Honor Killing Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		1.5

Honor Killing Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf April 10, 2021

“Honor Killing” is a triple threat offering from Mercedes the Muse, who takes on directing, acting, and screenwriting duties, endeavoring to pay tribute to the underground cinema scene of the 1960s and ‘70s. She dreams up a revenge story to follow, and works with digital tinkering to create a “grindhouse” look to the film, which is meant to resemble a battered print. There’s ambition to celebrate the power of feminist might in cult cinema, but Mercedes the Muse has no discernable artistic ability, content to make viewers suffer through the longest 67 minutes of their lives as she cooks up a dreary, incoherent, and amateurish picture about one woman’s quest to kill all predatory men.

A Muslim teenager with a love of education, The Woman with No Name (Mercedes the Muse) is caught by two rapists while walking home from the library, with the violent men taking her virginity in the process of assaulting her. Her Father (Samuel Lopez) can’t take the shame, shooting his daughter in the eye, leaving her for dead. However, The Woman with No Name survives the attack, returning to power with an eyepatch, setting out to kill every lecherous and dangerous man she finds while returning to take care of Father.

“Honor Killing” has the idea of B-movie entertainment, but no real execution. The feature offers friends and family, not actors, taking roles for Mercedes the Muse. It offers what’s best described as “anti-cinematography,” with the camera continuously jostled around, making any appreciation for onscreen imagery next to impossible. And there’s no story to follow, just a series of loosely connected scenes with The Woman with No Name as she travels around the area looking to protect abused females from male violence. She’s a murder machine, and “Honor Killing” doesn’t have any sort of filmmaking finesse to help appreciate such determined brutality, mindlessly serving up lengthy scenes of staring and crummy sequences of torment, watching Mercedes the Muse live out her fantasy of being a drive-in superhero. More power to her, but why must the rest of us suffer?

Honor Killing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation isn't meant to be pretty. The grindhouse-inspired visuals for "Honor Killing" are messy, with clear imagery difficult to come by during the noisy viewing experience. Cinematography is heavily filtered and tinkered with, leaving detail barely passable when it actually appears. Colors register satisfactorily, delivering bright primaries and greenery. Again, this is an amateur production, and that level of artistry is sustained throughout. Artifacting is present, with banding a common sight, along with blockiness.

Honor Killing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 Dolby Digital sound mix also attempts to replicate a worn-out movie, which is perhaps the production's way of covering for technical limitations. Dialogue is intelligible, dealing with dubbed voices and background noise. Scoring maintains a clear synth presence, and harsh soundtrack selections bring some buzzsaw energy to the feature, but offer limited sonic power.

Honor Killing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "Test Kill" (5:21, HD) is billed as early "un-used" footage, highlighting a sequence where The Woman with No Name takes on a murderous creep with a terrible mustache. Blood and bad camerawork ensue.

• "Toxie Toy" (:29, SD) is brief unboxing video featuring Mercedes the Muse as she tears open a Toxic Avenger statue.

• "Toxie Toy Tunnel" (:25, HD) follows Mercedes the Muse into the wild, where she models Troma Entertainment merch.

• "The Tromette" (1:15, HD) is a series of promotional videos for Troma Entertainment, with Mercedes the Muse dancing around with a mop and wearing a "Sgt. Kabukiman" t-shirt, also traveling to an energy facility to pose nude on the front steps. The selection ends with the creator of "Honor Killing" murdering a lascivious man.

• Music Video (1:33, HD) is brief performance clip from the band Escuela Grind.

• A Trailer has not been included on this release.

Honor Killing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Honor Killing" could be truly brave and detail torturous religious oppression, but the writing gets as far as condemning Catholicism before calling it quits. Instead of creating something challenging and rough with real-world consequences for The Woman with No Name, Mercedes the Muse makes an unwatchable, no-budget cartoon that's a far cry from the shameful pleasures of genuine exploitation.