Following a successful web-comic on Troma’s website in the early 2000s, Lloyd Kaufman wanted to expand it further. He signed a contract with adult film star India Allen to produce two digitally-shot films and a TV series. Unfortunately, a year into production, the footage presented to Kaufman was unwatchable, and the entire budget was gone. Kaufman and his business partner, Michael Herz, were unhappy about what had happened and needed a plan. So, to try and salvage the footage, they decided to turn the two movies into one anthology film. Filming began in 2003 around New York and Los Angeles, though the production problems were just getting started. Alongside dealing with an incompetent crew, many scenes had to be redubbed and stitched together to make it work. After a rather tumultuous post-production period, Troma finally released Tales from the Crapper in September of 2004.
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Synopsis
Our illustrious master of ceremonies, the Crap Keeper (Lloyd Kaufman), presents us with two stories to get the juices flowing. The first tale, “The Case of the Melon Heavy Alien Man Eater,” involves a man-eating alien who becomes a stripper. Sgt. Ivana Dance (Julie Strain) goes undercover to investigate the bizarre murders happening at The Shimmering Beaver strip club. The second tale, “Tuition of the Terror Twat”, involves Timmy (Rob Zazzali) losing his college tuition money. His skinny buddy (Andy Lazarus) and friend Racoon Head (Jorge Garcia) decide to host a stripper party to raise money. They hire Demanda (Julie Strain) and her girls, but it turns out the strippers are vampires who slaughter the partiers. In between these stories, the Crap Keeper reads fan letters and teaches us how to make our damn movie. It’s a cornucopia of blood, boobs, and bad jokes in Tales from the Crapper!
Review
Considering the production problems that happened, it’s a wonder that Tales from the Crapper even exists in the first place. While it’s admirable that they tried to salvage this whole debacle, it might’ve been better to cut their losses. Still, $200,000 is a lot of money for Troma, so I understand them wanting to make some effort. You can quickly tell what footage was shot by India Allen by the horrible lighting and obvious dubbing. Unfortunately, the reshoots aren’t much better, though they are more watchable, and you can hear the original audio. The Troma team tried spicing up the unwatchable footage by adding gore, nudity, and tons of politically incorrect humor. Unfortunately, much of the comedy comes off more obnoxious than humorous, especially the intentionally lousy dubbing and the patented “Boner-Vision.” Admittedly, when they change it to “Doggie-Vision” at one point, that was kinda funny.
Since the filmmakers added dubbing due to the bad sound, it’s hard to gauge their acting without hearing their voices. It also doesn’t help that you can’t tell what’s happening most of the time because of the poor filmmaking. That said, the late Julie Strain is trying to make the most of the material by chewing the scenery. We also get fun cameos from Troma alumni James Gunn, Joe Fleishaker, Trey Parker, Eli Roth, and Trent Haaga. Additionally, the gore they added in post-production is pretty impressive, given the lack of available resources. In addition to the “Boner-Vision,” the sound will frequently cut to a fake commentary track talking about the poor quality. While these can make the viewing experience harder, it’s nice to see them self-aware of the disaster unfolding. Overall, Tales from the Crapper is awful on a technical level but somewhat admirable given the circumstances.
Buy Tales from the Crapper from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Xw8Qgu.
