Starring - Dorothy Booraem (Blood Rites, Wake the Witch), Joe Castro (Terror Toons, Jackhammer), and Jason Paul Collum (October Moon, 5 Dark Souls)
Release Date - 2019
Genre - Horror
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)
Rating (out of 5):
Several months back I reviewed the 2017 horror documentary Penny Pinchers from filmmaker Dustin Ferguson. It was a pretty entertaining documentary with a lot of great interviews with some legends in the indie horror community. When I was writing my review for the doc I noticed that Ferguson had made a sequel focused on underground filmmakers. The DVD release wasn't available at the time but since then Ferguson has released it as a double feature with the original. I snagged it when it was available and after watching Stale Popcorn I figured another horror documentary would be fun.
The documentary focuses on indie filmmakers that make genre films that go against the trends. We have interviews from filmmakers and effects artists like Markus Koch, Sean Donohue, Jason Paul Collum, Tony Newton, Chris Woods, and Jason Impey to name a few.
The first Penny Pinchers documentary stands out because we are getting interviews and insight from filmmakers that usually go overlooked by other documentary filmmakers. Docs like Eli Roth's History of Horror and Cursed Films focuses on movies that have huge followings with extremely dedicated fans. These films have been put through the ringer and examined under a microscope by horror fans. It's because of this that these films and the behind the scenes stories are common knowledge now. Penny Pinchers put a spotlight on no budget filmmakers that have their have their own dedicated fan base but don't fit in with the mainstream. Penny Pinchers 2 took it a step farther by interviewing indie filmmakers that have been involved with the underground or extreme horror community. The interviews we have here are not as in-depth as I would have like but still informative. The focus, from my understanding, was underground directors. When horror fans hear the word underground horror they expect to see films that push the boundaries of what horror is which is where the term extreme horror comes from. Some of the filmmakers here are not what I would call underground filmmakers but they are penny pinchers in a sense so that makes sense they were here. However, I think a few could have been removed for a possible sequel with more time for the underground filmmakers to talk more about their films, struggles, and so on. The topics discussed are rather chaotic and in no order. We pretty much bounce from filmmaker to filmmaker with little to no organization. I would have loved to see this one approach single topics at a time like money, drama, casting, success, and so forth. It would have made it a lot easier to follow and way more enjoyable. Finally, the editing in this one is smooth and the transitions work. It's not a jumbled mess like some of the other indie docs I had seen but I didn't expect anything less from Ferguson. Overall, Penny Pinchers 2 is a blast. Some real legends are finally getting some much needed notice with this and I seriously hope Ferguson gives us another installment with more indie filmmakers. Check it out.
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