Bassist Dick Gibson and front man Willy Nutsack of the metal band Dream Reaper are having a problem. While Willy wants to continue playing metal and sing about sea monsters and other fantasy things, Dick wants the band to take new directions, playing more emotinal type of songs. But that's really nothing compared to the problem they are about to face. The actual Dream Reaper appears, and tells Willy to dissolve his precious band, otherwise the Reaper will kill them all. Willy does not take the Reaper seriously, but when his band mates start to die one by one, he figures that the Reaper means business, and so Willy and the remaining parts of his band must find away to stop the Reaper, elm street-style, before it's too late.
To make a full-length movie is of course not an easy task. You need actors, cameras, a story and a whole bunch of other things, and one of those things is cash. A lot of horror movies that are being made are quite often so-called low-budget movies, that might not look half as flashy as any Hollywood flick or whatever, but that might as well be just as good or better. With Dream Reaper it's another story though since this movie is actually a so-called no-budget movie. A lot of low-budget movies sometimes look surprisingly good; And the reason for that can be anything from that the make-up is really well done to that the people behind the movies are skilled people who are able to create wonders with just a tiny bit of cash. But a no-budget movie is a no-budget movie, and it of course shows. It doesn't really matter just how skilled you are, you still need some cash to make it look good. It's a bit sad, but shouldn't come like a big surprise.
Something you can't buy though is feeling, and Dream Reaper has got some genuine feel to it, no doubt. You can easily tell that these people involved had a good time when shooting it. So even if it didn't have the (needed) cash, at least it got the heart. Like I said before, it's not easy to make a movie, especially if you have no money, so at least Kevin Strange and c/o from Hack Movies should get some credit for trying. Not only that, they actually managed to accomplish something.
Watching Dream Reaper felt something like watching a Troma movie with lesser budget. It's a horror comedy, that is first and most just a straight forward comedy, but that has a horror theme baked into it. We get to meet the metal band called Dream Reaper, a band who are playing epic fantasy metal with front man Willy Nutsack who likes to sing about sea monsters among other things. Although, we never actually get to hear the band play for real which is a shame. I was expecting to hear some metal tunes, but unfortunately there was nada. Bassist Dick Gibson, who seems to be in the closet, wants to change the direction of the band and start playing softer, more emotional songs, something that Mr. Nutsack does not seem to appreciate. So they argue, and Nutsack leaves the rehearsal room in anger.
Later, when enjoying his favourite tv-show, a strange figure in a black dress with a red hood shows up and tells Nutsack to dissolve the band or people will start dying. Nutsack ignores the person and figures he's just a nut, but when one of the members of the band is killed, they start to question whether or not the strange figure was behind it. Later, another member of the band turns up dead, and the rest of the group must figure out a way to stop the crazed killer before they all end up in a casket.
Now, since it's a no-budget movie, it of course doesn't look that sharp, neither is the sound very good. It's of course a problem, but that doesn't mean that the movie's not watchable, because that it is. To describe the acting, I would have to use the word goofy. And again, since it's a no-budget movie you don't get the greatest actors on the face of the earth, but like I said before, you can easily tell that they had a good time when shooting the flick. Other than that, since it's a goofy comedy, serious acting is not required, and it's not worse than your normal Troma movie for sure.
For a comedy, it's actually pretty good and it has a number of laughs to offer depending on what type of humour you're into. The humour is of the lowest kind though so if you're a too serious dude, maybe you should stay away from watching Dream Reaper. Also, a lot of the jokes are gay-related, and even though they are completely harmless, if you're easily offended by that sort of stuff, it's recommended to stay away as well. There are quite a few masturbation scenes, not graphical, but still masturbation scenes. Most of them had some funny stuff in them, but they could've been a hell of a lot shorter. It's fun for 20 seconds or so, but after a few minutes, you're bound to wonder how long it's gonna go on for. This is the same type of problem that I had with the killing scenes, basically that they're too long and felt too dragged out. Also, the whole movie felt a bit too long, and personally I think it would've been much more effective if it would've just lasted for 30 minutes instead of it's running time of 105 minutes. This is often the case with comedies, that they are funny early on, for the first half-hour or so, but after that it starts to feel like too much. And that goes for most comedies that are just pure funny movies, and not just for Dream Reaper.
To summarize this movie up, I can say that Dream Reaper offer a lot of positive as well as negative things. Most of the negative things are quite obvious ones since it's a movie made without any money put into it, but also that it feels a bit too long, and many scenes are way longer than they should've been. On the positive side though, Dream Reaper offers some good laughs, and that the people involved had a good time when making the movie shines through. I hope they keep it up, and they should get some credit for what they're doing. And who knows, Hack Movies might be the next Troma for the 21 first century.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Kevin Strange
WRITING CREDITS: Kevin Strange
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Kevin Strange, Joshitsuo Montoya, Chadwick Cockstriker
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 105 min
RATING: 4/10
Dream Reaper Website/IMDB Click here
Dream Reaper Trailer Click here
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