The latest offering from Troma offers up much of what they're famous for; namely gore, violence, politics, bad taste, crude humour, sleaze, gratuitous nudity, and sex. Except that TERROR FIRMER offers up more of this than ever before, mixing it in with a clever-clever self-referential plot revolving around the antics on a Troma movie set and determined to disgust at every moment. This is a film made for Troma fans, in that it's packed with recurring characters, in-jokes, and more. The film is moderately enjoyable in parts, thanks to the fast pacing and the occasionally amusing broad humour, but I've never been a fan of crude humour so a lot of this left me cold.

What this film does have in its favour is a ton of incident, some supremely bizarre moments (the naked man running through the streets is one), a winning performance in front of the camera from Lloyd Kaufman as an amusing blind director, and a whole slew of cheap and funny gore effects. When a film opens with a man getting his leg torn off and then being beaten to death with the stump, you know you're in for something special and TERROR FIRMER is just that, a special movie.

Other schlocky "highlights" include a man getting both legs ripped off in a vehicle accident, an overweight guy getting sucked into an elevator and Kaufman himself exploding in a bomb blast. Things become even harder to stomach in the shock ending which oversteps the boundaries of good taste by a wide mark, but this is surprisingly aware and clever in places and also well-made for a no-budget shocker. TERROR FIRMER is a must-see for Troma fans, and needs a healthy 'beware' to all others.

Terror Firmer, from B-movie outfit Troma, is a two-hour long attempt at being the most offensive movie ever. Packed into this trashy effort, from director and Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufmann, is some of the most disgusting imagery ever committed to film. The trouble is, despite the inclusion of such 'delights' as an unborn baby being ripped from its mothers womb and poo eating, the most offensive thing about this movie is that it ever got made in the first place. All over the world, truly talented film-makers struggle to get their projects into production—meanwhile, Lloyd Kaufmann is regularly churning out reprehensible cack with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I have to admit that I have never been a fan of Troma's output, finding it amateurish and juvenile in the extreme. Their films do have their followers, however, and I suspect that they will find Terror Firmer to be two hours of pure heaven. With practically no plot, very puerile humour (farts, puke, bodily fluids, willies, tits and bums etc), bucket-loads of unconvincing gore and a smattering of sex, your average moron will probably find this movie unmissable.

Starting off with a man being beaten to death with his own leg and the aforementioned foetus removal, the film quickly lets viewers know what to expect. Now I've no problems with sick humour and OTT gore (I've been a fan of Peter Jackson's movies since Bad Taste) but I do like to see some semblance of talent from those involved. Terror Firmer may be extremely violent and outrageous, but with some truly dismal effects, dreadful humour, awful acting, an annoying cast, and no attempt at a coherent narrative (at least until very near the end), this film is something of a challenge to sit through.

The plot, for what it's worth, goes something like this: Larry Benjamin (Lloyd Kaufman), a blind director for Troma is making the latest Toxic Avenger movie. Unfortunately, a psycho killer is bumping off the cast and crew in various grisly ways, making completing the film slightly tricky. The nut-job responsible for the murders turns out to be the film's boom operator, Casey (Will Keenan), a hermaphrodite who had his/her penis cut off by his/her father (played by porn star, Ron Jeremy), who just wanted a little girl so he could abuse her. This has understandably unbalanced Casey mentally, resulting in him/her going completely gaga.

I tried to like this film for its excesses, I really did, but by the end credits I felt like I just wanted to hurt everyone involved in the making of this worthless garbage.

The makers of a Troma film, including its director Larry Benjamin (Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman) are both hard at work and hard at play. Some of its crew members get targeted by a crazed mystery woman (Sheri Wenden), who's busy slaughtering people in inventive ways.

It wouldn't be inaccurate to consider "Terror Firmer" a magnum opus, as far as Troma product goes. It goes on a LOT longer than a typical film from the independent studio, clocking in at almost two hours. As a result, if you're not on board with the kind of crude, graceless tomfoolery on display, that will make sticking with this difficult if not impossible.

Of course, if you're a fan of Kaufman and these guys & gals, you'll be amply rewarded with an amazing plethora of bad taste gags and twisted characters. In his review for the excellent sleeper "Def by Temptation", Leonard Maltin referred to Troma as being "aggressively schlocky", which is as good a way to describe them as any. Here they have tremendous fun just tossing anything resembling decorum out the window. They've always *embraced* the tackiness to be found in many a B picture, and you can certainly see that in a lot of the hammy, campy performances and the onslaught of hilariously crude gore effects.

The cast is enthusiastic as Hell. Future Oscar winners they might never be, but they give this production everything that they've got. Will Keenan, Trent Haaga, and Alyce LaTourelle play the love triangle at the heart of the story, with the appealing LaTourelle cast as the script girl who gets a chance to be an acting star. Uncle Lloyd himself is a gas as the flamboyant director, who happens to be blind. B movie icon Debbie Rochon is fine as temperamental actress Christine; look for cameos by such people as Ron Jeremy, Lemmy, and Joe Franklin.

*Obviously* not to many tastes, but if you love Troma to begin with, you'll likely have a good time.

Inspired by the book "All I Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger", written by Kaufman and Troma alumnus James Gunn.

Seven out of 10.