Horrors of War

John Whitney and Peter John Ross, the co-directors of Horrors of War, have made a perfectly awful movie. The fact that they somehow funded it, made it and secured a distribution deal that has found space on UAE DVD shelves is evidence of film business acumen that is almost miracle-making. They don't teach this in film school. Horrors of War is set in Second World War Germany and follows a handful of US troops who have been chosen to cross enemy lines to search out and destroy Hitler's secret weapons programme. The weapons turn out to be German soldiers transformed into indestructible killing machines with gargoyle-like faces of a crazed, Josef Mengele-like scientist. But forget the plot, characters, acting and production values. This should be watched in pure wonder of its existence. Low-cost special effects are crammed in, sometimes hilariously. Rifles and machine guns puff smoke while their targets throw themselves histrionically into the air. Hand grenades that produce small funnels of dust when they explode regularly kill five or six Germans at a pop. Meanwhile, a few computer generated effects come out of nowhere. My favourite line of dialogue comes from the mission leader after the platoon has entered enemy territory: "Sergeant Gehry here is a lycanthrope. That's what most people call a werewolf." Huh? This film is truly astonishing.
jsipe@thenational.ae