Customer Reviews

Terror Firmer [VHS]

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Terror Firma is an independant film made by Troma, one of the last (if not THE last) small time movie companies left in the United States. You should purchase this movie if for no other reason than to support independant film. But once you do buy it, what will you get? An incredibaly funny, very violent, and fairly titilating movie.

I was talked into watching this movie by an aquantance. Never having seen a Troma film, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it would be a low budget slasher flick with lots of fake blood. I was mostly wrong. It turned out to be a very funny and interesting satire on the movie industry, movie making, and society in general. (While also being a slasher flick with lots of fake blood.) I haven't laughed as much at a movie in years.

As for the acting, while most of the actors will never utter the words "I'd like to thank the Academy," the female lead, Alyce LaTourelle, was simply excellent. I was surprised to see someone with as much talent in a low budget picture like this one. She is destined for bigger pictures, but not nessisarily better ones.

The Extras: The DVD is a two disc set that as some of the best extras of ANY DVD I've seen (an I have hundreds.) Most "making of featurettes" are nothing but the actors talking on the set about how excited they are to be making the movie, with clips from the movie thrown in. This DVD has a 90+ minute movie showing the whole process from the first day of shooting to the premier. I would have paid ... for this alone. They also have many deleted scenes, alternative scenes, and bloopers. There's footage of the actors auditioning for the movie (when's the last time you saw that on a DVD?) But wait, there's more! Three music videos (that are quite good,) interviews with two of the actors, and theatrical trailers. Not to mention three, count `em, three audio comentaries. Oh yea, and plenty of easter eggs! All together, one of the most feature packed discs out there.

One word about the screen format. This movie, as with most, if not all of Tromas movies, was filmed in 4:3, so this IS in it's original format. This disc is NOT pan and scan.

If you've read this far, you are probably considering purchasing this movie. Go for it, I'm happy I did.

"Terror Firmer" is yet another seedy contribution to the world of cinema by the gang at Troma films. Lloyd Kaufman, the founder of Troma, continues to offer up films loaded with soft-core sex, sickening gore, and acting so bad that it makes a home movie look like a Shakespeare production. Kaufman's best known film is "The Toxic Avenger," a 1985 release that, despite the bizarre premise, succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Troma took the modest success of "Avenger" and promptly ran it into the ground with a series of stupid sequels and shameless self-promotion. To a great extent, "Terror Firmer" is itself a means of promoting Troma and its no budget films.

"Terror Firmer" is a film about making a film, namely a behind the scenes look at the making of "The Toxic Avenger Part 4." In the process of creating yet another sequel in the Toxic Avenger franchise, we learn that a serial killer is hunting down members of the cast and crew. Kaufman himself stars as the blind (yes, blind) director of the film, interacting with cast and crew members played by Debbie Rochon, Alyce LaTourelle, Will Keenan, Kaufman's real life daughter, adult film star Ron Jeremy, Lemmy from the thrash band Motorhead, and Troma co-founder Michael Herz. Many of these people appeared in other Troma films, so "Terror Firmer" seems to be a sort of reunion/chef-d'oeuvre for Kaufman and company.

The idea behind "Terror Firmer" is to show how difficult it is to make a low budget film. We constantly see the trials and tribulations that actors and crew face during a shooting schedule. Apparently, romances always blossom on a film set, as does professional jealousy. Throw in a pain-in-the-you-know-what prima donna leading lady and you have a typical day in the movie business. In the warped world of Troma, however, there must also be mutilations, interesting uses of a pickle, body parts that stretch like plastic, and a serial killer who looks like a poor man's Tim Curry from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Kaufman relies on tons of sight gags, multiple storylines, gratuitous nudity, and disgusting gore to entertain and sicken his audience. Many of the scenes in "Terror Firmer" take place behind the cameras, where dozens of people mill around during the course of the film shoot. It pays to watch closely what people in the background are doing, or else you may miss many of the gags. Also present throughout the film are constant references to Troma: film posters, spoken panegyrics, and other assorted advertising gimcracks. The shameless promotion for all things Troma tends to grate very quickly.

The gore in "Terror Firmer" is well done for any movie, let alone a Troma film. Herz's unfortunate encounter with an escalator may be one of the sickest scenes ever witnessed by this viewer, rivaling anything done by grindhouse maestros Lucio Fulci or Ruggiero Deodato. Other attempts at gory violence do not work as well due to an insistence on pairing the grue with extraordinarily dumb slapstick humor. For the determined gorehound, however, "Terror Firmer" offers up a congeries of stomach churning scenes.

