Famine (film)

Famine
DVD released by Shock Entertainment
Directed by	Ryan Nicholson
Produced by	John Craig Philip Granger Ryan Nicholson Charie van Dyke
Written by	Jeff O'Brien Ryan Nicholson
Story by	Taylor Nicholson
Starring	Des Larson Beth Cantor Sanya Silver Karyn Halpin Thabi Maphoso Christine Wallace Christopher Lomas Gustavo MacSerna
Cinematography	Matt Leaf
Editing by	Matt Leaf
Studio	Plotdigger Films New Image Entertainment
Distributed by	Shock Entertainment
Release dates	September 28, 2012 (2012-09-28) (Germany)
Running time	77 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English
Budget	$250,000

Famine (also known as Stupid Teens Must Die! ^[1]) is a 2012 horror film written and directed by Ryan Nicholson, and co-written by Jeff O'Brien.

Plot

At Sloppy Secondary High School, new teacher Ms. Vickers has put together a 24 Hour Famine (volunteers stay in the school gym and starve themselves for a day) for charity, the first famine held since an incident occurred during the last one five years prior. Ten students (Cathy, Sarah, Darren, Nick, Terry, Vanessa, Andrea, Katie, Jenny and Peterson) sign-up for the event, wanting the extra credit. Vickers asks Jenny what happened at the last famine, and is told that rumor has it the organizer, gym teacher and boxing coach Philip Balszack was accidentally disfigured by acid when he tried to have sex with Cathy in the chemistry lab. Balszack disappeared, and Cathy was supposedly suspended and briefly institutionalized.

Before the famine begins, Katie hides food in one of the gym washrooms, and while doing so is confronted by someone wearing the costume of the school mascot, a carpenter called The Nailer. The Nailer throws a knife into Katie's face, and hides her body. Hours later, with the famine in full swing, The Nailer picks off straggling students. Terry has his throat slit while sabotaging food in the cafeteria, Peterson is impaled through the head while having sex with a Swiss Roll, and Vanessa is thrown onto the spike protruding from Peterson's head.

After she finds the Nazi principal dead, his eyes removed while he was watching gay porn, Jenny is kicked out, her claims disbelieved. Jenny reenters the building using keys she takes off the bodies of two teachers murdered in the parking lot, and discovers Darren's fried and severed head in the cafeteria freezer. Jenny rejoins Vickers and the remaining students in the gym, just as a distorted voice begins making threats over the PA system. Everyone except Cathy flee into the school, finding the dead body of Tim (the scarred janitor and prime suspect) in an office.

While Vickers goes back to get Cathy, the rest of the group try to break out, and as they are doing so a bloodied Cathy appears, claiming she stabbed Vickers in the gym when Vickers attacked her. Cathy and Nick go to the gym, where the latter is disemboweled by Vickers, as Cathy scalps Andrea. Vickers and Cathy go after Sarah, cornering her in a classroom, where they mutilate one of her breasts, and stab her.

Vickers and Cathy track down Jenny, who has armed herself with a nail gun. Vickers reveals she is Balszack, back for revenge after undergoing numerous recuperative surgeries and a sex change. Cathy then explains what really happened five years ago; most of the other participants in the current 24 Hour Famine told Cathy that Balszack liked her, and they dared her to seduce him, claiming that if Cathy did so they would be her friends. When Cathy tried to convince Balszack to have sex with her, he turned her down, and Cathy unintentionally shoved him into a shelf of chemicals.

Vickers attacks Jenny, who fires a wild shot with the nail gun, grazing Vickers and hitting Cathy in the head. Cathy collapses, followed by Vickers, who lands face first on Cathy's knife. Jenny exits the school, clutching the nail gun and wearing the head of The Nailer costume.

Cast

• Beth Cantor as Cathy Carpenter
• Christopher Patrick Donoghue as Mr. Carpenter
• Nathan Durec as Philip Balszack
• Dustin Elkins as Mr. Spinell
• Karyn Halpin as Sarah Silvana
• Glenn Hoffmann as Principal Neilson
• Des Larson as Darren Dickerson
• Christopher Lomas as Nick Nelson
• Gustavo MacSerna as Terry Torres
• Thabi Maphoso as Vanessa Vandermeer
• Ady Mejia as Andrea
• Ryan Nicholson as The Nailer
• Terry Paugh as Tim
• Michelle Sabiene as Ms. Vickers
• Sanya Silver as Katie Carlyle
• Christine Wallace as Jenny Jameson
• Leo Wong as Peterson

Soundtrack

• "Puke Rawk" performed by Fake Shark - Real Zombie!
• "Don't Forget" performed by Fake Shark - Real Zombie!
• "Gold Tooth on a Bum" performed by The Dillinger Escape Plan
• "Chasing the Dragon" performed by Enoch
• "Parasitic Twins" performed by The Dillinger Escape Plan

Reception

Film Bizarro praised the film, stating it was "a damn good gory and trashy slasher".^[2] Independent Flicks also responded well to Famine, finding it "good, gory fun" and awarding it a perfect score of seven.^[3]

Famine was called a "horrible slasher full of horrible people" by The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre, which concluded "you would be hard-pressed to find an audience for something this painfully bad even with the gore".^[4] Zombies Don't Run!, a fan of director's Nicholson's prior works, stated Famine was a major disappointment, prompting them to give it a score of four out of ten, and write "This may be one of the worst movies I've seen this year." ^[5]

References

External links

• Official website
• Famine at the Internet Movie Database