Toplining former "Partridge Family" moppet and broadcast personality Danny Bonaduce in an unkinder, ungentler mode, this deadpan thriller turns the shot-on-tape format to its advantage. The film's close similarities to the Belgian shocker MAN BITES DOG are especially interesting when one
considers that this film was shot in 1991, a year ahead of MAN.
The narrative is presented from the POV of a camcorder owned by Dougie (Danny Bonaduce), who tapes everything he does, to the annoyance of wife Debbie (the star's real-life spouse Gretchen Bonaduce). After finding Debbie cheating on him, Dougie hits the road, intending to create a "video diary,"
and accidentally tapes a criminal trio led by Clint Dryer (Mick Wynhoff). They catch him, and though hot-tempered Vezna (Mollena Williams) wants to kill the natural born voyeur, Clint decides Dougie should join them and document their rampage of small-town robbery and murder on video--or else.
Clint soon insists Dougie take part in the robberies, but his first target turns out to be armed also. After a video store holdup becomes a bloodbath, the group holes up at a house, killing the owner. Meanwhile, Dougie has struck up a friendship with Clint's reluctant girlfriend Gloria (Melora
Walters). Clint, suspecting Gloria's interest in Dougie, ties her up and threatens her, but Dougie overpowers him and Vezna, and escapes with Gloria. The two are pulled over by a patrol cop, and the result is a bloody gun battle that leaves Gloria, Clint, and Vezna dead and Dougie the only
survivor--the whole incident captured by cameras from the TV show "Real Lawmen."
While the flat, cheap look of video ill befits dramatic storytelling, DEADLIEST writer-director Jack Perez legitimizes the shot-on-tape medium that gives events a scary verisimilitude, as when the camera turns away from a robbery victim as gunfire breaks out, and pans back to find her lying dead.
The approach allows Perez to throw some well-aimed barbs at the video age. As amateur videotape of one of the gang's robberies airs on the news, Clint haughtily puts it down, knowing his footage is better. When Clint brings the camera and Gloria into a motel room for a videotaped bondage session,
the battery dies just as things are getting hot.
Having a true-crime camera crew on hand to cover the violent climax is beautifully ironic and works well on a dramatic level. AMERICA'S DEADLIEST HOME VIDEO, primarily released to the small screen, works better on TV (due to its format) than many early '90s genre titles.(Graphic violence, nudity,
sexual situations, substance abuse, extreme profanity.) leave a comment
