ThanksKilling 3 (2012) Review

Director: Jordan Downey
Stars: Daniel Usaj, Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart, Wanda Lust
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, B-Movie

ThanksKilling 3 is the first movie to skip its own sequel. There was ThanksKilling in 2009 and then ThanksKilling 3 in 2012. So ThanksKilling 3, despite its name, is the second ThanksKilling to be released. The plot of the third one revolves around how the second one was destroyed, but the third one is the second one so it's really the second one pretending to be the third one which is about the fictitious second one. It may sound confusing but it's really not once you watch it. Pretty neat that they're the first to skip their own sequel though.

The story is about how ThanksKilling 2 (fictitious) had all its copies destroyed because it was the worst movie ever. But Turkie didn't like that so he tries to save the last copy in existence. In between all that you have anal vortexes, space worms, turkey hell, Thanksgiving theme parks, talking garbage, and a bunch of other things that make absolutely no sense at all.

If you liked the first ThanksKilling then I think you should check this one out. I don't think it's as good as the first, but I will admit it was nice to see Turkie back in action (though he didn't have nearly as much screen time as he should have). This one has much better production quality, as it had a larger budget (it was funded on Kickstarter) but it's just not as good. Ninety percent of the time the humor is just extremely unfunny. There are some funny parts, and I did laugh a bit, but most of the jokes just didn't do it for me.

There's a lot of stuff happening in this film. You have a crazy assortment of characters; muppet-esque puppets, killer turkeys, space worms and robots, pilgrims, talking garbage, animated gay cats, etc. It's definitely an...adventure. There's also probably a record breaking amount of turkey and worm puns.

I'm sure this film was fun as hell to make. It seems like it was and it obviously doesn't take itself seriously. This alone makes it kind of fun to watch, but I'll admit it was pretty boring at times and dragged. The writing is...the acting is...well, you know what to expect from self-conscious B-movies by now. 

The soundtrack was not to my liking at all. It was really bad dubstep or techno or whatever and it felt really obnoxious. It honestly felt like a music video at times...which, as absurd as it may seem, could have been intentional. Either way I wasn't too keen on it. If you like this particular genre of music then I guess you can tolerate it better...

I will compliment the use of sets. Both regular sets and miniatures. They all had a really stylish and vivid look to them, with smoke everywhere and bright colors...if I could describe it I'd call it...Acid Gothic? I dunno. I especially liked Turkey Hell and the backyard. The sets were nice. The puppetry was intentionally bad and obvious.

ThanksKilling 3 is even less of a horror film than the first one. It's essentially just a Fantasy Comedy. There's no horror elements in here...even for a B-movie. If you thought this would be like Jason X or Leprechaun 4, with the villain in space, you're wrong. The plot is kind of like a homage to The Lord of the Rings. There's an Evil Dead reference, Alien reference, and a few more that are fun to spot.

It's hard to rate a film like this. In theory the film is fucking crazy and absurd and just completely full of what-the-fuckness, and I guess it is, but it's just kind of done poorly most of the time. And not even so bad it's good, just so bad it's even more bad.

If you liked the first ThanksKilling then you'll probably find some enjoyment in this, though I doubt you'll like it as much. I think it's something you should watch at least once though, just for all its absurdity. 

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