Customer Reviews

Duck! The Carbine High Massacre [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's like a really bad traffic accident -- you're horrified and disgusted, but you can't look away.

Technically, Duck! is pretty darn bad. It's got a muddy shot-on-video look, bad lighting, barely competent camera work, and the lowest production values you've probably ever seen.

Duck! focuses on two high school outcasts: Derwin (William Hellfire) and Derrick (Joey Smack), who wear black trench coats every day just like the Trench Coat Mafia implicated in the Columbine tragedy. Every other character in the movie is a stereotype: the bullying jocks, a couple of friendless gothic kids, the Jesus-loving Christian girl, the wheelchair-bound retard, and the I-hate-everyone black kid.

Derwin and Derrick are despised by just about everyone, of course, and Derwin even gets turned into a bloody mess by a bunch of students while taking a shortcut through the basketball court one day. Luckily, the filmmakers don't try to make you sympathize with the main characters. It's almost all a sick joke, yet you see that these two "freaks" are recognizably human. They simply refuse to conform to the ideas of how society and their peers think they should be. You can see how all this leads to such a tragedy.

That's one of the problems with Duck! At times, it seems serious. Other times, it's just a sick joke. There's a scene with the bed-ridden Derwin talking to Derrick that's played totally straight -- and it's absolutely disturbing in its realism. They talk about how much they hate the expectations that society puts upon them, about how fake all their peers are. This is when they begin to discuss the idea of killing as many of their classmates as possible before blowing their own brains out. And though you can't possibly agree with what they're planning to do, you still see them as emotionally human. They were driven to this by a society that fears people they don't understand.

That's what the news media failed to see when examining the Columbine massacre. They were quick to blame violent movies and videogames like Doom as the cause of such a disaster. Did they even think for a second of what it's like to be a social outcast in high school? How the high school social structure can back those who aren't "normal" into a corner from which they feel they can't escape? No way. If the media says it's movies, videogames, and Marilyn Manson driving kids to exterminate their classmates, then it must be true!

The performances by Hellfire and Smack are totally convincing. And when the violent and gory climax arrives the only thing you can do is watch in shock; it's extremely unsettling in its own sick-joke way. You begin to imagine what it was really like when the two kids walked into the Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 and turned shotguns on their classmates.

I want to condemn this movie and say it's sick and has no social value whatsoever. But I can't. It is sick and it will offend many people, but it has something to say. There is truth to be found in this twisted satire, but somehow it feels fake and honest at the same time. I can hardly nail this one down.

After it's over, though, you'll almost surely feel so dirty that you'll have to take a shower just to wash that icky feeling away. It won't do any good, though. This one will stick with you for awhile.

I recently decided to cave in and buy this movie after much hesitation and debate. I was worried that the production values of the movie would hinder its enjoyability. Well, the movie does what it can with its budget and succeeds. In fact it blows the viewer away. The two main characters were played very well. Joey Smack and William Hellfire are in essence a diamond in the rough. This movie is so dark and disturbing, it had me in a state of shock after I watched it. And that's a big deal for me because I've seen it all, nothing shocks me anymore, but this movie DID! I will never forger it! Don't miss out on seeing this movie, trust me, you'll feel something after you see, wheter it be shock, disgust, or fascination, you will FEEL! That's something alot of big budget Hollywood movies can't do.

I recently saw Duck: The Carbine High Massacre and I found it very entertaining. It was well-done, well-written,and well-acted in most cases. It was great that the filmmakers shed a light on how the media exploits tragedies like the Columbine High School shootings. This movie could be funny at times and really serious other times,but it's graphic and honest look at this issue is it's overall crowning achievement. I would recommend this film , but it's not for the faint of heart.

This movie rocks! Definitely some excellent character development. Children can be so, so cruel. Great soundtrack, too!

If you are interested in a movie very similar to what happened at colombine high school in April 1999 this is a movie for you. It... is worth the money. The sound could be a little bit better but besides that I didn't find anything wrong with the movie. If you like Horror movies you will like this.

The Cast is Great.

Yes, this movie will offend some people - especially those who just look at the surface. I enjoy controversial material because it often makes you think about life and who you might be. (OK, in the case of this tape, it only applies to the former.) I also confess I bought this because Misty Mundae claims that she is most proud of this role - according to her web site.

The movie uses stereotypes and exaggrated incidences to make a point. It's done for a reason. There is a slim chance of any true spoilers here since most of us should know the essence of the ending. There is a bit more that happens here though.

Although the focus is on the students who end up becoming the shooters, no one is truly spared from being picked on. The Bible Girl (played by Misty) has a little stunt pulled on her when she tries to organize a Bible youth group. The mentally impaired student is often ignored when he needs help. The Goth guy gets beat up often. One of the shooters-to-be gets a major beating.

