Brendan Jesus
This is probably going to be a hot take and with my last take on Hitchcock in my review for Laced, I think I’m two for two with credibility hits. I’m kind of over homage/parody films. That’s not to say there haven’t been good, or great, ones that have come out in recent times, but I’m ready for the genre to take a new direction. Panic Fest has offered three (or four depending on how you are counting) films that fall directly in this category. Final Summer is an example of these types of films I really don’t enjoy, I don’t think it really does anything fun or interesting with its reference materials. The Third Saturday in October Part I and V works for me because it doesn’t feel nearly as serious as Final Summer and uses its references to elevate the film, rather than using them as plot points.
There were two films that stuck out to me on their title alone: End Zone 2 (I haven’t even seen the first one!) and The Once And Future Smash. Knowing these two films are connected, somehow, I was excited to check them out. After further research, I found out one was basically an homage/parody film, End Zone 2, with The Once and Future Smash being a mockumentary. Even with parody fatigue I excitedly sat down for this double feature.
End Zone 2
Written by Warren Q. Harolds and L. Ray Hobbson directed by August Kane
Well, it wasn’t actually written and directed by them, which is the first thing I want to look at. End Zone 2 is a remasted release of the ’70s film which was released during the football-slasher craze of the time. One thing I don’t think I’ve seen a film like this do before is falsifying their IMDb page for credibility. And that’s kind of genius. If you dig into the IMDb page for Warren Q. Harolds or August Kane you find one film from 1970, End Zone 2. If I didn’t receive a press email for these two films, my gullible brain might have truly believed this was a real film. The actual creators of End Zone 2 are Sophia Cacciola, Michael J. Epstein, and Neal Jones.
Now that that’s out of the way let’s look at the film itself. End Zone 2 takes place 15 years after the events of End Zone, in which Smash-Mouth returns to enact revenge on the people who killed his mother. The result is something that can technically be described as a film. What did I like about End Zone 2? Erm, the music, I guess. What didn’t I like? Almost all of it, and that’s the point. That’s also where my problem lies with this film, and films like it.
When you are making a film that is just one big homage, it still has to be entertaining. Right? There are tons of fans of the so-bad-it’s-good type of films, and End Zone 2 without a doubt falls into that category. Those films don’t work for me. I don’t find it fun to go to midnight screenings of The Room or to sit down and laugh along at Birdemic. End Zone 2 was made for The Once and Future Smash, hands down. It was made to be a bad film, and that’s touched on in TOAFS. But I still had to sit through it. It’s not entertaining. It’s not a fun, bad movie. It’s incredibly difficult to sit through, and it’s only an hour long. The idea of End Zone 2 would have worked just as fine if they only filmed the scenes they needed for TOAFS. End Zone 2 does not need to be its own entity.
Everything else I want to touch on is directly related to End Zone 2‘s relationship with The Once and Future Smash.
The Once and Future Smash
Written by Michael J. Epstein, directed by Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein
The Once and Future Smash is the Spinal Tap of horror. I’m probably not the first reviewer to say that, and I definitely will not be the last. TOAFS is one of the most unique and credible mockumentaries I’ve seen in a while. One thing I haven’t seen done since Digging Up the Marrow is having a mockumentary take place at a horror con. Being fed information through the setting of Mad Monster Party Con was a stunningly smart idea. There’s this whole new level of credence to a film when I can see the faces of people I’ve personally met at cons walking through the aisles. If it weren’t for the ending this film takes, it could 1000% pass as real.
This film follows Mikey Smash (Michael St. Michaels), the original Smash-Mouth in End Zone 2, as plans for an End Zone reboot are in the works. Mikey Smash heads to Mad Monster Party to sign autographs and get some hype going for the new film. Also in attendance is William Mouth (Bill Weeden), who played Smash-Mouth in the missing 30 minutes of End Zone 2, who also yells his catchphrase, “touchdown!” constantly. Mikey Smash refuses to concede that William Mouth was in the film. Michael St. Michaels and Bill Weeden are perfect for roles like this. Every time they were on screen together it was pure magic. Michaels and Weeden are really underappreciated as actors, and I hope their roles in this film give them somewhat of a career resurgence.
TOAFS follows the two men as they journey to the festival and incorporates talking heads from some familiar horror con faces like Mark Patton, V.C. Dupree, Victor Miller, Laurene Landon, Lloyd Kauffman, Bob Elmore, and so many more. These interviews are used to tell the stories and concepts behind End Zone and how it formed the genre we know today. Victor Miller talks about how having the mom as the killer in End Zone influenced him to make Jason’s mom the killer in Friday the 13th. V.C. Dupree says he even goes by V.C. as a tribute to AJ from End Zone 2. Epstein’s script does an excellent job of falsifying End Zone’s influence within the genre, and it’s fascinating to watch. The concept of Smash-Mouth being a metaphor for the Vietnam war is also brought up, which is a great reference. So much of the horror from that time was directly inspired by the war, and it was a really minor addition that does so much to bring credence to the story.
So back to my initial quandary. Did End Zone 2 need to be made? TOAFS is honestly a really great film, and I think it can stand successfully on its own. The clips that are used from End Zone 2 are all that we need. The celebrities interviewed even shit talk End Zone 2 the entire time. So, sure, End Zone 2 does what it’s supposed to do, but it’s completely unnecessary. I will watch this mockumentary again, many times, but I will not be watching End Zone 2. I think the one thing that made this film a little less than perfect is the ending. TOAFS ends with this whole weird James Dean/Tupac hologram thing that’s just a bit too much. I get what point they’re trying to make, it just feels like such a devolution from the heart and soul of what we just watched.
Wrap it up
To put it in football terms, End Zone 2 is a sack, The Once and Future Smash is a touchdooooooown! If you like watching good/bad films watch End Zone 2 first, if you just want to watch a really really reallllly well-made genre mockumentary then just stick with TOAFS. We need more con-based genre films. Zombies vs con-goers? The horror con killer? I digress.
