Dude Bro Party Massacre III

Dudebro is a blatant farce on found footage movies, on straight-to-TV flicks, on horror tropes, etc.

If anyone has seen the shorts made by 5SecondMovies, the company behind this production, they'll know that all the stupid, often terribly executed effects and plot devices are intentional.

It's a chance to revel in the mediocrity of it all, a chance to sit back and laugh at the actors and the genres the film represents as a whole. It's very self aware, and all-the-more moving in it's desire to be nothing more than fun and fancy-free. Something Hollywood should be more willing to capitalize on in an age where cynicism has become a cruise control to cool.

How to make a faithful third film in a trilogy with no predecessors: Add 1 part homage and 2 parts parody to every 5 parts absurdity. Add knives to taste. Shake well, pour over freshly cut oranges, and serve with incomparable enthusiasm.

Over several years of producing content almost daily, 5secondfilms fed us comedy that was alternately screwball, offbeat, dark, uncomfortably dry, cerebral, referential, and or often just outright absurd. We were also given content that explored horror, or more serious topics. All the while, they dedicated themselves first and foremost to the challenge of telling complete stories in videos that were only 5 seconds long.

Following on the occasional foray into more long-form shorts of a colossal 5 minutes (or more!), 'Dude bro party massacre III' leaps to the only logical conclusion of producing a full-length feature film. Based on a previous 5-second video of long before, it maintains the "anything goes" spirit of that extra-short short, and of 5secondfilms' many others.

DBPM3 is as much an homage to campy slashers of yore as it is a parody, taking aim in particular at dubious titles like 'Slumber party massacre' or 'Sleepaway camp.' The cast of 5sf, with their hands in all aspects of the film behind and in front of the camera, know very well what worked about slasher horror films from the '80s, and what didn't, and treat those aspects appropriately. At the same time, an abundance of their characteristically surreal humor is thrown in - perhaps so much so that a viewer otherwise unfamiliar with the troupe may find themselves just scratching their head.

If anything - trying to step back from a perspective of a 5sf fan, and to view this picture more generally - that is maybe the most notable flaw of the movie. Anyone CAN enjoy 'Dude bro party massacre III,' and it's designed that way. But not everyone WILL enjoy it, because it also is first and foremost a love letter to 5secondfilms' many fans. The absurdist humor can be difficult to parse. Like a lot of comedy, and it seems Internet sketch comedy especially: for all their collective genius, there are some shorts in 5sf's vast filmography that maybe haven't aged well due to the topics they broached, or that in the first place were so wrapped up in their own premise, their own absurdity, that they forgot to be funny. Though not so much as to totally hinder the production, these faults are echoed here as well. None of which is to say that DBPM3 is bad, because it's definitely not - but it's more complicated than a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

5sf's shorts at times included a number of surprising guest stars, and their feature film is no exception as Patton Oswalt, Larry King, and Andrew W.K. make appearances, among others. The real stars, though, are of course the cast of 5secondfilms, and they bring as much talent and flippancy to their roles here as in any of their shorts. One can only hope that the future has big things in store for them all, because if one thing has proven true throughout all of 5sf's content, it's that these folks work very hard, are very funny, and have the skills to pull off just about anything.

'Dude bro party massacre III' is essential viewing for fans of 5secondfilms, or for anyone who appreciates Internet sketch comedy generally. For a more general audience it may be a lot to take in, but not impossibly so: approach with an open mind, relax your body and your preconceptions, and soak in the very unserious fun.

While more complicated than a simple good-bad dichotomy, the heart and energy that is poured into this movie make it very clear that this is the same 5secondfilms - just in a much longer format. Whether it's entirely up your alley or not, DBPM3 is a an appropriate, well-deserved capstone to years of entertaining content.

Full disclosure: I've been a fan of 5SF for years and even bought tickets to the world premiere at the LA Film fest so I'm probably a fanboy.

There are a plethora of horror comedies out there, and many self aware entries into the genre will poke fun at their own tropes, but never before like this. The best summary of DBPM3 I could give would be Friday the 13th mixed with Airplane mixed with the volleyball scene from Top Gun. The film has one of the highest jokes per minute rate of any I've ever seen: any duds or misses are swiftly forgotten when another joke is laid out less than 10 seconds later. It grabs a hold of your funny bone and mercilessly throttles it, I felt physically exhausted by the end.

Even though it is a satire of 80's slashers, most of the jokes are timeless, and don't require extensive knowledge of the genre/time period to understand (and good thing too, I imagine the target audience was still in diapers during the 80's). It attempts to recreate the poor quality film making of low budget slashers, and largely succeeds, to the point where I couldn't tell which mistakes were intentional (i imagine most of them)

The only stumbling block for me was the side plot involving Officer Sminkle. Although funny at times, it seemed to drag on, and was only tangentially related to the plot. For me it never seemed to join cohesively with the action at the frat.

My advice? Get a group of friends and a case of beer before viewing this movie. It is strong on its own merits, but seems to have been created with group viewing in mind.

So this is a low budget comedy horror flick that is recommended on a lot of specialized sites as a have to see flick. So I did and what I saw left me with mixed emotions.

I've been saying it for years, comedies in the horror genre coming out of the USA are mostly not funny at all and this is anothet example. The jokes are childish, bizarre and never even I got a smile on my face let even say that my lips moved once. But I guess this kind of humor isn't for me.

So I start watching it as a horror flick and that was much better. The story itseld is pure slasher style but it's the effects used that are a must see. Not that they are Oscar worthy but the first 10 to 15 minutes are really a gorefest. Once the movie starts you really have to wait more then an hour before things go messy again. But for me those first minutes are the best of this flick.

Overall a crappy flick with almost nothing to tell.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 3/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

There are only very extreme reviews out for this movie, and I want to add another more moderate one. I think it is obvious to anybody who has seen even just the trailer that this movie is neither 10/10 nor 1/10 stars. I give it a good 7/10, because it delivers on its main goal: to entertain.

The movie itself is a weird mixture of gore, references and jokes, and that is a very peculiar combination and certainly not for everybody. But if you know what you are getting into and you get on board with it, it can be a very entertaining and enjoyable ride. Most of the characters aren't very fleshed out and the story is obviously ridiculous, but this is to be expected from such a movie. The execution is pretty impressive, not just for the given budget. The (over)acting is very passable and at times even good, which helps set the tone for the film (obviously bordering on silly).

This is not Oscar material, and it is not a huge studio production, but I found it to be quite entertaining and funny and worth a (re)watch. Keeping in mind that this is a micro-budget film, I might even have gone a little higher, but in the big picture, this boils down to a 7/10 for me.