Let's face it. This type of thing happens to varying degrees across the nation, and most adults don't want to acknowledge that. I've experienced some of this years ago. This movie does poke fun at the experts who want to blame everything except the true reasons.

The acting quality is inconsistent. Smack and Hellfire do a great job at the two trenchcoat students. Misty Mundae is better than usual as the Bible Girl. The two playing the Goth students are pretty good too.

The production values are basically those of a home video - except for the titles. Many of the outdoor shots have the wind hitting the mic which seems to drown out the actors' voices. That basketball also seems very loud. If any special microphones were used, it might have been a zoom mic. However, it could easily have been the mic on the camcorder. Only a few scenes seem to use more than just the natural lighting or more than just the lamps in the room turned on. The scene involving the gun sale might be the only one with special lighting setup. The video camera used seemed to have a low lux rating. ("lux" is related to the video camera's sensitivity to light.)

This is a movie I would recommend to anyone who is not easily offended. Parts of the movie are disturbing, but this is something that should be disturbing. We should try to understand why people do things and not jump to the easiest answers.

Here we go...Without giving too much of the movie away, it centers around the trench coat mafia a couple of days before the shootings. It shows their very funny, yet very realistic, run-ins with the "cool kids" in school. Factory 2000 offers up this artistic masterpiece. "Duck" is also a step away from their normal sexploitation flicks (which are also very good), so it shows that their is something behind this film making it more than just a "disgusting parody". And it aint any worse than anything the news showed us during the time the tragedy was actually taking place.

At first glance, Duck strikes the viewer as nothing more than a tasteless display of gore and insensitivity -- but that's the danger inherent in first glances. Duck speaks volumes about society and how media-frenzied audiences react to tragedy.

With gritty camera work that produces an eerie, realistic point-of-view, Duck tackles the tough issues that surround mass killings like the one at Columbine High. Polite society would have us believe that the killers in question were misfits who should have been put away long before they had a chance to kill ... that it was their inability to fit in that was at the heart of the problem. Conventional wisdom seems to suggest that we need only distance ourselves to get back on the safe and sane path. But reality is much more complex, and Duck captures that reality: When horrors like Columbine High happen, we are all to blame ... and society as a whole is the ultimate victim.

The two film makers capture with unhalting purity what it means to be unpopular, disliked and otherwise discarded. They capture an alienation that speaks of desperation and lonliness. And they show how little our institutions do to end or deal with this alienation.

The scene in which the two soon-to-be mass murderers go to buy guns is both disturbing and compelling. Using a Monty Hall, "Let's-Make-A-Deal" approach to buying murder weapons, Duck shows us everything we could ever want to know behind why society turns dark and perverted. The glorification of guns, sex, drugs, guns -- they are all interwoven, and against that backdrop, it shouldn't be surprising that alienation finds its way to mass murder instead of a school counselor or a psychologist.

The tragedy that Duck portrays in the fictional Carbine High is that all were victims -- whether the two young killers, their victims, the alcoholic parents or the well-meaning parents. They were the products of a society run amok, where what's on TV or the Internet is much more important than what goes on between people and within families. It's a tragedy best portrayed by the TV reporter outside Carbine High while the killings are going on inside. Her cameraman shows up late after being caught in traffic. When he apologizes, she snaps back "It's a tragedy," she says, referring to his tardiness. They'll be lucky, she adds, if they'll get any footage at all. She then turns grimly serious as the camera rolls and she recounts the "real tragedy," which everyone knows is actually her lucky break.

There will be those who want to write this film off as sexploitation and an example of violence glorified beyond what is appropriate. That would be a mistake. Duck is a film that raises many disturbing questions. One can only hope that these two young filmakers might look to produce a sequal with serious answers.

DUCK! THE CARBINE HIGH MASSACRE is a flick that really surprised me. It's one of the best shot-on-video movies ever, and the acting is ten times better than in your average "real" budgeted movie. It manages to take a darkly comic approach to the Columbine massacre while still taking itself seriously enough to portray the subject matter realistically. The two guys who play the shooters put in great, believable performances. Trust me: DUCK! is one flick that won't let you down!

DUCK: The Carbine High Massacre - What can I say?

The moment I saw the cover and the various e-mails for and against this film I knew I had to watch it. After watching it a couple of times I have come to the conclusion that FACTORY2000 are the most cutting edge film makers I have come across in years.

It is all shot on SVHS and does have various flaws one would expect from a video production. However, I would always recommend this film if you are into anything sub culture. It is the social satire America has been crying out for.

Trust me, if you like underground films you will love DUCK!