Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Father's Day Blu-ray Movie Review

Pork has wings and icicles have formed in Hades.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 15, 2012

It’s been a running joke for months (or has it been years) at Blu-ray.com’s biweekly staff meetings as we get around to discussing the oft-delayed Troma release Father’s Day. Over and over (and over and over) again, new release dates have been forwarded to us, and like many fans have posted on our threads and elsewhere, it’s just gotten downright silly to even assume that the film would ever be released on Blu-ray. Even a call to Troma’s offices led to a somewhat surreal conversation where I asked if the film was indeed due anytime soon. “Well, of course,” came the somewhat startled reply, to which I obviously immediately countered, “When?” “Well. . .,” and then the sound of virtual crickets. I must admit I actually stated inaccurately at a recent staff meeting, “Let’s face it, this thing is never going to be released,” and so, as if to prove me unquestionably wrong, Troma has of course finally gotten this long delayed product out, albeit evidently in a relatively limited run of 5000 units that may in fact be gobbled up fairly quickly by the film’s rather rabid fan base. Troma has built a reputation on lo-fi fare that makes “typical” lo-fi fare look like big budget Hollywood extravaganzas, and Father’s Day is no exception. Made for the astoundingly miniscule sum of $10,000.00 (and for the most part not looking like it—surprisingly), Father’s Day took the First Place Audience Award at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2011. Father’s Day wants to out-Grindhouse Grindhouse, and to a certain degree, it does. It may not have the spit and polish of a Rodriguez or a Tarantino at the helm, but that only adds to the film’s undeniably daffy allure. But let’s be clear: this is a scabrous, profane, disgusting, depraved and twisted little film. It’s also incredibly funny a lot of the time, at least if you can get past the gruesome gore that spills over the camera lens a rather large amount of the time.

How to describe Father’s Day? If you’ve already seen it, you know there are really no truly adequate words to offer for a film that includes genital mutilation, repeated rapes (of fathers), a questioning priest, a hero named Ahab, and a co-hort with the almost charming nickname of Twink. The best thing to do with Father’s Day is simply go with the flow (of bodily fluids, or otherwise), laugh at what you can, and attempt not to be too disturbed by the frequent eviscerations, acts of sodomy and other grotesque behavior. The basic “plot” of Father’s Day has to do with Ahab, Father John and Twink setting out to find one Chris Fuchman (yes, it is pronounced the way you probably think it is), the so-called Father’s Day Killer who has been decimating Dads in ways which are frankly unprintable on a family site like Blu-ray.com. It should be noted that the film is framed as a late night television outing on the station Astron-6 (the name of the troupe behind the film), and we get quasi-Grindhouse effects like wobbly video, scratches, continuity errors, botched soundtracks and even a commercial about two thirds of the way through.

The film veers into surreality seemingly at the drop of a hat, especially once it’s revealed that Chris Fuchman is not exactly who (or what) we think he (it?) is. While the first part of the film might be thought of as a sort of grotesque road comedy, an piece of experimental theater mixing Grand Guignol with gross-out comedy, by the time our heroes actually invade the halls of Hell to capture their “man” (beast?), the film has tipped over into something so completely outré and odd that a lot of people are either going to be howling with laughter or just plain howling.

Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman (no relation—different spelling) has a long history of discovering talent long before it’s ready (or perhaps suitable) for prime time. Such is the case with the so-called Astron-6, a consortium of five (yes, five) comedians and filmmakers who banded together to make a faux trailer for a supposed Father’s Day film that caught Kaufman’s eye and led to this actual outing (the short is included in this set as a supplement). Astron-6 does it all: writing, acting, producing, the whole shebang, and if they’re not quite at Monty Python’s Flying Circus levels yet, there’s quite a bit of daffy humor here that augurs well for the future of the troupe, especially if they can craft something a bit more mainstream without all the body parts slopping around so messily. In fact the more appropriate comparison might be to another Kaufman “discovery”, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who released their bizarre (and extremely bloody) “musical” Cannibal! on Troma many years ago (a funny interview with Stone is also included in this set as a supplement). If Astron-6 can capture the same spark of manic hilarity merged with pop culture that Stone and Parker have been able to, there won’t be any delaying their next release.

