{"id":22077,"date":"2014-10-17T13:22:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T17:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=22077"},"modified":"2016-08-22T13:36:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T17:36:46","slug":"murderdrome-2013-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/murderdrome-2013-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Murderdrome (2013) (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MURDERDROMEDVD\"<\/a>I love the idea of a horror movie centering on heroines that also happen to be brawling roller derby babes. And I love the idea of a slasher film centered on the whole roller derby motif, but it seems that director Daniel Armstrong has a nugget of an idea for a horror movie centering on roller derby, and then really has nowhere to go with it. The DVD case describes \u201cMurderDrome\u201d as equal parts action, romance comedy, and slasher, and yet all three of those elements are never balanced out. Everything about \u201cMurderDrome\u201d feels painfully uneven, to where fans of either sub-genre will be anxious to see director Armstrong deliver. Truthfully the characters were so fun I wouldn\u2019t have minded a romance comedy about roller derby squads, but \u201cMurderDrome\u201d desperately wants to be a horror movie. Even if the horror feels awkwardly tacked on.<\/p>\n

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One aspect of the Roller Derby plot element and setting is that Daniel Armstrong captures the life with enough believability, even if there are many lapses in logic taken. So a roller derby competition without walls or bashing people to the ground in what is seemingly a small gymnasium? Despite the sub-par choreography, director Armstrong seems to enjoy the lifestyle and never tries to pretty it up. Especially considering the women in the sport are sexy as is. Particularly Amber Sajben, who plays the rough and tumble Cherry Skye, a very talented roller derby competitor who catches the eye of awkward Mark. He happens to be the ex of a rival roller derby team\u2019s leader, and takes a liking to Cherry. After giving her a medallion as a gift, the heat in the romance revives an ancient killer that also happens to be a roller derby athlete. Most of what occurs is convoluted and tough to follow, but there are details about demons, sacrifices, and a group of women that took the demon down.<\/p>\n

And for reasons not quite explained, Cherry is likely the reincarnation of a powerful demon slayer. In either case, \u201cMurderDrome\u201d is all over the map, injecting goofy romance comedy montages, attempts to stage involving roller derby matches, and a lot of gore brought on by the very cool slasher Hell Grazer, a leather wrapped stalker who delights in taking down random victims. While \u201cMurderDrome\u201d never offers scares, or remotely involving characterization, director Daniel Armstrong really aces his intended pseudo-grindhouse punk rock aesthetic well. While most of the performances are otherwise sub-par, Sajben is very entertaining and the movie\u2019s entire premise is placed on her ability to play an empathetic heroine. \u201cMurderDrome\u201d is never quite sure what kind of movie it wants to be, and lays the foundations for a great idea that it never completely realizes for the audience. There\u2019s still a lot of potential for more great movies about the Roller Derby lifestyle, and \u201cMurderDrome\u201d just isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n

The DVD garners an audio commentary with director Armstrong and a few cast members, all of whom engage in some interesting anecdotes about making the film, the locations of filmmaking, and the low budget it was made with. Finally, there\u2019s a collection of outtakes, some music videos from the music in the movie, and trailers for other Camp Motion Pictures releases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love the idea of a horror movie centering on heroines that also happen to be brawling roller derby babes. And I love the idea of a slasher film centered on the whole roller derby motif, but it seems that director Daniel Armstrong has a nugget of an idea for a horror movie centering on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[58,219,275,367,477,501,617,897,950,974,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-22077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-comedy","tag-demonic","tag-foreign","tag-horror","tag-indie-film","tag-m","tag-satanic","tag-slasher","tag-sports","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22079,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22077\/revisions\/22079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}