Indie Horror Hall of Fame: Dude Bro Party Massacre III

It’s been nearly 10 years since I first saw Dude Bro Party Massacre III at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival. I am someone who has a strong sense of affection for horror comedies in general, so not only was this movie a super funny viewing experience that continues to make me smile, but it also felt like getting to enjoy a righteous cinematic kegstand with friends late on Saturday night, and those are the kind of vibes that I really dig.

Dude Bro Party Massacre III opens with a text crawl explaining how the film was originally banned by President Reagan decades earlier and the only version left in existence is one that was recorded by a fan on his VCR when it aired late one night for a local TV station broadcast. The presentation of this long-lost cult classic is complete with VHS tracking and scan lines as well as snippets from zany advertisements featured during the commercial breaks giving it a great old-school feel.

The story follows nice guy Brent Chirino (Alec Owen) who decides to join the Delta Bi fraternity in an effort to investigate his twin brother Brock’s murder at the hands of Motherface (Olivia Taylor Dudley), a horrifically burned serial killer once believed dead (her backstory is provided through flashback sequences referencing the first two Dude Bro films that don’t actually exist) who has returned from the grave to enact her blood-soaked revenge on all the brothers of Delta Bi.

There’s also a side story involving a satanic police chief (Patton Oswalt) who sets up the dim-witted Officer Sminkle (Brian Firenzi) as a virgin sacrifice for the murderous Motherface with the help of one of his co-workers (Maria Del Carmen). While Dude Bro Party Massacre III isn’t really interested in giving audiences a nuanced narrative or thought-provoking social commentary, the directorial team of Tomm Jacobsen, Jon Salmon, and Michael Rousselet deliver an onslaught of off-color absurdity, raunchy innuendo, and blood by the bucketfuls here to create a wickedly absurd horror experiment that feels like the love child Wet Hot American Summer, Super Troopers and recent genre comedies like Hell Baby or Zombeavers.

Essentially, Dude Bro Party Massacre III feels like a movie you’d expect if the lovable lunatics over at Troma started hanging out with the wacky geniuses from Broken Lizard to create a movie that is a stupid amount of fun but never does it at the expense of the horror genre, and certainly lives up whatever expectations you’d have going into a film about dudes and bros getting massacred.

With a name like Dude Bro Party Massacre III, you can pretty much guess what kind of cinematic experience you’re in for right from the start, but the fact that the movie wears its influences on its sleeve does not diminish the brutally ridiculous 91-minute ride whatsoever. In fact, in some ways, it makes the movie that much more fun because there’s a visible affection for slasher stories and the offbeat genre fare from yesteryear that permeates the entire story. So, while the filmmaking team behind the comedic slasher do an admirable job with their execution for the darkly satirical horror parody, they also end up creating a story that’s uniquely charming with its own off-kilter sensibilities making it a wholly unique movie in so many ways.

In DBPMIII, the humor flies at viewers pretty consistently throughout, with a decent amount of the punchlines sticking their landing. The film is also chock-full of visual gags which fare much better than some of the verbal jokes (due to the hugely talented cast who truly go all out in this indie horror comedy) and all the intricate details put into the film (down to each and every commercial segment featured throughout) makes Dude Bro Party Massacre III feel like something pretty special, especially if you grew up a genre fan in the ‘80s or ‘90s.

DBPMIII also features tons of ambitious and over-the-top gore gags as well as numerous wickedly fun callbacks to all the great (and terrible) slasher movies of yesteryear. The amazing artists at the helm of all this mayhem are Angie Johnson Jo Holland and their ambitious effects team that pull off some audacious blood-fueled kills. As far as villains go, Motherface is one helluva foe, complete with one-liners as she offs her victims in some truly creative ways and I love that the design of the character is an homage to Freddy Krueger, but she’s pretty distinct in her own ways as well.

Dude Bro Party Massacre III also has an interesting array of cameos throughout the film including Larry King, Andrew W.K., John Francis Daley, Nina Hartley, and Greg Sestero who most people know from Tommy Wiseau’s infamous cult film, The Room.

What’s been really cool about Dude Bro Party Massacre III is that it is a film that has gained some traction over the years and has become something of a modest cult classic, which doesn’t happen with a lot of indie horror movies unfortunately. But DBPMIII continues to find its fans, which might be due to Vinegar Syndrome’s “Broterion Collection” release of the film, and I just think it’s so rad when weird and fun movies are discovered and celebrated by movie fans.

While it’s probably not a movie that everyone will enjoy, Dude Bro Party Massacre III is certainly a lot of fun if you’re looking for a zany slasher-inspired comedy that cleverly celebrates everything fans enjoy about eighties-era genre movies that may not necessarily be masterpieces but are still entertaining all the same. DBPMIII also gives us a truly memorable new visage in horror by way of their wise-cracking killer Motherface and I’m still holding out hope for Dude Bro Party Massacre IV.

A girl can dream, right?