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Mardi Gras Massacre - Blu-ray Review

5 beersLaissez les bons temps rouler!

Low in budget and high in attitude, Mardis Gras Massacre is a film so deplorably badass that it is unafraid to leave out its lead actor when it reaches its denouement on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain as an Aztec priest makes a splashy vehicular getaway.  It is a film that was too good to even make its own premiere.  Chew on that one, Hollyweird.  

Mardi Gras Massacre, slapped with an X rating due to its gratuitous nudity and its sacrificial ways, is low budget cinema at its thickest.  Translation (for those not in the know on how these BADass SINema Unearthed reviews work): It. Rocks.  End of story.  Stop reading.  Go to DiabolikDVD.com and throw Code Red your money.  Get this release.   

Written and directed by Jack Weis (Quadroon), this “show us your tits” title is all about the search for the most evil of all the prostitutes in New Orleans.  Not for screwing, though.  No, this hunt is purely one for massaging his target, oiling her nubile body up, and then, in a very ceremonious manner, strapping her to his table, cutting the bottoms of her feet, and then eviscerating her.  And I do mean physically removing her innards (from a latex stomach, of course).  It may be a cow’s heart he’s pulling from out of the torso but, yeah, it’s the kind of gooey gobbledygook that makes us wince.    

And the inane detectives on the case – represented here by "actors" Curt Dawson from Blood Bath and Ronald Tanet from Crypt of Dark Secrets – couldn’t be anymore clueless in their search for a new serial killer.  They aren’t even willing to consider the supernatural or the religious aspects of the emptied female bodies they are discovering along the train tracks just behind Café Du Monde at the edge of the Mississippi River.  An Aztec priest?  Come on!  

This is one demented dude’s constant quest and, in a city as spirited as New Orleans (especially during Mardi Gras), you simply don’t know what (or who) is waiting behind the door to each of the local dives he visits in his unending search for female flesh.  You see, John (William Metzo) is looking for just the right sacrifice to please the bloodlusting ways of a Peruvian God.

Sherry (Gwen Arment) is a prostitute and she, after witnessing John’s pick-up of some of the other women in the dive where she works, becomes pretty damn important to the cops.  That doesn’t stop one of them from sleeping with her.  And, thanks to some pretty catchy funk hooks from Mike Theodore and Motown artist Dennis Coffey, the two share a scenic-filled montage as they fall in love. 

But, in high stress situations like the one that Mardi Gras Massacre has stitched together from static shots and cheesy lines of dialogue, we already know that this “bond” can’t last and, soon enough, Dawson is calling her a whore and she is fighting solo on the dance floor for space to drink her problems away. 

And why not?  This is exploitation filmmaking at its nastiest.  Hilariously enough, this seems to be an unannounced and unauthorized redo of H.G. Lewis’ Blood Feast in many ways.  We have “evil” prostitutes killed by an “evil” man who is hunted by “evil” cops in an “evil” city that is embracing its “evil” history.  It’s all bad news.  Get it, punk?!

Mardi Gras Massacre is the place where some seriously bad acting and some killer funk tunes meet up and dance the night away.  Is that a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to see me again?  Mardi Gras Massacre is the skinsational party you’ve been missing out on.

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Mardi Gras Massacre - Blu-ray Review

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime:
97 mins
Director
: Jack Weis
Writer:
Jack Weis
Cast:
Curt Dawson, Gwen Arment, William Metzo
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
Everyone is celebrating nobody hears the screams of the victims for the sacrifice.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Theatrical Distributor:

Official Site:
Release Date:

DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
July 26, 2016
Synopsis: Police try to capture someone who is commiting ritual murders of women during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

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Mardi Gras Massacre - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Code Red
Available on Blu-ray
- July 28, 2016
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles
: English SDH
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

 

Presented with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and a solid DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, the 1080p transfer from Code Red is reminder of just how important it is to keep these low budget titles out in the public’s eye.  Fine details are present throughout the upgrade of Mardi Gras Massacre.  Even if the location is a set or an apartment building; those tones come across adding to the experience of watching a cheaply-made film.  Jackson Square and some of the other exterior locations look as awesome as ever, including Mardis Gras circa 1978.  The blood is gooey and thick and the removal of the women’s stomach and heart is pretty severe, adding in its X rating.  Overall, this is a solid upgrade of its 2012 DVD predecessor.

 

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

There’s a 12-minute interview with Metzo.  He talks about filming the movie in New Orleans and the gives information about the other actors in the movie and the film’s own premiere cancellation.  Maria Kanellis talks up the film in her staged bit.  And a theatrical trailer is included. 

  • William Metzo Interview (12 min)
  • Maria Kanellis Intro  (5 min)
  • Theatrical Trailer

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Mardi Gras Massacre - Blu-ray Review

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