DVD Review: Stump the Band
Stump the Band (2006)
Studio: TLA
DVD Release Date: June 3, 2008
Directed By: JoJo Henrickson, William Holmes
Cast: Courtney Bean, Becky Boxer, Ellen Fox, Dominique Davalos, JoJo Henrickson
Deadly DVD Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Review By: Marc Patterson
I wasn’t going to watch this film. I saw the previews. It looked decent, but with countless new horror films being released incessantly this just wasn’t one that I had on my radar for getting around to. But my friend Will from KillingBoxx.com wouldn’t shut up about it. Kept telling me I had to check this out. So, given his rave ranting of what a fun little low budget film this was I decided that what the hell, I’d check it out. And folks, I’m pretty fuckin’ glad I did. It was a great recommendation and one of the best low budget pieces to have gotten released this year.
The story isn’t deep. It follows an all girl punk rock band as they travel cross-country on a tour, hoping to attract the attention of a record deal. When their hilarious manager takes down some bad directions from a couple of backwoods hillbillies at a crappy roadside gas station, they end up traveling the proverbial “road less traveled” eventually landing themselves smack dab on the killing grounds for a group of ax wielding homicidal psychopath’s, who by the way have a wicked nasty little foot fetish!
Stump the Band was a film made by filmmakers who love the genre and it shows. It’s not a film looking to make horror cinema history, just provide an audience with a damn good time. It utilizes a familiar story, adds in a hefty dose of humor, plays out an ultra fun angle by incorporating the all girl punk rock band, and tosses on some great action sequences. And talk about smart filmmaking. Don’t have the money for that fancy effect? Infer it by setting up the shot and moving the actual violence off scene, then dousing everyone with buckets of blood. While that won’t satiate the blood lust of hard core gore hounds, it accomplishes the task well enough.
Stump the Band is witty, humorous, sports a nice soundtrack, and looks great for a film shot on digital video. Honestly you can’t ask much more from low budget filmmaking. You owe it to yourself to check out this unsuspecting gem.
