Female demon monster with Freddy Krueger fingers in a factory!

Just as the dawning of the VHS era in the early 80s ushered in tons of direct-to-video horror, the dawning of the DVD era did the same in the early 2000s. And I’m not complaining. So much crap was released that it gave us plenty of options when we were burnt out on Final Destination, Saw, The Ring, and The Grudge sequels.

The 2000s also gave us…TIFFANY SHEPIS, the queen of new millennium direct-to-DVD horror trash. Usually the victim in her horror flicks, Tiffany got the opportunity to do the slaughtering in Death Factory, but didn’t reprise her monster role for the sequel, which I actually like better….

DEATH FACTORY (2002)

Death Factory looks like it was shot on video. You really just watch it to see Tiffany as a freaky monster with metal teeth, demon eyes, and finger knife gloves. It’s sort of like a one-woman Night of the Demons and she’s the Angela, but her name is…ALEXA!

Alexa’s not actually possessed. Apparently, she worked at this factory where she got infected and slaughtered everyone who worked there because the infection made her crave human flesh. Did she just GROW metal teeth and finger knives or did she opt to have them installed? We’ll never know. Anyway, she disappeared and the factory closed down.

Naturally, she’s actually still in the abandoned factory and a bunch of kids is headed there to party! But first, Ron Jeremy has a totally random two minute cameo as a homeless dude who goes in and gets slaughtered.

The kids get there and do the predictable. Someone realizes it’s the same factory where all those people were killed, but they stay anyway and split up to have sex. Like Angela in Hull House, Tiffany Shepis roams the halls and hides in the shadows until the time is right to strike, then she comes out and slices, dices, and feasts.

There’s a good old sex scene involving a pretty couple – they both get shirtless on a canopy bed they find in the factory (???). Eventually, we’re down to one final girl and we learn the truth of “Alexa!” And Alexa doesn’t die…

THE DEATHFACTORY: BLOODLETTNG (2008)

I have no idea what the thinking was in making a sequel, but I’m glad they did. The Death Factory: Bloodletting is a much darker and grittier film. Alexa is actually much freakier and the overall look of the film and the location used for the factory is much more effective. Plus, there’s a hot white baldy dude and a sexy Black dude in the cast. And they look like they’re about to kiss in this pic.

The theme is also much heavier. This religious nut who looks like Jesus lures the scum of the earth into the factory where he has Alexa trapped as his slave. These scummy people think they are there to watch a “bloodletting”—a real person being killed live.

In grindhouse fashion, each character is presented with a screen name. There’s a slut who will do anything for money. A dominatrix and the man slave she sodomizes regularly. A pedophile. Rapist. You get the picture. Of course, they’ve really been called there to pay for their sins…by being Alexa’s dinner.

Aside from Alexa’s attacks, there’s plenty going on here, from lesbian sex to a revenge subplot. There’s also a raucous industrial soundtrack that complements the style and fast pacing of the film. There is a brief period in which the film comes to a bit of a grinding halt, but the unique twist near the end brings it back on track.

Even though Tiffany Shepis stars in the first film, The Death Factory: Bloodletting has much more going for it. Just to give you an idea of how much more exploitative it is, the deleted scene included is a baby kill they claim was considered too disturbing to stay in the film. It’s like a split second CGI shot and I’m not sure why they didn’t just keep it in the movie on the DVD considering they included it as a deleted scene.