ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE (2011)

Directed by Jason Trost, Starring: James Remar, Jason Trost, Lucas Till, Sophie Merkley, Lee Valmassy. Science-fiction, USA, 2011, 78mins, cert 15.

Four members of a now-defunct superhero team awake to find they’ve been kidnapped by their arch-nemesis Rickshaw and dumped in an unknown town. All have injection scars on their wrists and all but one of them, Charge (Jason Trost), have been stripped of their powers. Rickshaw precedes with his dastardly plan to force the now less-than-fantastic- four into playing deadly games with the stakes being the lives of the town’s inhabitants: and ultimately each other’s...

Never judge a book by its cover; or in this case by its Blu-ray/DVD and poster art. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, there are absolutely no helicopters and no skyscrapers in this film. Hardly surprising, given that the (micro) budget granted to writer, director, co-producer, star and editor Jason Trost was a mere $20,000. This was conditionally offered to Trost on the basis that he would have to write a script – go into pre-production – and finish shooting all within 2 months. The actual shoot itself consisted of 15 days (in the middle of summer with the shortest nights) giving him only 9-10 hours a day.

And the end result? A rather nifty and down-right crafty low-budget gem which is far more enjoyable (given its limited resources) than it has any right to be.

Trost’s screenplay is a paragon of necessity. How do you make a superhero film with no money for elaborate CG effects sequences? Simple: strip them of their powers from page one. It’s a ridiculous conceit and inevitably risks alienating your target audience and incurring the wrath of paying punters.

Pulling the foursome’s strings, ringmaster Rickshaw (James Remar, DEXTER, THE WARRIORS) broadcasts his instructions via portable TV’s strategically placed across town. Tapping into the local CTV network he sits back and gloats as the group are forced into seemingly unwinnable scenarios with the town’s ‘innocents’ strapped to incendiary devices rigged to blow at the touch of Rickshaw’s remote. Tensions and old resentments soon rise to the surface as Cutthroat (Lucas Till), Shadow (Sophie Merkley) and The Wall (Lee Valmassy) find themselves impotent to defeat their enemy and increasingly reliant on Charge (Trost) – who appears to have retained his strength.  

James Remar’s turn as the ‘Jigsaw’-like Rickshaw is infused with gleeful relish as he finally gets to turn the tables on his adversaries. There’s a memorable cameo from Sean Whalen (THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, HATCHET III) as a flame-throwing cannibal Uncle Sam and Nick Principe (CHROMESKULL 1&2) gets to flex his muscles as henchman Sledgesaw in a charmingly ludicrous confrontation on a domestic trampoline.

Jason Trost (HATCHET III, THE FP) acquits himself well delivering his square-jawed dialogue. His comrades do the best they can with underwritten characterisations – although it’s a stretch to imagine them as superheroes when we’re only given a brief monochrome flashback evidencing Shadow’s gift to work with. The script does slyly introduce the heroes’ powers and their origins through almost throwaway dialogue. (Trost is not a big fan of superhero origin movies it seems.)

Our band of avengers troop from one location to the next with a distinct lack of urgency given the stakes they’re playing for, but the pulsing electronic soundtrack by George Holdcroft combined with Amanda Treyz’s ‘scope cinematography panning across deserted night-time streets conjures up an early Carpenter-like vibe.

Of course, necessity is the mother of invention and when the budget won’t stretch to explosions and their potentially gruesome aftermath we get shaky-blurred-cam as a substitute. The camera is less shaky however when it comes to the brief but effective small-scale gore on screen.

So where does that leave us. Well, if you’re looking for a film that’s the complete antithesis of Hollywood’s current obsession with mega-budget superhero flicks then ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE definitely ticks the box. You have to view it within the context of its budget and production limitations, but for all its obvious flaws it cuts its cloth accordingly - and any superhero film that relies on a microwave oven’s timer for its climatic countdown gets a thumbs up from me.

**** (out of 5)

Paul Worts