BACTERIUM (2006 dir Brett Piper)

Shock-O-Rama Cinema DVD

From low budget horror guru Brett Piper and Pop Cinema comes an exciting new horror/sci-fi outing in the vein of classic '50s and '60 drive-in monster movies such as THE BLOB and THE FLESH EATERS.

BACTERIUM concerns a group of two young couples that go out in the woods to have fun and shoot at each other with paintball guns. What seems like a normal, sunny day in the countryside soon becomes a nightmare involving a monstrosity that threatens all life on the planet as the members of the group of four come across an abandoned old house and discover a scientist who's trying to keep a deadly flesh-eating bacteria under control in a lab. It appears the gooey substance was a part of a biological weapons experiment that went horribly awry.

Meanwhile the U.S. Army is trying to come up with a way in which they can destroy the life form and keep a lid on it. The insane scientist at the abandoned house attempts to take hostage anyone who comes to the place. Only this backfires on him once a girl gets tough and takes matters into her own hands. He finds himself strapped him to a chair in the lab and locked up. While he's in there, the bacterium gets out and attacks him. Now he's infected and soon he disintegrates into an icky pool of goo and the substance continues to spread and get bigger as it looks for more hosts. Will the Army be able to come up with away to destroy the bacterium without setting off a nuke in the U.S.? Will our heroes of the story be able to stop the spreading flesh-eating mass before it takes over the world? Watch and find out.

BACTERIUM is another entertaining B grade outing from Brett Piper. It contains all the elements that make his other movies like SCREAMING DEAD(2003), BITE ME! (2004), and SHOCK-O-RAMA (2005) so fun: Gore, naked chicks, creative special effects, campy performances, and touches of humor throughout. This one however is rated PG-13 instead of R, so it's a little bit lighter on the violence and nudity, but it still has a surprising amount of bloody and slimy scenes and a brief scene of full-frontal nudity by the lead female star Alison Whitney. Benjamin Kanes and Miya Sagara head the cast. While the presence of Pop Cinema regulars Misty Mundae and Julian Wells is lacking here, A.J. Khan is featured in a cameo appearance. Also included are appearances by Piper regular Rob Monkiewicz as well as Pop Cinema's John Paul Fedele and Justin Wingenfeld.

The Pop/Shock-O-Rama DVD of BACTERIUM is presented in a very nice 16x9 widescreen version and contains a nice little set of extras including an audio commentary by Brett Piper and Mike Raso, a behind-the-scenes featurette, outtakes and trailers for other Shock-O-Rama releases.

If you're a B-movie junkie who likes their cheesy movies with extra cheese, BACTERIUM should definitely be number one on the menu for you. The Pop Cinema release will most likely be a welcome addition to your collection.