Father's Day Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Is it intentional irony that the long delayed Father's Day Blu-ray sports an MPEG-2 encode? (We'll talk about the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound mix below.) Fear not, however: the film's 1.78:1 1080p presentation is surprisingly spry most of the time, especially when the film veers out of the dark and dank corners that it spends so much time in. When we're offered shots in relatively normal lighting, things pop really rather well, with good fine object detail, well saturated color and an overall very clean and clear image. That said, a lot of the film takes place in very dark settings, and much of this outing suffers from very poor shadow detail and even outright crush on more than one occasion. That's probably only going to add to its lo-fi allure for some.

Father's Day Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Oh, the angry private messages I received when I deigned not to take the Blu-ray release of Grindhouse too much to task when it was released with "only" a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. But the fact is, that mix was relatively robust and immersive, even if it wasn't in a lossless format. Troma had such problems even getting this release out, I guess it's good news that there's a soundtrack at all, even if it is a standard (and at times fairly anemic sounding) Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. What makes this so disappointing with this film is that there's so much great music used as source cues, not to mention a glut of fantastic sound effects, that most certainly would have been amplified (no pun intended) with a lossless setting, whether that be two or five-plus channels. What's here is okay—there's certainly no damage to report (other than intentional "retro" pops, clicks and jumps), and dynamic range is decently wide, but it will be interesting to see if there's a similar Grindhouse-esque brouhaha raised over this film's lack of lossless audio.

Father's Day Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray disc (Disc 1) containing the main feature in high definition also has:

• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:28)

The first DVD (Disc 2) containing the main feature in standard definition also contains:

• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 2:28)


• Deleted Scenes, consisting of "Artie and Mary" (SD; 00:47) and "The Kiss" (SD; 00:49).

The second DVD (Disc 3) features the bulk of the supplementary material:

• Lloyd Kaufman Introduction at Comic-Con (SD; 1;45) starts automatically when you boot the DVD. Pressing the Top Menu button will access other features, or you can just let it play out at which point the Main Menu becomes accessible.


• Deleted Scenes are repeated on this disc as well for some reason.


• Original Father's Day Foreskin (SD; 1:08)


• Original Father's Day Extended Foreskin (SD; 3:44)


• Animated Foreskin (SD; 00:42)


• TV Foreskin (SD; 00:30)


• Behind the Scenes Slideshow (SD; 4:30)


• Make Your Own Damn Fuchman (SD; 4:42) features Chris Kostanski and McKenzie Murdoch giving a makeup demonstration.


• Make Your Own Damn Tire Iron (SD; 1:40) features Adam Brooks fabricating a prop.


• Roll Out the Blood Carpet: Father's Day Premiere Nights (SD; 16:14)


• Troma & Astron-6 Charm Festival of Fear (SD; 4:48) is a Q&A at Toronto.


• Create Your Own Damn Award Winning Movie Poster The Dude Designs Way (SD; 3:25) is a kind of funny faux retro featurette on poster design.


• Super Tromette Elena Recreates the Low Life (SD; 1:16) is a bunch of nude shots.


• Father's Day Article at Rue Morgue Magazine (SD; 2:25) is largely illegible—have your pause button handy.


• Babies the Fathers Gave Birth to Before Birthing Father's Day includes "Lazer Ghosts" (SD; 9:19) and "Cool Guys" (SD; 28:42).


• Patricide Honor Roll contains trailers for other Troma releases.


• Make Your Own Damn Green Screen! (A Lesson by Lloyd Kaufman) (SD; 16:01) shows a bunch of green screen sequences being filmed in Buffalo, New York.


• How the Director Sells His Own Damn Movie (SD; 5:12) is an interview with James Gunn.


• Radiation March (SD; 00:54) is a bizarre little dance piece.


• Interview with South Park's Matt Stone (SD; 25:52).
• CD Sampler of songs from the film's soundtrack.

Father's Day Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You either get Troma films or you don't, it's pretty much that simple. Those with a love for the intentionally schlocky will have a field day with Father's Day, certainly one of the most grotesque, bizarre films yet in the already odd Troma canon. The saving grace here is the film's rather pointed sense of humor, one that takes aim at everything from film lovers' in-jokes to a number of just flat out goofy sidebars the film indulges in as it seeks to decimate the truly nefarious Chris Fuchman (whoever—or whatever—he/it is). This four disc set has surprisingly good image quality (especially for those who may be wary of an MPEG-2 encode), but its Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is a major disappointment. The copious supplements help to at least partially take up the slack, however. I certainly can't come right out and recommend this title, as it's unabashedly gruesome and intentionally offensive. But for those of you who like Troma offerings—and you know who you are—you'll probably be able to overlook the audio peccadillo and delight in the rest of what this set has to offer.