This is a two-disc set, with an unbelievable amount of extras included. There are deleted scenes, actor auditions, a "making of" documentary, interviews with actors, bloopers, trailers, and several music videos directed by Lloyd Kaufman (which are highly unlikely to appear on MTV or VH1 anytime in the future). There are so many extras on these discs that it takes hours to get through all of them. Did I mention that there are three different commentary tracks? As for sound and picture quality, both are more than adequate for enjoyment of the film and the extras. If you shell out the money for this movie, you will definitely get enough bang for your buck.

Ultimately, "Terror Firmer" is an entertaining film, although I still believe that "The Toxic Avenger" is the best movie Troma will ever produce.

I'm a fifteen-year-old Troma fan, and Lloyd Kaufman is a hero of mine. He was coming to Cleveland to show Terror Firmer at the Cinematheque and have a short discussion beforehand. I was extremely disappointed that the theatre said that under absolutely no circumstances will anyone under 18 will anyone be admitted into this movie. Disappointed, I wrote a letter to Lloyd and attatched a copy of an essay I wrote about how he was my hero. To my surprise, someone from Troma's offices called and arranged for me to meet Lloyd one-on-one at the Rock'N'Roll Hall of Fame. To make a long story short, Lloyd spent the afternoon with me, and he was by far THE nicest, kindest person I've ever met, and he encouraged me to persue my passion for film. He gave me one strong word of advice: Don't see Terror Firmer. Now that I own it on dvd (*hah*) I know exactally what me meant. I cannot believe that the same gentelman made this movie, and was the one cursing througout the documentary. The whole point of this story is: This movie has no stops. It's even sicker than the conversations that highschoolers have at lunch. I love it. And if you're interested in filmmaking, the commentary tracks and documentary are an absolute must, as they've given me more insight to the filmmaking process than any other dvd or book. It's a must-have.

TERROR FIRMER has to be one of the sickest and craziest movies that Troma has ever made, and I mean that as a compliment. I finally bought the Unrated Director's Cut 2 DVD-Disc Box Set of this film.., and I have to say that it was worth the [money] that I paid for it.

The plot of TERROR FIRMER is very simple: the cast and crew of a Troma movie are being stalked and murdered by a serial killer. There is plenty of violence, cheesy acting, male/female nudity, jokes, and 'mystery guest' cameos.

The special features on the DVD set include: 3 cool music videos, a behind-the-scenes documentary, trailers for other Troma movies, audio commentary, deleted scenes, alternate footage, and much more!

Anyone who is a fan of Troma films should pick this up immediately!

Terror Firmer would have to be one of the most amazing films that I have ever seen. A lot of 'film within a film' and comedy movies about 'independant' film making have come out, Bowfinger for example, but Terror Firmer blows them all away. For starters in TF it REALLY looks like a film set at all times. There are dozens of hilarious characters running about crazy like, who can forget the Todster? TF also is just so full of energy and laughs that words cannot do it any justice.

The story is basicly about a blind director struggling to make his B-movie while a killer is murdering cast members with a romance developing between boom operator Casey and stage hand Jennifer. I won't spoil the ending but I will say it is sick and twisted beyond the expectations of even the most hardcore Troma fans.

This film is very fast and amazingly funny. The acting is really great as well. Will 'Tromeo' Keenan, Alyce LaTourelle and Trent Haaga are all great as crew member and Terror Firmer also features Debbie Rochon, my all time favourite actress, who is amazing as always playing a [promiscuous] actress. Debbie's character apparantly is a combination of all the difficult 'actresses' that Lloyd has had to work with over the years. Lloyd steals the show in ever scene he is in. His timing and delivery, what can I say, this movie would not be anywhere as great if the director was played by anyone else.

Lloyd is the man and this film will blow your mind!

If your looking at buying this movie then you really don't need to read this review. You know exactly who Troma are and exactly what they do. Troma delight in making the sickest, most twisted, perverted flicks that can be put on film.

Terror Firmer is Troma's swansong (though im sure another will rear its ugly mutant head sometime) and easily sits beside "classics" such as, Tromeo and Juliet, Surf Nazis must Die, Cannibal:The Musical and Toxic Avenger. Definately one of thier best. Its gross, its disgusting, its hilarious and I love it!!

This is an excellent 2 disc set that is an easy buy for any fan of gonzo/horror/sexploitation/weirdo movies. ...

A low budget studio is working on the newest installment of "The Toxic Avenger", blind director Larry Benjamin (Lloyd Kaufman) is readying the project. Unfortunately a homicidal maniac is on the loose in the city slaughtering innocent people and collecting their parts, the unknown killer hides out in the studio to kill off the actors during the filming of the movie and one of the workers must try to stop this cretin.

