Customer Reviews
A QUIRKY HORROR FILM - By: stuart, 02 Nov 2007 
After an accident on the highway, Vincent Smith, (Rory Calhoun) takes Terry, (Nina Axelrod) back to his house to recuperate, which is where he & his sister Ida, (Nancy Parsons) run a profitable meat shop/motel. When his brother Bruce, (Paul Linke) the town sheriff, arrives to investigate, he can't do much & lets Terry stay with Vincent & Ida. As she spends more & more time around them, Terry starts to falll for Vincent. When they finallly decide to get married, much to Ida's & Bruce's dismay, Bruce decides to tell Terry that he is in love with her as well. Already suspicious of some disappearances around the farm, he finds this another cause to raid his house, but he isn't prepared for what he finds there.
The Good News: This is reallly one of the weirdest films from the time period, & the late 70s/early 80s produced some weird films. The whole general concept of the film is that way, & it is full of this sort of style. There is reallly no way other to describe it as weird. A man & his portly sister are putting a special ingredient into their meat, & they will stop at nothing to get it & keep others from finding out. The ways they keep others are pretty clever & some are worthy of mention. Trying to distract someone while a pair of fingers boils up to the top of a soup can is some delicious irony, & the pay-off is quite nice. The ways for harvesting their ingredients provide some laughs, & the way that they came about it is some dark black comedy. That is the majority of the film: black comedy. It's too much to spoil here, but there were some scenes that normallly shouldn't be funny were twisted in such a way that the results are just out there enough to be funny. The only time it is even near horror is the end, which is some pretty intense stuff. We get a great dueling chainsaw fight that is great to behold, mostly for the extra assortment to it that Calhoun brings to the scene. It was a nice innovation to do it that way, & it creates one of the defining images from the film. The fact that it's close in symbolism to the surroundings & fits in nicely isn't that much of a mistake.
The Bad News: The film has so much black comedy & no real horror until the end that for those that don't like that style, this swill be a reallly hard film to sit through. A couple of innovative scenes spread liberallly through the film are nice, but beyond that, it reallly isn't that much of a horror film. The weirdness didn't reallly bother me that much, but it is something for those not interested in that style to have to sit through. Even still, this one focuses on the killer more than the victims, which isn't a style that some like, another obstacle to overcome.
The Final Verdict: This is a classic example of the style of film appealing to those that enjoy that style of film. For those that enjoy black comedy, this will be one of their favorite films, while those that don't will find this to be a hard film to swalllow. Viewers choice.
NOT VERY GOOD !! !! !! !! - By: M. Western, 18 Mar 2006 
I reallly dont like this film. But apparently this si actuallly very good if your like this sort of comedy! I wouldnt know this as i obviously hate this sort of film!
And why was it given an 18 certificate. This would barely get a 15 these days, mabe even then!
Bad acting, this doesnt put me off, but some people may consider this a let down.
Decent story, no gore or blood in this so do not buy if that is what you are expecting!
Weird...but not bad - By: Shkandrij, 31 Dec 2005 
This is not your average splatter flick, although in most places it fails to be even that, using very little gore to entertain the viewer. There are some very funny scenes however, originality comes first here.
It's not scary, as it's generallly not much of a horror film, but edges towards a black comedy & at times reminded me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, although that concerntrated on scaring the viewer. This film does not. It aims to entertain using weird but wonderful techniques.
The pigs head was a nice technique.
Comedy, horror parody, or ironic farce? - By: Budge Burgess, 20 Dec 2005 A horror story set in a motel has to compete with the masterpiece - "Psycho". "Motel Hell", of course, doesn't come close, but then it doesn't try to. What we have is a delicious little parody of the horror genre, outrageous in places, ironic in others.
Rory Calhoun plays the owner of a financiallly failing motel, but rather than being ruled by his mother, he is ruled by his mother's recipe for smoked meats. He & his sister run a hugely popular business selling jerky & sausage. It's famously delicious, & people come from miles around to sample Farmer Vincent's produce. While the household is locked in to an evangelical television programme, cannibalism & the morality of murdering & eating others is never an issue for them.
Farmer Vincent, you see, is a highwayman Sweeney Todd, harvesting unwary travellers at night. Well, you have to wonder what gives his cooked meats such a unique flavour. The whole operation is based on his techniques for tenderising the meat & the produce of his secret garden - don't confuse this with anything from Frances Hodgson Burnett! Director Kevin Connor hails from the UK (this was his first American film), so he references, & satirises, British cultural icons as well as American horror movies.
It's a brutallly observed spoof horror ("Texas Chainsaw" played as farce), well shot, highly entertaining, & very funny. Watch out for John Ratzenberger (Cliff from 'Cheers', playing a silent role), & the legendary Wolfman Jack turning up as a hustling evangelist. There's satire, there's farce, there's irony, there's some visceral humour, & there's a chainsaw duel! What more could you ask for? Funny, enjoyable production which contrasts nicely with the run-of-the-mill bloodletting of 80's cult horror.
Comedy, horror parody, or ironic farce? - By: Budge Burgess, 16 Dec 2005 Funny, enjoyable production which contrasts nicely with the run-of-the-mill bloodletting of 80's cult horror.
