Verdict
Summary
Grungy to the max and ugly as rust and rot, the shot-on-Super 8 regional splatter film Ozone: Attack of the Redneck Mutants is an exercise in plotless tedium with a grainy eye on shock commingled with goofball clowning around (the score suggest it’s a comedy), but its purpose seems to be fixed on the fact that it was made to cash in on the VHS boom of the mid-’80s when just about anything could secure a tape release and find its way to mom and pop video stores around the country. Visual Vengeance has done a brilliant job of treating cinematic trash like fine wine or undiscovered treasure by sprucing up their marketing and artwork for their titles, and same goes for this one. You’d think that by looking at their amazing presentation and sleeves for this title specifically that you’d be getting a world class grindhouse exploitation classic, but not so with this one.
Plot:
The depletion of the ozone layer is to blame when a rural community becomes overrun with mutant rednecks.
Review:
It should just be another day in rural Texas where simple people live their humble, hard working lives. The general store has its casual customers. Guys riding on their tractors are tilling the soil. Grandmas are chasing chickens around the kitchen, ready to wring their necks for supper. A hitchhiker has his thumb out, hoping to catch a ride to who knows where. But then, disaster slowly creeps into the ether: Cows flop over dead on the side of the highway, the guy on his tractor vomits green puke, first a dribble, then an uncontrollable stream. What’s happening and why today? The ozone layer over this part of Texas has a rip in it and cosmic mutations are wreaking havoc on humanity … and animals too! The hitchhiker steps into a gopher hole, only to find a hideous creature is in it and tries gnawing his foot off! Ambulatory mutants with bubbling masks of pus-dripping faces wander into grandma’s house and rip her guts out! Redneck mutants are everywhere! There’s nowhere to run, folks! And there you have it! That’s the movie!
Grungy to the max and ugly as rust and rot, the shot-on-Super 8 regional splatter film Ozone: Attack of the Redneck Mutants is an exercise in plotless tedium with a grainy eye on shock commingled with goofball clowning around (the score suggest it’s a comedy), but its purpose seems to be fixed on the fact that it was made to cash in on the VHS boom of the mid-’80s when just about anything could secure a tape release and find its way to mom and pop video stores around the country. It’s no fun at all, but vintage splatter fans might appreciate the ripping of intestines and chomping of whole livers, some of which are thrown across the room and land with a thud on the wall like plates of spaghetti. Filmmaker Matt Devlin previously produced the grotesque and depressing (and similar) splatter chunk movie The Abomination, but that movie at least had a plot (sort of), and so one is left holding the guts on this one with nowhere to go.
Visual Vengeance has done a brilliant job of treating cinematic trash like fine wine or undiscovered treasure by sprucing up their marketing and artwork for their titles, and same goes for this one. You’d think that by looking at their amazing presentation and sleeves for this title specifically that you’d be getting a world class grindhouse exploitation classic, but not so with this one. Despite all the fanfare (their package even comes with a barf bag!) and bonus features, this movie was tough to sit through, but fans of their line won’t care and will want to add this one to their collection anyway. And more power to you! I’ll continue to test out the films that Visual Vengeance releases because every so often they do indeed release a gem, but this one isn’t one of those. Not this time!
Bonus Materials
- New director-approved SD master from original tape elements
- Commentary with producer Bret McCormick and star Blue Thompson
- Commentary with Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum
- Actress Blue Thompson interview
- Ozone & The Abomination location visit
- Deleted scenes from producer Matt Devlen’s personal archives
- Ozone 0uttakes from producer Matt Devlen’s personal archives
- Ozone special effects outtakes
- Muther Video – original VHS intros reel
- Director Matt Devlen – Cinema Wasteland interview
- Director Matt Devlen – producer trailer reel
- Short film: Babies
- Actress Barbara Dow – acting reel
- Director Mark Pirro – Ozone interview
- Archival public access TV review: Hollywood Unseen
- Let’s Watch Movies podcast: Matt Devlen interview
- Ozone image gallery
- Tabloid (1989) trailer
- Visual Vengeance trailers
- ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS sticker set
- Reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art
- Folded mini-poster
- Optional English subtitles
- Limited Edition O-Card with alternate art by The Dude – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- 12-page Mini Comic Book – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- Ozone Mutant Puke Bag – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
- Muther Video Logo Sticker – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
