Netherworld
Buy Netherworld : Amazon
Just from reading the synopsis on the DVD, you can tell Netherworld isn’t going to be your average Full Moon flick..and it isn’t. Far from it. Written by Full Moon staple David Schmoeller (As Billy Chicago), Netherworld is definitely a very unique movie.
We open with a young gentleman with the early 90′s curl-let riding on a fishin (not “fishing”) boat and arriving at a massive structure of columns and giant concrete lions. Snazzy. Our friend, let’s call him…oh..Corey (how 90′s of you, Mr. Schmoeller) is met by a man, Beauregard Yates, Esquire, in a sky blue suit and black leather fingerless gloves. YES. The guy is really reminiscent of Mr. Mascaro from Blood Dolls if you’ve been following along with this shit. Anyway, Masca…Mr. Yates carts Corey off to a giant southern estate that belonged to his father.
See, Corey’s father – Mr. Thornton – was massively rich but was also totally unknown to Corey as ol daddy did the stash’n'dash with his old lady. Nice guy. Corey makes some illconceived attempts to get information about what his dad was like, but has no luck.
During this sequence we also meet Diane, a “smokin hot” 16 or 17 year old who ends up being a sort-of love interest for Corey. Somewhat offensive, but I’ll go with it. Diane’s overbearing and over protective mother, who is the caretaker of the Thornton estate is also introduced. We also notice that there are a literal shit ton (and that’s a technical term, kids) of birds around..and they seem to get a lot of focus. Mmmk.
While out for a jaunt one day with Diane, Corey runs in to a crazy guy named Bijou who tries to coax Corey in to going to a place called Tonk’s Place – a rough and rumble redneck bar just across the lake from the estate with the promise that he (Bijou) will tell him about his old man.
Oh shit, I forgot to mention – Corey gets his father’s last wishes documentation and it basically says “Lookee here boy, bring me back to life”. Nice. Corey becomes obsessed with this task and that convinces him, furthermore, to check out Tonk’s place where he is, eventually, introduced to Delores who is another a bird nut and also is the answer woman on how to bring Corey’s daddy back to life. Delores is some sort of super hooker that lures men in to her lair, only to steal their souls and place them in the bodies of birds. The birds are big time here. Five alarm weirdness call.
Our first meeting with Delores also results in a not-too-nice gentleman getting his eyes gouged *in* and eventually his head crushed by concrete hand. More weirdness, but whatever. The hand floats and flies around – ala The Tall Man’s spheres – when summoned for duty.
I’m sure I missed some key plot points, but that’s what you get when you have the short term memory of a retarded tit mouse.
With all that crap out of the way, I really really really liked this movie. The filming quality is good (good ol 35mm) and really shows a distinct difference in what Full Moon was capable of during their relationship with Paramount. I’m not sure what happened, although I’d guess it was due to a faux pau from Mr. Band, but it is nonetheless really unfortunate that the relationship couldn’t continue.
The music is also good here, being done by one of the guys from Bon Jovi (Hu-WAAAAHHHHHHH!) and also features a couple of performances from Edgar Winter. Good shot on that one.
The acting here is solid and on point and while the script (as always) could’ve used a little work, it still carries out nice and smooth and keeps you interested in the movie. Shocking.
The DVD itself is another high point. It’s chock full of a ton of extras including a 26 minute long marathon Videozone.
This has become one of my favorite Full Moon flicks and if you haven’t already seen it, it comes highly (standard “hehe”) recommended from me.
**** 1/2 out of 5.
