Killer Rack (2015) Review

Proving I’ve a somewhat Pavlovian respone to notificaions from Letterboxd, I was notified that KILLER RACK was now available on Prime Video and immediately watched it. It turned out that notification was a trap – a booby trap.

Betty Downer (Jessica Zwolak), fed up of being ignored by her boyfriend and overlooked at work, makes a decision to be up front about the cause of her low self-esteem and schedules breast enhancement surgery after seeing a commercial for a clinic run by Dr Cate Thulu (Debbie Rochon). Little does Betty know that her surgeon is a worshipper of the Elder Gods seeking a host for a demonic D-cup entity that’s intent on a blood thirsty rampage to world domination.

Despite its puerile premise, there’s clearly an intent for KILLER RACK to be a satire on the objectification of women in general and breasts in particular and while the subject is ripe for exploration and heavy with comic potential, with a script this basic in the hands of performances and direction this rudimentary, it’ll take more than the cinematic equivalent of a Wonderbra to hold this up.

The comedy is so broad that were it any wider it would likely circumnavigate the globe and, unfortunately, most of the jokes end up pretty wide of the mark too. There’s a scattergun approach to cinematic in-jokes, taking in everything from the obvious FRANKENSTEIN and BATMAN references to the more esoteric, such as a witless cat-calling pastiche of Jay and Silent Bob, but what humour there is ends up beaten into submission by the cast, most of whom deliver their lines like they’re reading them for the first time.

Low budget schlock with lower standards of execution, KILLER RACK was probably a lot of fun to make but not, unfortunately, to watch. Too coy to really deliver on its titillating premise, and saddled with too many low-energy performances which only make the over-the-top ones stick out, this is one low-brow high-concept horror-comedy that’s a total bust.

3/10