Weird thing about Bad Meat. It’s pretty much the same movie as Condemned (my blog here), only it takes place at a camp for delinquents instead of in a derelict apartment building. For a sleazy gross out flick, it also has an impressive cast of horror faces, including Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural, Being Human, Dexter, Mulholland Drive), Dave Franco (Warm Bodies, Fright Night remake), Jessica Parker Kennedy (The Secret Circle), and Joe Dinicol (Diary of the Dead, Bottomfeeder, The Marsh, My Babysitter’s a Vampire).
Problem is, according to imdb, the movie was started in 2007 and was held up in production for years, with movie companies changing and the director possibly changing before it was released in 2011…and supposedly still not complete due to lack of funds! It would definitely seem so based on the final scene, because something is seriously missing from the narrative. There’s this interspersed wraparound of someone completely wrapped in bandages (a wraparound in a wraparound) who is one of the victims remembering what happened. But the final scene gives no explanation as it tries desperately to tie up the inconclusive bulk of the film. Honestly, this whole “mummy person” part should have just been left on the cutting room floor, because it only confuses matters more.
As for the movie, a group of stereotypical kids (lesbian, emo boy, angry black man, bitch) arrives at a bad kid camp, where the counselors are two big buff guys (black and white—yummy), a tough S&M bitch, and their Nazi-like, wormy leader. The movie immediately promises to be a celebration of perversion and debauchery; while the kids get to know and hate each other, the counselors are behaving badly as well.
S&M bitch jerks off black buff guy in hall while white buff guy watches and gives her “the shocker” finger gesture.
Black buff guy pisses all over one of the boys to wake him up. White buff guy jerks off while spying on the girls. And best of all, S&M bitch and black buff guy have a leather sex scene in which she lubes up a strap-on and pegs the fuck out of him.
They also torment the fuck out of Dave Franco’s character; because he’s claustrophobic, they keep finding reasons to throw him in a little prison out back as punishment.
Just like Condemned, there’s not much horror for about the first hour of the film. There are a few signs that something the cook is making is not Kosher—dogs that ate some of the meat end up dead—and finally, the counselors’ bellies begin to rumble, there’s flatulence, there’s stench, and during the pegging scene…the leather couple projectile barfs all over each other!
This triggers a puke chain that’s not for the squeamish. Eventually, the leather couple is literally rolling around in huge puddles of chunky vomit, at which point, they and the other counselors become…cannibalistic crazies! This is the high point of the film, as they run around chasing kids and chomping on flesh. And, just like Condemned, the psychos are even more fun once they’ve become infected.
While the action is fast and furious for a while, the movie completely pulls back from its earlier levels of sleaze. For instance, the first thing the S&M chick does when she snaps is…rip off her strap-on! WTF? How much fricking fun could things have gotten if she’d utilized it?
And the black buff guy, while also still in his full BDSM leather, has some sort of flap covering the back of his assless chaps! WTF? If you’re going to be a tasteless, over-the-top horror flick, go for it and have the leather dude run around with his ass proudly displayed! The only glimmer of hope is when the S&M bitch tears off a guy’s package and gobbles it down. This is the level of tasty tastelessness the movie needed to go with, but it totally copped out.
Needless to say, after some brief, halfway decent horror action, the movie quickly falls apart again as it draws to a conclusion that not even it seems to understand how to reach.
