‘An Hour To Kill’ VOD Review
Stars: Mel Novak, Frankie Pozos, Aaron Guerrero, Amanda Rau, Jola Cora, Stephanie Strehlow, Alexya Garcia, Veronica Ricci, Jeff Rector, Paul Anderson, Anthony Richard Pagliaro, Brendan Mitchell, Gabriel Mercado, Luna Meow, Brian Reagan, Arash Dibazar | Written by Aaron K. Carter, Ronnie Jimenez | Directed by Aaron K. Carter
A four-part anthology (a wraparound and three segments), An Hour to Kill comes from writer/director Aaron K. Carter (Dead Kansas) and can be best described as Quentin Tarantino meets The Twilight Zone… With a wraparound – the titular An Hour To Kill – that follows two hitmen Gio (Aaron Guerrero) and Frankie (Frankie Pozos) who, following a botched hit, spend an hour driving round L.A. entertaining themselves by sharing horror stories with one another. But which hit-man’s story will be deemed most disturbing when all is said and done?
The first segment in the film is Valkyrie’s Bunker – a story of Nazi’s living and “working” in Southern California in the 80. Seemingly inspired by The Keep with the kind of tongue-in-cheek irony of Iron Sky, it follows five girls exploring abandoned buildings in the California hills in hopes of finding a rumoured stash of weed. Only the particular buildings they come across are home to Valkyrie, the only surviving son of a Nazi who’s keeping the regime alive by killing women – including this group of girls! The weakest of the three segments Valkyrie’s Bunker spins a decent yarn of “women in peril” but is let down by having all the deaths happen off-screen and then doesn’t really end in a coherent manner, failing to explain what happens to the girls or just why Valkyrie has become a serial killer.
Up next is Assacre, the most – for me – interesting portion of the film. Why? Well it festures a number of YouTubers I’m familiar with, including: WetMovie1 and HeroSuper99, aka Brendan Mitchell and Gabriel Mercado respectively, and Luna Meow in a story that sees WetMovie1 film his usual “out and about” YouTube video, only with a horrific twist… Here Mitchell and Mercado are taking part in a food eating contest, losing to “Food Coma” host Jake O’Toole (Brian Reagan). Deciding to play a huge prank on him, the duo sell him the hottest chilli known to man – only its hotter on the way out than the going in! A grotesque black comedy, this segment makes great use of the YouTube video conceit and shows what you can do with a digital camera, a crazy idea and very little budget!
Hog Hunters rounds out the three stories, and its certainly the oddest, and most extreme, of the bunch. Opening with a scene in which a lonely farmer gets “friendly” with one of his pigs, Hog Hunters tells the story of a bowling team who, as part of an initiation of their newestr member, decide to go hog-hunting. Only they chose the pig farm from the opening and pay for it in the strangest and most genetically-impossible way. Yes, this is Deliverance taken to its illogical extreme, complete with rubber-faced pig women who have a penchant for white meat!
Weaved inbetween the three terror tales, we get to find out more about Gio and Frankie’s past “exploits” and see their mentor/trainee relationship flourish in the middle of a gang-war between Arash (Arash Dibazar) and their boss Mr. Kinski (the legendary Mel Novak)…
Filmed on a small budget, An Hour To Kill is one of those films that, despite its shortcomings, wins over its audience through sheer inventiveness and sheer insanity. This is a film that not only pushes the boundaries of gross-out gore but also political correctness, feeling very much like a love letter to the excesses of Troma – in the best way possible.
An Hour To Kill is available on Amazon Prime now.
