After some seriously fun spoofs with the likes of Flying High and the TV show Files of Police Squad, every many and his dog jumped on the bandwagon and took off all sorts of movies, (to varing success) and now nearly 20 years later horror films, et al, are in the line of fire..

Though Scary Movie has stepped into the limelight and taken on the title of first in best dressed (and a sequel is currently on the way) another 90's horror spoof was actually first out the gate, though was in no way as successful. Or as commercially appealing.

SHREIK, if I know what I Did Last Friday the 13^th is more in tone with your Flying High Style of humour, but is so NOT funny for the most part you can’t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. It’s a real hit and miss affair with this film as they keep piling on one lame joke after another. Sadly, some of these gags actually had me in stitches, and not because it was funny, but so damn stupid (though I admit to having a good laugh at the slo-mo Reservoir dogs sequence, and the hand puppets in the sex ed class :)

So anyhoo, this VERY low budget effort has a few familiar faces, and is in fact saved,   err....well kinda  by 2 of them, Tom Arnold as the inept security guard Doughy, and 90210’s Tiffani Amber-Thiessen as news journalist Hagita Utslay. (the interplay between these two is at times quite good, with a bit of improv-ing thrown in for good measure).

Filling in the main teen roles of the students at Bulimia High are "Hint Mint" creator Harley Cross as Dawson Deery, MTV’s VJ Simon Rex as the beer drinking dope namead Slab, Danny (Jonathon from Buffy) Strong as Boner  the films token virgin, Julie ( Darla from Buffy/Angel )Benz as the sexy & popularBarbara, and Majandra(TV's Roswell )Delfino who everyone think might be a lesbian :) Then there’s the Prinipal Formally known as… (played by Coolio), and a few other familiar faces in cameo roles.

As Scary Movie had a ghost face killer, so to does SHRIEK, and if you though Scary’s was pathetic….you ain’t seen nothin’ yet as this rips off, not only Scream, but I know what you did last summer, Christine, GREASE!, Dawson’s Creek and many more….

VIDEO
The one very serious problem with this Anamophic Widescreen Transfer is the excessive amount of smearing. You know that nasty look you get on some DVDs when an actor moves their head and the image trails behind the movement? Well this occurs from start to finish.
Colour Saturation is quite good, but a fraction too high, but is consistent throughout and black level isn’t too bad either. So there’s a nice amount of shadow detail in the scary-boo sequences.
There’s also very little sign of any aliasing and dirt flecks, but with this nasty smearing, you're not left with a whole lot of nice sharp images, so the focus never seems quite right..

AUDIO
The Dolby 2.0 track on the DVD is quite limited in its scope. In Dolby Surround Mode, there’s some ambience to be had, but not a lot, as most of the music and dialogue is centre channel based. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible (unfortunately)

There are a few good musical moments with ripoffs of Chariot's of Fire, Grease Lightening, and some appropriately cheesy synthethised beats :)

EXTRAS
The best thing about this DVD is the running commentary which from what I can find out wasn’t included on the Region 1 DVD release (this could just be an oversight on "their back cover features listings though).
You’ll want to set your Amp to Dolby Surround for this one as Actor Harley Cross is in the Left channel, producer Steven Nemith in the Centre and Actor Danny Strong in the right channel. All involved obviously had a lot of fun making the movie as it’s a great comm track with a few film spoilers, etc. (The producer does tend to praise the film a little toooo much)

Also included on this DVD is

• Animated menus (with music) which are quite snazzy
• 1 Trailer
• Cast and Crew Bios (with quite extensive information)

Okay okay, so it’s not going to win any awards, but if you’re wanting to invite a few friends over for a bit of a chuckle then this might do the trick...then again...... (NOTE slamming back a few tequilas, or perhaps something stronger before hand mightn’t be a bad idea either :)
OH and be sure to stay thru to the end credits (even the comm track does!)