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The tagline for Anthoy Cooney’s Leaf Blower Massacre is, “When autumn arrives, no one survives.” That’s a super clever tagline. Sadly the film doesn’t quite live up to it but that’s not to say it’s a bad film. You may remember Cooney’s name from my recent review of The Dirty Sanchez. This is more of the same from Cooney and while it isn’t great there are some noteworthy items here.
The film is 12 minutes long and has 2 minutes of opening credits. That seems like a weird choice but whatever. The film opens with a shot of a little boy looking out the window on an autumn day. Side note, this little guy is cute as hell and totally reminds me of my youngest. In reviewing the credits this is Cooney’s son. Super cool.
After a title card and a fade we get a “20 years later” line so I’m assuming the kid we say in the intro is the killer? We’re never told so I’m really not sure.
Anthony asked me to keep this spoiler free so I’ll certainly do that. I’ll post the full film at the end of my review for you to check out. I’ve got a couple of questions that simply need to be asked:
- What’s so scary about a leaf blower?
- Is this guy blowing people to death?
- Is he beating them over the head with it?
- What if he doesn’t have a power outlet for his blower?
There are some good things here. There are some good blood / gore effects. This is clearly made on a budget and shot going for a certain “look” and I think it’s fair to say that Cooney nailed it. I’m pretty sure I saw the same front yard from The Dirty Sanchez at one point. I’m just not quite sure why this killer is so scary. I did get a giggle out of the line, “Take my boobie cards.” You’ll know it when you see it. There’s some other dialog such as, “I’m gonna blow your brains better than your girlfriend ever did,” that if I wasn’t such a horror nut would be groan inducing. As it is I enjoyed it.
Leaf Blower Massacre is clearly an homage to “gritty” films such as Texas Chainsaw. There’s even a scene where the killer here holds his blower aloft a la Leatherface in a nice nod.
Leaf Blower Massacre Teaser
Recommendation
I’ve never met Anthony Cooney but I’m pretty willing to bet that Leaf Blower Massacre is a passion project. It’s clear that he’s put a lot of thought and effort into making it and the attention to detail that he’s put into his packaging, his cover art and DVD extras alone make it worth watching. There’s not a lot in the plot department here but there typically isn’t when it comes to the grindhouse sort of flicks. Give it a watch… it’s only 12 minutes long and once you get past the silly stuff there’s some good things there.
You can find more about Leaf Blower Massacre on the film’s Official Facebook page, on IMDB or by following director Anthony Cooney on Twitter @Leafmassacre. There’s also a feature length sequel in the works – www.facebook.com/Leafmassacre2
