The "kids" are the hodgepodge of cinema stereotypes that usually wouldn't be hanging out together. You've got, Lisa "the tough lesbian Latina", Rachel "the goody-goody white virgin", Derek "the jock", Troy "the metalhead loser", and "the sassy, constantly laughing black guy" and his saucy girlfriend. And, in true b-movie casting, they are look to be older than the roles they play, especially the actress cast as Lisa, who looks to be closer to menopause than legal drinking age. After the standard introductions, its off to the warehouse/chemical plant/shoddy stage, where after some dull revelry, the couples take off for some nookie, and the loser decides to go alone on a beer run, which of course means he will be first to die.

If you haven't gathered it so far, the key word to Death Factory is- cliche. Its filled to the brim with plotting and characterizations horror fans were tired of in 1985, yet Death Factory is brand spanking new. Honestly, does the world need another "It was only a dream... Or was it real..." ending? The killer is basically a girl who is a mixture of Freddy, Trash from Return of the Living Dead, and wearing a harness contraption on her hands and legs that is reminiscent of Return of the Living Dead 3 or a Marilyn Manson video. So, even in its villain Death Factory is an amalgam of a bunch of cliches, and her slow walking, lapping up blood, and hissing doesn't really prove to be very scary at all.

Not that I am anti-formula. Formulas exist for a reason- they work and can bring about some inspired films. Pretty much all film noir adheres to the same basic variations in formula. But there is a difference between inspired formula and lazy, dull formula. There is an old adage in the film world that no one sets out to make a bad movie. I don't exactly think that is true, but certainly with Death Factory those involved knew they weren't making high art (Hell, they cast Ron Jeremy as a bum) but also probably hoped for (or think it is) a better film. Heck, at least Roger Corman tried to slip some sociological messages into his b-films. Its funny, a couple of nights before I saw this, Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse was on late night and I watched it. In the interview segment on Death Factory's extras, the director/writer mentions how he was thinking of films like The Funhouse when making the movie. Well, aside from teens trapped in a small location being picked off by a freak, they have nothing in common. The Funhouse had great atmosphere, creepy setting, and decent character development for a horror film. Whereas, Death Factory's cheapness and lack of originality overwhelm it.

And on that at note, I'll end with the budget. Okay, everyone knows the horror industry has been in a slump. Major US studios rarely touch it, been about a decade since a new horror maestro was discovered, and it mainly survives struggling on the low budget direct to video, direct to cable market. In Japan, some directors like Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Takashi Miike have been discovered on the Japanese primarily made for video market, and one hopes some new talent can be found in the US along those lines. But, for all their passion and drive to make horror films, there just isn't anything visionary coming out of the makers of Death Factory. Yeah okay, so the actors in the Derek and Rachel roles are actually almost decent considering the material, and the gore is pulled off well masking the low rent nature of the production. But, the sets are cheap, boring, they obviously just moved the junk around and brought in new furniture to make one room look like several rooms. The camera setups and lighting are horrible. The sound is recorded badly. The basement has obviously fake foamcore stone walls. And, it looks like it was filmed in a week or two. Not that you cant make a good movie when pressed for time, but if it is good, it doesn't look like it took a week to shoot. Death Factory looks like it took a week to shoot. Yeah, there are some boobs and some blood, but all I could think about while watching it was that not too long ago, low budget films were the ones that took risks and chances. Death Factory just sticks to the same old patterns and not in a particularly clever or interesting way.

The DVD: Key East

Picture: Full-screen, Standard. As I've said, shot for video. Pretty cheap, but everything about the transfer that is weak, like the lighting, color, and such is flawed because the production is cheap. In terms of technical glitches there aren't any with the transfer. The movie itself just doesn't look too good.

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0. Once again, the sound is technically fine, but it just wasn't recorded well. the Score is low in the mix and forgettable. There are several instances where the actors weren't miked well, echo drenched, too quiet. Not only can you hear tons of traffic noise in one scene (so much for being in an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere) but in another you can hear the boom mike get dropped or bumping into something.

Extras: The screener I received wasn't the completed version. The complete should have Director and Producer Commentary, Optional Spanish Subs, and Trailers.- This screener did have a Behind the Scenes, Interviews, and Goofs/Spoilers segments. The Behind the Scenes segment was pretty standard, mainly the monster actress asking questions to the crew and general goofing off. The interviews with cast and crew were pretty fair. Most revelatory was the director mentioning how fortunate they felt to get the girl who plays the monster because she had been in some Troma movies. Boy, you know your near the bottom when you get excited over getting a Troma actor. Goofs/Spoilers were dull, definitely not Dick Clark worthy. Oddly the material was taken from the Behind the Scenes and Interview segments not the movie. They were just four or five slip ups during the interviews, and footage of the monster actress telling a joke, so there were no film flubs. The Spoiler is just the actress who played Lisa telling the plot of the film from begin to end in her interview.

Conclusion: Well, at one point while trying to escape, they run to a door and bang on it furiously. The door is cheap, flimsy plywood and wobbles under the pressure. Yet it is "the only way out". And, in another movie it would be at least unintentionally funny, but Death Factory is so bland I doubt it can muster much enthusiasm even in a 'so-bad-it's-good' sort of way. Sadly the only real horror to be found in Death Factory is in it's derivative, stagnant script. Technically the disc is fine, but the film is something most will want to avoid. Maybe a rental only for the really curious low budget horror nut.