Terror Firmer (1999)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The latest offering from Troma offers up much of what they're famous for; namely gore, violence, politics, bad taste, crude humour, sleaze, gratuitous nudity, and sex. Except that TERROR FIRMER offers up more of this than ever before, mixing it in with a clever-clever self-referential plot revolving around the antics on a Troma movie set and determined to disgust at every moment. This is a film made for Troma fans, in that it's packed with recurring characters, in-jokes, and more. The film is moderately enjoyable in parts, thanks to the fast pacing and the occasionally amusing broad humour, but I've never been a fan of crude humour so a lot of this left me cold.What this film does have in its favour is a ton of incident, some supremely bizarre moments (the naked man running through the streets is one), a winning performance in front of the camera from Lloyd Kaufman as an amusing blind director, and a whole slew of cheap and funny gore effects. When a film opens with a man getting his leg torn off and then being beaten to death with the stump, you know you're in for something special and TERROR FIRMER is just that, a special movie.Other schlocky "highlights" include a man getting both legs ripped off in a vehicle accident, an overweight guy getting sucked into an elevator and Kaufman himself exploding in a bomb blast. Things become even harder to stomach in the shock ending which oversteps the boundaries of good taste by a wide mark, but this is surprisingly aware and clever in places and also well-made for a no-budget shocker. TERROR FIRMER is a must-see for Troma fans, and needs a healthy 'beware' to all others.

Troma has always and will forever suck at making a movie line that actually has a true story line and purpose. This is just another juvenile attempt that Troma fans went crazy over, and they'll say "It's one of the best movies eve made!" Yeah, if this is the best movie ever made, than I could probably win a Grammy by taking a video of me taking a poo. It's pathetic and what kills me is people consider this good and think Troma deserves rewards for this BS. Seriously, if this were released by any other film company, this would flat out fail. Oh, but it's Troma, it must special!! WRONG!! It's the same Troma has been doing since the beginning. Troma fails to break any new boundaries. It's just the same sexual and gory elements over and over again, from film to film. Oh and let's not forget the terrible acting. I honestly could not take the acting seriously in this movie what so ever. Troma is know for bad acting, but this takes the cake.Troma kills me, they really do. I wish they would just go away so I wouldn't have to suffer from people saying "OMG, did you see Troma's new film, it's amazing!!!!!!". I hate those people, they wouldn't know a movie it slapped them up side the head. Well, that's it for my ranting, for now at least.

Debbie Rochon as a blond? Wow, this is something different! Of course, this whole movie is something different. Lloyd Kaufman has really pulled out all the stops to give us the grossest film I could ever imagine. No, I would be Lloyd Kaufman if I imagined this stuff - this is waaaay beyond my imagination.Extreme amounts of blood and gore and body fluids and solids. This was the ultimate in gross, but you had to look.Once again, there was a perfect part for me. I coulda been a contenda in indy film.Not for those with a weak stomach.

I find it very difficult to sit through the "normal" Troma film. (This might be the only living example in captivity, by the way, of the words "normal" and "Troma" coexisting side-by-side.) I find them intolerably busy, erratic, and annoying. At the same time, I am utterly fascinated and impressed by the irrepressible Lloyd Kauffman,the "face" of Troma, one of the most charismatic figures in all of cinema. Given these preferences, "Terror Firmer" becomes a Troma film worth watching, because buried deep within this highly fictionalized account of what it takes to put together a Troma film are, one would assume, many, many kernels of truth, isolated and blown up way out of proportion in Troma's over-the-top style.Even more interesting than the film, however, is the director's commentary track by Kauffman himself, which carries the "film within a film" concept to even deeper depth (because you know Kauffman is "performing" throughout).I haven't quite decided whether Kauffman and Troma are the best thing to ever happen for independent cinema or the worst. While Troma proves that it can be done and that such a company can endure, the quality of Troma's product might work against independent cinema by implying that the company's profitability comes from the public's acceptance of low-budget, badly conceived and executed drivel.Hats off to Lloyd Kauffman. Just don't expect me to like what you put out.