Exciting, ultraviolent, funny and sleazy horror comedy satire from cult movie company Troma is inspired by Lloyd Kaufman's book "How i learned about filmmaking i learned from The Toxic Avenger". It has a movie-within-a-movie-about-a-movie feel like "New Nightmare" and a good dark self-referential sense of humor to go along with it, the film is quite gory as hell even if it is cartoonish and has memorable moments like Michael Hertz (notable Troma actor and producer) getting mutilated by an escalator in Tex Avery fashion. This movie offers tasteless gags, nudity, sex, rock music and appearences by The Toxic Avenger and Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD as it's one of the better and more bloodier Troma movies yet.

The 2-Disc DVD set is phenomenal! It has great extras like three audio commentaries, Deleted scenes with optional commentary, hidden easter eggs, a full length documentary on the making of the movie, trailers to this and other Troma movies, outtakes, interactive Terror Firmer video game, Intro to the TromaDance film festival, music videos, gyno talk with Terror Firmer actress Alyce LaTourelle, chat with Charolette Kaufman, Lloyd Kaufman book intro, comic book to film comparisions, auditions, alternate scenes and endings that were filmed for the Cannes film festival and an option to watch the movie with the deleted scenes in.

This is my first Troma purchase and may I say, what a film company! Judging from this film and other trailers found on this dvd I must say that Troma (as sick as some may say it is) is truly an artistic film company.
Terror Firmer takes place on the making of a film. The film is on the making of a film. While this film is getting made there is someone killing off each member of the crew one by one in pretty sick and brutal ways. I don't know what else to say except that THIS MOVIE ROCKS! No other movie out there has ever had me cringing and laughing at the same time. Aside from all the humor in this film (which could have been just a little better) there is some great gore effects, some of the best I've actually seen in a long time (surprisingly because this isn't a big budget picture). There is also lots of great softcore sex and nudity and basically everything people love to see but are too afraid to admit they do.
The extras are unlimited. There are trailers from other sick upcoming troma films, music videos (featuring even more xxx material) and a one and a half hour "Making of" Documentary on the making of Terror Firmer. And may I say this is definitely the BEST making of documentary I've scene of any making of featurrette on any film ever! Why? Because it's real. While other making of's are showing you interviews of people talking about how great their co-actors and directors are, this one doesnt have any of that fake stuff. It shows you deep behind the scenes with actors getting angry, the director screaming at everyone, and bloopers throughout. If you love sex, gore, violence, sick jokes or anything of this nature DO NOT PASS UP THIS FILM! Buy it now because I guarantee you won't be dissappointed with it!

I'll tell you why.

Troma, the undisputed champs of Gonzo Exploitation Trash, have come up with a doozy. Packed to the gills with Tromatic mayhem, "Terror Firmer" is something of a celebration. It treats its core audience to massive amounts of violence, nudity, vomit, and vaguely rubbery gore. In fact, Director Lloyd Kaufman takes things to such an extreme that "TF" actually becomes something of a self-parody (a point made abundantly clear during the open credits, in which the killer treats a pregnant woman to an unsolicited abortion. The book the hapless victim is reading? Kaufman's "All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger"). Plus it has uniformly good, spirited performances from a cast that really looks into it, and the DVD is loaded with extras, including a somewhat disturbing making-of documentary (more on that later).

So why 4 stars instead of 5? Maybe because "TF" comes on the heels of the majestic "Tromeo & Juliet," a modern classic that has such a great script that it brings a certain innocence to the work. "TF" has no such innocence. It is corrupt to the core (check out the reappearance of Ron Jeremy after we discover the killer's identity). And that's fine - Troma has certainly earned the right to be corrupt - but the best Troma flicks, like "The Toxic Avenger" and "Tromeo," have a heart of sweetness buried within the dismemberments and goo. And there's an awful lot of self-congratulation going on, which gets pretty damn irritating at times ("What's that web address again? [...]?"). The Troma fan knows what makes Troma so great, and they don't need to be reminded of it in such a smug fashion.

But on the whole, "TF" is a rollicking good time for those who can stomach it. Be sure to check out the DVD extras, including the feature-length documentary that reveals the seemingly cuddly Lloyd Kaufman as a true tyrant (but it's to his credit that he allows himself to be seen this way). There's some Tromatic music videos as well, and some satisfyingly disturbing trailers for other Troma releases. All in all, it's quite a package, even if it makes you recall a classic line from the film:

"I've just been pissed on by a blind independent film director!"

As most movie fans might say after they were to walk out on the first half hour of this flick,"This is one weird-ass mother-f***in' movie!".Unless you have a rather dry or sick sense of humor,you might want to avoid 'Terror Firmer' altogether.I,myself thought it was a scream.The plot is a low-budget movie company in their attempt to make the movie 'Toxic Avenger,Part IV',when they discover the entire crew is being stalked by a sexual deviant.If you believe you've seen it all in movies,just WAIT until you see the culprit when he shows everyone how his abusive father had messed him up for life.Ugh!!After seeing this DVD,you might never want to visit a big city again.Recommended if you're bored on a weekend night.