For lack of a better word already existant in the English language, Punk Rock Holocaust is Troma-licious. It is gory, bloody, disgusting, lowbrow, filled with actors that are either over-the-top hammy or beyonf-the-pale wooden, and looks like it was shot by a college film major. In other words, I fucking loved this movie. Troma films, of course, are the standards by which all “bad” movies are judged. And, to be certain, this is a movie, not a “film.” It’s low-budget, campy, and nobody involved is going to win an Oscar. It even has Troma’s preseidnet, director Lloyd Kaufmann. However, Punk Rock Holocaust is the first film I’ve seen that takes the Troma model, and actually knows what to do with it.
Punk Rock Holocaust is about one goal- killing as many Warped Tour bands as possible within its running time, and making every death as gruesome and over-the-top as possible. From groups turning dead kids into burgers to decapitations to ninja sword massacres to choking a fat man with a burrito, it’s all here. The appeal of Punk Rock Holocaust is pretty damn simple, and boils down to three groups: kids who want to see their favorite bands in a movie, kids who want to see their least favorite bands get offed, and people who enjoy seeing lots and lots of blood. That’s what made me enjoy the movie so much.
Yes, the acting (especially by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman) was wooden as hell. Sure, the movie’s silly. But there’s a certain kind of enjoyment that can only come from seeing half of Simple Plan stabbed to death with their instruments. as well as seing the bassist for Bowling For Soup choke to death on a burrito. The bands featured cover enough ground to appeal to pretty much anyone who went to the Warped Tour in 2003 (when the movie was filmed), covering the ground from Rancid to Big D & the Kids Table, Suicide Machines, the Phenomenauts, to Andrew WK.
The DVD is packed with extras- movie trailers, a few music videos, a lot of live footage of the bands set to one of their songs, a blooper reel, and three kinds of audio commentary. The video quality is about what you’d expect from a low budget film, but even the night scenes are shot well enough to where you don’t miss anything. There’s even an obvious giddy pleasure running through the entire movie, as if all the people involved were having a great time making it. That energy transfers over to you when you’re watching it, and I sat in front of my tv, gleefully awaiting the each death throughout the ntire movie. I suspect I won’t be the only one.