MURDER LOVES KILLERS TOO
dir: Drew Barnhardt
Region1 DVD (2009)
Review by Danny Price

I’m not going to lie to you, I’m in love with this movie. I managed to catch it at the A Night of Horror Film Festival in Sydney Australia way back last year and I literally fell for it. The entire audience was laughing hard enough to bring the house down, I myself was on the floor in fits of hysterics. So you can imagine my immense desire to get my hands on it again, a year past before the DVD arrived on my doorstep. It was a long wait, but worth every second in the end.

Murder Loves Killers Too begins familiarly enough, five good looking friends are en-route to an cabin in the middle of the woods for a weekend of booze, sex, drugs and rock n’ rock. They rock up unaware that they’re not alone, you see Big Stevie has picked this particular weekend to his own ends, his however is pure business, pure bloodletting, gut spewing, limb removing business. One by one Big Stevie picks off the kids, leaving Aggie to defend for her life. And that’s where I’m going to end it because t go any further and even hint at the hilarity that is to come would be a sin.

It looks and feels like an old school 80’s slasher, and I’ve got to admit that when I first saw it I figured it was going to be little more than your run of the mill slasher movie, fun sure but nothing different. I’m proud to say that I was quite wrong. Murder Loves Killers Too is quite different, it’s never too smart to be funny and never too funny to be smart, it’s a solid blend of both worlds and results in a hell of a splatterific good time.

Moving onto the DVD side of things. First of all I’d like to address something, I was shocked to learn that the film runs for a rather short 70 minutes. I can tell you right now, watching it you would be able to tell. The film draws you in and delivers such a romping good time that it’s length never factors into it. If that’s not praise then I don’t know what is.

The Making-of Murder Loves Killers Too, gives an insight into the inner workings of the film. There’s interviews with the cast and crew who talk mostly about the shoot itself as well as their experiences. It’s a welcome change from the majority of making-of out there that are more self-fellating and overly congratulatory then actually insightful and informative.

Director’s Notebook, is a cool little featurette on the director himself. Drew Barnhardt talks about the experience making his first feature, the kills, as well as the creation of the films story, messing around with the all to familiar slasher film formula. I can’t wait to see more from this guy in the future.

Creating a Killer, is a short featurette on the killer Big Stevie and Allen Andrews, the actor that brought the loveable fellow to life. If you like I loved every second Big Stevie was on screen you will dig this. He’s such a cool spin on the slasher killer concept, the average, everyday Joe that likes to kill.

Music to Murder By: Scoring Murder Loves Killers Too, is about the films fantastic score, featuring Ryan Franks (the films composer) who goes over the scores creation and it’s use. Music and sound being the most important part of any horror film worth its salt. It goes over the various, trademark horror sounds and how they created the films catchy theme.

Title Madness, is a video of Director Drew Barnhardt reading out the many, many, MANY titles they worked with before finally settling on Murder Loves Killers Too. There are quite a few gems amongst the dozens of horrendously cliché or bland ones. It’s funny, if a little long.

Rounding the DVD off is a good photo/artwork gallery which includes some of the kick ass poster art, there’s also the Theatrical Trailer and it comes with a mini poster for the movie. What the DVD is missing is an audio commentary, which would have been sweet. Overall it’s a nice neat package for a movie that’d worth buying if it’d been a bare bones release. Get this movie, get a bunch of beers, get some friends and watch this bitch on night, fun times are to be had. - Danny Price

FILM: 4.5 out of 5

DVD: 3 out of 5