"Netherbeast Incorporated" DVD Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

Netherbeast Incorporated
Year: 2009
Director: Dean Matthews Ronalds
Stars: Darrel Hammond, Steve Burns, Judd Nelson
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Well-Go USA
Running Time: 87 Mins
Official Website: http://www.netherbeastmovie.com/




If you had to blend the elements of “Office Space” with insert any vampire or horror/comedy, then “Netherbeast Incorporated” would be the end result.

The film takes place in modern-day corporate America, vampires run a company called Berm-Tech Industries Inc. The head vampire (Darrel Hammond), in charge has contracted a deadly disease and becomes senile and forgetting that he’s a vampire and starts to off his other vampire colleagues. Soon, he becomes more crazy, when he allows a human efficiently expert (Judd Nelson) and a human (Amy Davidson) to take the place of the dead employee. Soon, they discover that the co-workers are not what they seem to be. While that’s going on, there is someone in the company trying to kill his way up to the top, in this debut film from Dean Matthews Rolands. Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, Newsradio) Steve Burns (Blue’s Clues) Jason Mewes (Clerks, Zack and Miri Makes a Porno) and Robert Wagner (Austin Powers) co-stars, in this film.

Film Review:

“Netherbeast Incorporated” is the “Office Space” of the vampire genre. There were many things that contribute to the film’s success. First, the direction of this film is very good. Dean Rolands, who directs this film, does a very job balancing the humor with the blood and gore. His direction makes this film move at a good pace. The comedic and horror action works very well, with the flow of the film, as isn’t outrageous or completely gory, to the point where it’s overkill. Rolands also does a great job with his actors and making sure that they get their performances down. I’ll talk about the performances, in a minute, but you need good direction, for these performances to shine, and it does here. Rolands make sure that the characters were very vivid, so the humor, in the screenplay comes off as very funny that lets the viewer get the joke and burst in laughter. He also gets the mannerisms down with the characters, especially with Hammond and Nelson’s characters. That’s what makes the comedic action funny.

The screenplay which was written, by Bruce Dellis was very funny and original. He does a great job making this a funny film, as I could clearly tell that films like “Office Space” and “insert any decent vampire film” helped inspired the film’s screenplay. The humor was very good, as the action and jokes very funny enough, to forget a bad day at the office. One of the reasons that this screenplay works is the fact that all the comedic and horror elements were balanced. It’s balance, so that the story can work, both as a comedy and a horror film. It helps makes this film appeal to both comedy and horror genre fans. Another thing that I liked about the screenplay, Dellis goes into the history of this netherbeast, as it helps give background on those characters that are seen throughout the film. Also, the characters were very funny and entertaining. I know that the actor’s performances makes the characters interesting, but in order to get those performances, the material must be written, very well. It was written very well, as the screenplay does have characters that were very interesting and funny.

But what makes this film very successful, the acting. The acting is this film was very funny. This film is filled with very funny performances. But the performance that stands out was from “Saturday Night Live’s” Darrell Hammond. He is probably the one the most underrated performers from that show. In this film, he plays the head vampire in charge. Hammond does a great job delivering his lines, as everytime he was onscreen, he makes his character very senile, which in return makes this very funny. The film also has a very good supporting cast that features the likes of Steve Burns (Blue’s Clues) Dave Foley ( Newsradio, Kids in the Hall), Jason Mewes (Clerks, Zack and Miri Makes a Porno), Amy Davidson ( 8 Simple Rules) and Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club). They also did a great job making their performances very charismatic and funny. It makes the film, very entertaining to watch.

DVD Extras:

First up on the dvd, is the short film that this film is based on. “The Netherbeast of Berm-Tech Industries Inc.”. It was an entertaining short film that’s pretty much the same as the first scene, after the opening credits but has a different ending then that scene. It’s a nice addition, as you can see at least how the feature film version, came about.

Next is the film’s audio commentary track, which features Director/Producer Dean Matthews Ronalds, Producer/Co-Star Brian Rolands, and Writer, Bruce Dellis. This was a very informative commentary track, as the three went into the production, in great detail from stories on the set, to technical aspects that the director uses, in some of his shots, to how some of the cast came aboard, on the project. The only problem that I had with this commentary track was that their were times, where there was just silence. Still, it’s a fairly good commentary track.

Next is the behind the scenes featurette called “Behind the NetherRegions. This was a very good behind the scenes featurette. The featurette lasts about thirty mintues. It went into very good detail, reguarding the production of the film, from the location where the shot to the casting and the orgins of this film. It’s very detailed and very informative.

After that, there is a photo gallery, the original theatrical trailer, and an interview that the Roland Brothers did with a local Arizona TV station reguarding this film and it’s production.

Film Review: Five Stars

Extras Review: Four Stars.