Director – John Wesley Norton (Space Daze, Spades)
Starring – Michael Wexler (Spaced Out, Paranormal Calamity), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep), and Joe Estevez (Beach Babes from Beyond, Death Row)
Release Date – 2015
Rating – 3/5
Tagline – “Do harm”
As most of you may know, I am just now getting back to horror after taking last month off to watch some exploitation/sexploitation flicks that have been sent to me over the years to review. I felt bad for skipping them to review horror so I thought I would dedicated a month to those less desired films. Now, I have slowly made my way back to the genre I love.
I recently checked out the horror comedyOMG…We’re in a Horror Movie and was not impressed by it at all. I felt that I really needed to follow up that lackluster horror comedy with another. Sometime ago I was contacted on the Horror Society page to review the filmDoctor Spine. As most of know, I can’t turn down a new horror flick so I accepted the challenge. I want to thank director John Wesley Norton for taking the time to send the movie my way. Thanks John!
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows chiropractor Doctor Spine (Wexler) who is having dreams he has a hard time getting over. He has been seeing a shrink who has been helping through this but is having a hard time getting through to him. He decides to try an experimental procedure with Doctor Spine involving a good aspect of his life and a bad aspect. He hypnotizes him and has him think of someone he loved greatly and someone that has effected him negatively.
He thinks of his father and a villain from a book series he read as a child. Sadly, he also brings about repressed memories about his father resulting in two negative figures in his mind competing for control. This sends Doctor Spine into a killing spree with only the girl who secretly loves him there to stop him. Also, Tiffany Shepis is there and hot as a hot pepper on a sunny day. **Spoiler Alert**
Doctor Spine was not the type of film I expected. From the name I immediately thought I was getting into a horror host type flick like The Ghouligans. However, once I started watching the film I realized that I was a fucking idiot and the story was directly connected to the title.
The acting in this one is all over the place. The cast is not consistent and neither is the writing and development for the characters they portray. The cast goes through scenes where they are overly serious while following that up with large bouts of inappropriate humor that does not fit the scene it was written for. We then get comical scenes that are dry of humor when it should have been there. I can’t fully blame the cast for this but it does drag most of the scenes down.
The story for this one is entertaining but far from perfect. I really enjoyed the dueling psyches that turns a chiropractor into a killer. This was very clever but had too much other stuff going on that it pulled away from a film. Left with just the story it would have been one hell of a late night horror flick. A great deal of the unnecessary characters and their scenes could have been cut to move this story along at a better pace. The writing and editing needed to be a little tighter.
Finally, the film has several on screen kills but they are far from entertaining considering how awesome they could have been. Seriously, the dude is a chiropractor. Instead, a great deal of the kills take place off screen which is obviously due to budget restrictions. The practical effects we get are very limited and far from perfect. The film relied more on humor than it does gore which is a real let down considering the film could have been this generations Dr. Giggles or The Dentist.
Overall, Doctor Spine is a fun little indie horror comedy that fits well into any late night horror marathon. The film is far from perfect but does have some redeeming qualities. If you like some cheese with your horror then you will enjoy this one.
