Drainiac! (2000) Rating: 3.0 stars out of 5.0 stars
Cast: Georgia Hatzis, Alexandra Boylan, Ethan Krasnoo, Samara Doucette, Philip (Phip) Barbour, Robert Gorden, Steven Bornstein, Elizabeth Hurley Written and Directed by: Brett Piper Running Time: 81 minutes
"What's going on?" "A freaking exorcism! Now shut up!" --- A high school student (Ethan Krasnoo) questions some strange goings on and exorcist Leon Plummer (Phip Barbour) answers directly.
A young girl Julie (Georgia Hatzis) is forced to spend the weekend assisting her aloof father fix up a ratty house he intends to sell off. Julie has been having nightmares ever since her mother committed suicide and her father isn't helping matters any. Unbeknownst to Julie and her father, an evil water spirit resides in the pipes of the house and it's out for blood. When Julie's friends Lisa, Jake, and Tanya (Alexandra Boylan, Ethan Krasnoo, and Samara Doucette respectively) come to visit, the evil force decides to make itself known and the four teens must do everything they can to stop it.
Drainiac! is a moderately entertaining low budget horror film from Brett Piper, the director of the Troma classic A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (originally titled Dark Fortress and available on DVD with a great commentary track from Piper himself), and it feels like an Evil Dead film in spirit. In fact, many of the same type of special effects seen in Evil Dead II are similar to the ones seen in this film. I've always been against rampant computer generated effects and I find it refreshing to see good old fashioned stop motion animation and puppetry, and Drainiac! certainly doesn't disappoint in this regard.
The gore effects are done fairly well for a low budget film and some of them even caught me by surprise. There are several instances of flesh melting off of heads, one painful castration, an exploding body, and even an naked evil spirit that rips its head apart to reveal its frightening skull. One particularly well made sequence involves Julie taking a bath when blood starts to pour into the water, completely enveloping her while she relaxes. Eventually what looks like uncooked chicken and umbilical cords start to wrap around her body and pull her into the drain. A very creepy and interesting scene.
There are even some decent moments of humor, mainly brought about by the character of Wade (Robert Gorden), who gets off a few smart ass remarks at some of the other characters before he becomes creepy and tries to attack Tanya. As for the rest of the cast, they perform well and at least two of them are very pleasing to the eye. Georgia Hatzis is pretty attractive and she even does a nude scene before she is covered by the uncooked chicken creature. The most attractive cast member though is Alexandra Boylan who plays Lisa. She has the distinct look of a future Sherilyn Fenn and I hope she continues to work in film. For fans of Elizabeth Hurley, guess what... she's not in this film, but an actress with the same name as her appears as Julie's deceased mother.
Although there are some lapses in logic (such as the character of Leon the exorcist, showing up at the haunted house for seemingly no reason), Drainiac! is still a decently entertaining way to kill an hour and twenty minutes. Spectrum Films is handling the foreign distribution of the film, but unfortunately there is currently no US distributor. If there happens to be a US distributor out there that is looking for a solidly acted, well made horror film that could be a decent repeat renter at the video store I suggest they look towards Drainiac!. I know I'd give this film a try if I saw it on the shelf of my local video store.
For more information about the film, visit Kinetic Image, the web site of the creators of Drainiac! at www.kineticimage.com
Reviewed by Brian Matherly - bmath2000@hotmail.com AOL Instant Messenger: Widescreen25 The Jacksonville Film Journal - http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
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