Director – Steven Reifsteck (McMurderer, Fish Piss)
Starring – Michael Atkinson, Justin Cottingham (Attack of the Killer Potatoes, Blood Pizza), and Doyle Dow (Shrek Crack)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 3/5
I’ve reviewed several films by the indie collective Janice.Click over the years. Starting with the insanely odd McMurderer and followed by Attack of the Scarecrow from Mars, and Shrek Crack.
Since then they have released several other films but I let these releases get away from me. I decided to snag a couple of their releases to finish the collection. When they arrived I quickly added them to my watch list and the first on the chopping block was the 2024 flick Tent Burner.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows two aspiring Satanists who decide to kill a hermit that has been camping deep in the woods in a tent with his dog as a sacrifice. They loot the tent after killing him where they find an old VHS tape and then set fire to it to cover up their heinous act. When they get back to their home they decide to give it a watch and discover the atrocities that were on it. **Spoiler Alert**
Tent Burner doesn’t have the parody style humor that makes the previous films so enjoyable. Films like Attack of the Scarecrow from Mars and Fish Piss mock horror trends and parody a lot of stereotypes that many horror fans are very familiar with now. While Tent Burner does poke fun as some horror tropes, it’s a more serious film that I enjoyed. It’s not my favorite Janice.Click film but I loved it and hope this is a new direction for them.
The acting in this one is exactly what you would expect from this group. The characters all fit the stories fairly well with some standing out a bit more than others. The Juggalo styled story probably had my favorite characters in it and I love how it parodied their lifestyles and stereotypes.
The stories for these vary in quality but they all have a more serious spin to them than previous Janice.Click releases but still poke fun or parody many sub-genres and genre cliches. The segment that serves as the film’s bookend is inspired by V/H/S/ where people watch “disturbing” videos before something bad happens. The segments shown from the VHS are not consist but they do work for shorts. I mentioned it before, but the segment with the aspiring trailer rapper really made me laugh and worked for the most part. None of them over stayed their welcome but I could see them being expanded upon at a later time.
Finally, the film has a lot of blood and some very cheap effects. While a lot of the deaths and effects we do get are forgettable, they fit the film very well. It’s clear that the film has a very low budget and they did the best with what they had. Overall, Tent Burner doesn’t really feel like a normal Janice.Click release but I really enjoyed it. It continues their parody of horror tropes but is much more serious in tone which I enjoy. I definitely recommend this one to indie horror fans so check it out!
