Amerikan Holokaust DVD Review from The Sleaze Box

Directed by: Chris Woods
Written by: John Miller, Chris Woods
Produced by: John Miller, Chris Woods
Cinematography by: Chris Woods
Editing by: Chris Woods
Music by: Zachary Short Jr.
Special Effects by: Marcus Koch, Chris Woods, John Miller
Cast: Jules Sceiro, Bob Glazier, Audrey Hayes, Cyndi Crotts, Rue Goregrinder        
Year: 2013
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Runtime: 1h 26min

Studio: Icon Films Studios
Distributor: The Sleaze Box

Amerikan Holokaust is a blueprint for what can be achieved with zero budget as an underground masterpiece. It goes beyond the August Underground trilogy, Murder-Set-Pieces, and touches fists with Scrapbook.

Using the handheld camera style, the first scene opens with a gimp-masked naked woman being dragged on a dog lead to massage a nude fella. He gets annoyed and decides to whip her for a while with his belt. A second man with big lamb chop sideburns directs her to massage his colleague again when suddenly he chokes her to death (rather quickly I may add). It’s recorded on a rather cruddy video tape camcorder and the images are quite disjointed.

Cut to the filming via a happy couple with a baby who we see abducted on a bridge by the two men we witnessed at the start. We cut to Michael Mashburn (Mr. Lamb Chops) who sits before an American flag filming with his ‘newly acquired’ camera. His speech to whoever may watch contains such moments like; “I wanna be able to fuck a woman whenever the mood strikes.” His obsession is to enslave a female because he is unemployed and middle aged. “I deserve a slave in my life, a sexual slave.” Michael and his buddy Antwan are Vietnam veterans who teamed up whilst on a tour of duty. All the while footage shows a woman in a dark room being teased psychologically as he views her through night vision. The lady in question, Elizabeth, is she whom was kidnapped on the bridge. As she tries to be angry about the lads selling her baby to a gay couple, we find she’s a bloody awful actress. I mean, the cast aren’t full of professionals but my God she’s ridiculous.

Our Vietnam Vets tease her threatening to cut her “titties” off since she’s topless, and beat her with a baseball bat. Her bloke is gimp-masked in a chicken wire cage, as Michael tells him how many times his girl has been nailed. He then drops into a long class war speech about yuppies and plastic worlds.

Michaels’ wife, Rose, laments how they live. The house is shabby, messy, and dark. He doesn’t do much to help. She states at least Antwan helps out. Michael coos her with a tacky romantic speech but she’s not too impressed.

Cut to Antwan with his big grey beard and hobo appearance, showering down their new ‘sex toy’. She obediently puts groceries away whilst Michael talks about his plans and his history in the war (Michael chats way too much). Antwan breaks this monotone scripted session to terrorise her, explaining how in ‘nam he used to make ‘Gook’ girls march through rice fields with a grenade “sewed in their pussies!” He shoves a grenade between her legs for a laugh.

Michael explains to the camera how they became friends in Vietnam, then a naked Elizabeth is eating from a dog bowl, until they tell her that the soup is made from her baby, Matthew. Spitting it out enrages Antwan who lays her on the kitchen floor and force-feeds her via a funnel, before clubbing her to death. What follows is a very twisted hypnotising scene as Antwan, now undressed, wraps Elizabeth’s innards around his penis, eats her guts and wipes blood all over himself whilst violins play. Michael then plunges his face into her open stomach and chews.

“Fuck your presidents, fuck your war! This is my world now!”

The duo also make propaganda videos for his cause, forcing their slaves to participate wearing masks and carrying unloaded guns to give the image of an army building. Michael and Antwan have now captured two new sex slaves in their chicken wire cage. Normality chops in as Michael films his wife home from work. She explains about a student girl, Casey White, whom she would love to “fuck”. Rose’s fantasy is to have Casey kidnapped and held captive. Soon after, Casey is tracked down and tied up before the American flag.

“You’ll cook for us, clean for us, suck our dicks, fuck us, Hell you’ll even wash our nuts for us.” Casey is nude soon enough, apart from panties, as Antwan photographs her on a filthy stained mattress. They make her wear a Jason mask and a tutu. For a short time, Michael believes she could become part of their ‘family’. Maybe it’s his chat up line every time. Casey fails the first test, but is ordered to stab another girl, otherwise she’ll be electrocuted. She does it in a long built up moment. Antwan wants her dead, but Michael seems to be falling for her. Suddenly, Rose walks in on them. They stand aside like naughty boys as she comforts Casey. Then a transformation comes over Rose, her fantasy is in the flesh and is happening. Rose takes control of everything they do, torturing Casey, becoming the spokesperson on their videos, and things slide ever onwards into deeper violence.

A lot of the film has Michael explaining his motives, his history of killings, what he knows about Antwan. He is the central character, however the actor behind Antwan makes him the better personality. You want to know more about the old man and what makes him who he is. We have a few inserts but, when you view the deleted scenes on the extras you realise how much meat was lost.

After about half an hour, Amerikan Holokaust settles into a pace and storyline, of course chugged along by a mass of gore and violence. The makeup effects are superb throughout, (thanks Marcus Koch who’s been involved in his craft since the nineties) including cringe worthy moments such as a diseased penis. At least every other scene contains gore or nudity — male and female. Music works well in any good film and the quiet tones of this soundtrack adds depth, especially the final moments.

Speaking of which, with most, shall I say, lesser underground films of this nature, a get-out-fast clause is used, e.g. the bad dudes survive or escape to carry on, or there’s a fade out and it feels like nothing is concluded. Amerikan Holokaust IS NOT one of these. The finale is crafted to end properly and does not feel rushed or cheated.

It feels like Bloodsucking Freaks without the dark humour, or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer with more splatter. No, it’s like the makers have took acid and watched Jim Van Bebber’s classic short, The Last Days of John Martin over and over on a loop.

As I stated before, the acting skills are varied.  Bob Glazier (Antwan) and Cyndi Crotts (Rose) shine above everyone. Jules Sceiro as Michael does his best I suppose but it’s his voice that really gets on your nerves. Both Jules and Bob have had a long history in indie features.

The extras are okay. There are trailers, a Sleaze Box promo filmed at some convention where costumed girls are grabbed and asked to say how cool Sleaze Box are. Very Troma indeed, but without an annoying Lloyd sticking his head between breasts and chatting nonsense.

I touched upon the deleted scenes earlier and they are interesting. They’re more like extended scenes actually and one especially reveals so much about Antwan. Why was it chopped? There’s more women in cages, more to the ball-gag camera scenes, and our old friend Antwan going off before the American flag. Like I said, why was Antwan chucked on the floor more than Michael? I don’t get it at all.

Amerikan Holokaust is highly recommended if you like the underground indie scene. Director, co-writer, sometimes special effects guy, editor Chris Woods is a workhorse for the Sleazebox company and he’s a great talent to watch. Gore, tits, killings, torture, sheer hell on earth captured in a badly lit house before a camcorder. Must be viewed totally uncut to enjoy.

DVD SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1, 4:3
Region: NTSC 1
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
- Trailers
- Deleted Scenes
- Sleaze Box Promos