Have you ever heard the phrase “They don’t make em like they used to”? Well that it that's certainly true when I talk about the film Gone the Way of Flesh. What exactly do I mean? Well, this film is a throwback to the days of New York City grindhouse theatres and drive-in’s considering this film is custom made for that audience. It’s a story based around a real life band called the Jason Martinko revue in which a killer is going to their concerts and murdering the underage female fans of the group. It’s centered by the character of Detective Haynes who is the lead detective on the case out on the case for the killer. From there it’s sex, drugs, rock and roll, and gruesome death scene’s. There’s death by sulfuric acid, head popping goodness, drug overdoses, body parts in the meat grinder, a lesbian dildo show, and some other goodies as well. Now this movie isn’t without its issues as the sound is pretty bad (something the filmmakers will even tell you themselves), and in my opinion the scene’s where the band was playing dragged on a bit too long. Something like that wouldn’t be so noticeable though if the movie was longer than it’s 63 minute running time. But there are plenty of reasons why this movie is much better than it had any right to be. The guys who made this (Cut N Run Productions own Jordan McMillen and Jason Martinko) basically made the film for only $700 and they had no prior experience making movies. Also, they REALLY nailed the feel of a true grindhouse movie and that’s something that plenty of proven filmmakers set out to attempt to do and fail miserably. Jordan and Jason truly know and understand their source material, as this film is certainly inspired by the works of HG Lewis (there’s definitely a few scene’s in particular that specifically remind me of Lewis’s Blood Feast) and it nowhere along the line comes across as a rip-off. There kill scenes in this movie are genuinely creepy with excellent atmosphere. There are plenty of scenes that are rather humorous in the film, but once the kill scene’s start the film brings to back to dark murderous reality faster than you may think. Also for everyone out there interested in getting a copy of this, Troma entertainment will be tenitively releasing this in March of 2007 as well. These young filmmakers are already following up GTWOF with a sequel (which will be covered in depth and on set by Bloodtype Onilne) that will no doubt improve technically and be even more depraved, vile, and disgusting than the first! If you are a fan of grindhouse films or HG Lewis, I would highly recommend it, otherwise I would say you might want to check it out, but it’s not for the faint of heart by any means.
Rating - **1/2
-Ed Demko 