To those who suggest it shouldn’t have been made, well, that’s a dangerous route to head down.

On a personal level, I don’t believe I offend that easily but there are moments in My Bloody Banjo which took me aback somewhat. Even so, the idea that this, or indeed any, piece of work should be wiped from existence because it offended my sensibilities is not a concept I want to entertain.

That said, the handful of points at which I paused for a sharp intake of breath reminded me that, regardless of the number of horror movies as I’ve seen over the years, the genre hasn’t numbed me to truly shocking content and that I’m still conflicted about material that crosses certain lines.

Still, before you all run out to locate copies of this in order to burn them, allow me to say that some of you are definitely going to want this in your collection. It’s evenly paced, features moments of queasily delightful invention, it wavers not one bit from its pledge to plunging depths you think it won’t and, let’s face it, there’s always the option to switch it off if it’s not your cup of tea. I made it to the end and I’m glad I did.

It isn’t for everyone and it isn’t meant to be. I laughed out loud at the “vomit relay” sequence. I appreciate others may not. Take a pop at Liam Regan by all means, but he’s making low-budget movies his way and if you can tap into his warped world view then you may find nihilistic nirvana. For everyone else, buckle up.

Movie Rating:

My Bloody Banjo: Directors Cut trailer