Ethel (Dixie Gers) has gotten her ass in the soup right good this time. Institutionalized for the murder of her uncle Joe (Brian Dorton), she’s abused by patients and staff alike before finally using the fact that she was raped by some (dis)orderlies to leverage being transferred to he care of her aunt Joyce (Jenny Coulter).
True to form, Ethel soon begins eating her aunt out of house and home (while watching cooking shows no less… at least she’s all in on that binge eating shit). Joyce reaches her limit and locks up all the food in the house which naturally leads to Ethel becoming a murder machine once more!
But there are consequences for her ways, and soon all those missing persons begin to cause static for ol’ Ethel in the form of a police detective (William Allen Nugent) who becomes mighty suspicious of our anti-heroine… but Ethel is no slouch in covering her tracks.
Will anyone be safe from Ethel’s appetite for death and bacon… not in that order?
I’m not going to beat around the bush; this is a horror re-make that gets shit right! The original recipe version of Crazy Fat Ethel (more commonly known as Criminally Insane) was one hell of a sleazy, off-kilter good time, and the filmmaker responsible for this version, Brian Dorton (who’s name you may recognize from a previous paragraph unless you have zero short term memory), latched onto the depraved elements of the original and then cranked the knob on the trash-o-meter up to ten, busted it off, and shoved it directly up the ass of common decency. Truly the hero us horror hounds need!
Seriously though, the gore quotient is gleefully amped-up, as is the nudity… and we get some truly fantastic nightmare imagery, as well as a cast that looks like they live the goddamned life… it’s kinda nuts how much this flick succeeds on it’s own merits while paying pitch-perfect homage to the source material.
Speaking of the cast, Dixie Gers, who takes over the role of Ethel from the legendary Priscilla Alden, is absolutely perfect and I would wager she had one hell of a great time filming this glorious filth!
So the main event is well and truly the ghoulish goods, but this release has more to offer as for the price of admission you also get a peek behind-the-scenes, an extended version of the cooking show featured in the film, a Q&A sesh with those involved, and the film’s trailer.
Crazy Fat Ethel is a rarity; a re-make that honors the original and manages to out do it in equal measure, and to that end I recommend puttin’ you putrid peepers on it as soon as ya can (just have some bleach on hand to splash on them after you watch)!
