It is a Saturday afternoon and I am hustling and bustling at my job. I am trying to improve my stature in life and I guess that means hauling it in on a day off. No problem, at least I don’t have to wear pants to the office. I am taking a break not to surf the web but to drop some content.

Now one of my favorite writers is Lester Bangs ( I know how cliché can a guy get) who was the best music writer to rarely write about music. He was fast (sometimes on speed, ok most times) and cranked out a lot of things. Well I am inspired at the moment (not on speed; drugs are bad) and feel I can flash fiction/Lester Bangs about a movie watched. That is what we are about, movies. Well movies and silliness but movies. Shot clock starts now 1:41 PM GO!!!  I have a huge man crush on Jeremy Gardner and I believe that most of my co-workers and friends/family are tired of me recommending The Battery to them. Hell, I have offered to pay the $5 purchase fee as I adore this film.

So this blathering is not about The Battery (not yet) but a recommended film from Jeremy Gardner from his Twitter account. Yes I am embarrassed by this, I am embarrassed that I recently said out loud “shit he is so cool” when looking at a recent post.

I am old too old to chase certain creative dreams, who am I anyhow (probably a fan boy for Gardener ugh)? But I hope to follow his career and I have to say it bummed me out when I heard he works at a restaurant. It is an unfair world when Clayton Kershaw is getting $9,000 per inning, but it is just as lame that Jeremy Gardner is polishing silver ware and waiting tables. So he shot a pic of some movies he picked up on Twitter and Murder Party was in the photo. I trust a guy who made a great film and I always like a recommendation no matter if it is personal or thru the interwebs.

Murder Party turned out to be a wonderful film. I have to admit the opening credit sequence kind of made me nervous. It kind of looked cheap and I started to worry what I had gotten into to. Looking back, I watched it again and it had more legs than I thought. You see the hero giving parking tickets and it helps hint how he is one of the many weary lonely men of these times.

Basic run down is a lonely nerdy guy finds an invitation on his sad walk home. It is for a Murder Party. He gets home and prepares to settle in on Halloween night with some horror movies and candy. He suddenly decides what the hell and heads to the party after making pumpkin bread and constructing a cardboard costume. Later in extras it is referred to as the Brown Knight costume. He follows the address and the party is at a nasty grungy warehouse and does not look like a party. OK so I am not going to just re-cap this film, why read when you can watch and you should watch.

Out of the gate though there are some surprises and creepy characters. It moves nicely and has some truly funny “I did not see that coming” moments. The acting for the most part is good. I was restless this morning and this movie really drew me in. I enjoyed the hell out of it. But one of the biggest surprises is I watched the extras which I make a point not to do these days. They did a good job adding some fun things to it, a pumpkin bread recipe and how to make the Brown Knight Costume

However, what grabbed me, and I normally hate this feature, was the making of feature. In it you find out that this is a group of friends who grew up together. They had a lot of clips of them as young kids making their own VHS movies. There are some hilarious scenes involving homemade blood and ladyfingers.

It made me like Murder Party even more. This was a work of love from a group of old friends doing what they love to do. I feel that we have a second sense in ourselves as to what is genuine and what vibe is created and put out through art.

 Big budget films can feel so hollow, hollow like professional sports. Movie casts can often just be someone’s idea of their dream team and the story is secondary. With Murder Party you can feel the fun they had in making this film.

OK? OK… one minute left yikes can I ramble. Rent or hell buy Murder Party, watch the extras and feel the vibe of the end product, of people who love horror films, and each other.