Splatter

MOVIE #1,906 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.18.24 And so we close out these Seven Days of Dante with arguably the strangest work of his career, fittingly a final collaboration with Roger Corman — it’s even billed as “Roger Corman presents… Splatter “ — that originally aired via an early incarnation of Netflix’s website. It's now housed at Dante's own Trailers from Hell site* for posterity's sake. It's a choose your own adventure style web series. These are commonplace now on streaming (see Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, for example) so they were clearly ahead of the curve here, at the very least.

Although there's not much to it: you essentially just pick the order characters are killed off and it doesn't seem to alter the overall arc of the story regardless of your choices.

This is definitely the cheapest looking thing Dante has ever been a part of, but that kind of lends it an additional weird charm. It's also perhaps the goriest thing he's ever made, which is simply surprising. In addition to featuring the one and only Corey Feldman looking gruesome in the lead role (and featuring an original Corey rock song as well!), some notable character actors are in this as well, including Tony Todd (Candyman himself) and Stuart Pankin.

Splatter definitely feels like a weird note to end on, but perhaps it’s fitting in a way. Dante was born** out of that fly-by-night school of ‘let’s try anything to get it done' filmmaking and — while the final product here isn’t exactly enjoyable to sit down and watch — it definitely embodies that spirit. I’m really glad I tackled his filmography in this fashion and, moving forward, I think I’d like to do one or so of these special weeks a month.

As for now, I’ll be doing three more (shorter) impromptu Director Focuses to close out the month of August: The Ross Brothers, Thea Sharrock and Jane Schoenbrun.

*I haven't mentioned this before, but Joe's website Trailers from Hell is great (as is his podcast with Josh Olson, The Movies That Made Me) — I highly recommend both

** Fun fact: Joe was literally born in Morristown, NJ, which is also where I was born!

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,905 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,907 ⫸

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Splatter is a 2009 interactive short horror web series directed by Joe Dante produced by Roger Corman and starring Corey Feldman. It was created for Netflix. The film aired over 3 parts and was subsequently combined into a single 29 minute segment. In October 2019, the film website Trailers from Hell released all ten variations of the series, giving the viewer the option of whom to kill next. This is the first time every filmed episode of the series has ever been released to the public. It was released on October 29, 2009.