Transgressive comedy is an art form requiring much more thoughtfulness than the leading term implies. To indeed subvert expectations and norms to shock, while at the same time applying humor can often lead to the intended message being misunderstood. At the most basic level, think about “South Park,” a show that has run for over 26 seasons and shows no signs of stopping. It has found a format that uses shock value to lampoon aspects of modern society continuously, to what degree of success depends on the viewer, but its length of tenure does say something about how palatable it has become, even if it didn’t start that way. But this isn’t a “South Park” website and we’re here to talk about horror, or in this case, horror comedy. From the folks who have worn transgressive like a badge of honor for over 50 years, Troma Entertainment comes “Eating Miss Campbell” from writer/director/producer Liam Regan. Does this transgressive horror comedy make us chuckle, or is it just corny?

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A vegan-goth high school student falls in love with her new English teacher and develops a problematic taste for human flesh.

HOW IS IT?

We’ve always had a soft spot for Troma here in the crypt as it was a foundation for becoming the horror fans we are today, and it’s safe to say that without “The Toxic Avenger,” “Sgt. Kabukiman,” “Bloodsucking Freaks,” and more we would likely have a very different sense of taste. However, not all Troma films are made equally (something they share in common with Charles Band’s Full Moon Features) and over the years the emphasis on shock has often taken the wheel while aspects like interesting characters and subtle, but socially conscious commentary have become full-on assaults aimed at offending. “Eating Miss Campbell” falls squarely into this new paradigm by unapologetically trying to piss the viewer at every opportunity. The problem is, in trying so hard to trigger the viewer it fails to do what Troma used to do best, provide biting commentary on sensitive social topics that make sense in the scope of a movie. “Eating Miss Campbell” isn’t a bad movie per se, but it wants you to know how “edgy” it is and that becomes stale pretty fast.

The setup for “Eating Miss Campbell” is actually quite fun, Beth Connor (Lyndsey Craine) is stuck in a loop where no matter how she offs herself, she keeps ending up in horror movies (very similar to the premise of Image Comics’ “Love Everlasting”) and not romantic comedies like she wants. This plot point is compelling, but it feels tertiary when it should be the primary focus of the story, like a “Happy Death Day” for Indie Horror. In Beth’s current instance, she’s a 17-year-old at a high school in the UK that is bringing in American consultants to help boost its school shooting PR presence. When a new teacher, Miss Campbell (Lala Barlow) is hired, both Beth and Miss Campbell hit it off over a shared love of eating people, particularly folks in and adjacent to the high school leading them both to fall for each other, kind of. While this may sound interesting to some extent, the execution leaves a lot to be desired largely because the original premise about Beth being stuck in a “horror loop” is pretty much entirely forgotten until the last 5 minutes of the movie. What’s left is a series of well-made, but edgelord-like gags that want you to react to them so badly you can almost feel the movie winking and nudging you every time it does something “offensive.” From pedophilia and Weinstein jokes to cannibalism and school shootings, there is such a concerted effort to try and trigger the audience that the plot itself suffers from bearing none of the weight of the story as much as being a vehicle for an onslaught of not very good humor. The saddest part is, that it can hardly be called “offensive” because to offend one has to actually care about what they’re watching. Begging the question, what’s the point?

Writer/Director Liam Regan seems intent on making movies aimed at the lowest common denominator, and we love our trash (just look at some of our prior reviews), but trash cinema has to come from a place of genuine desire to make something bold, interesting, or even entertaining. Instead, “Eating Miss Campbell” is just for the lolz and whose laughing is anybody's guess. Rather than trying to offend regardless, there was a genuine opportunity here to call out how we have normalized violence in schools in the US to such an extent that it is bleeding into other societies. Furthermore, a series of missed opportunities to call out how the media thrives on these kinds of situations, calling to question the complicity of news and tragedy in such a way that would deeply resonate in our current climate. That’s now what “Eating Miss Campbell” seems inspired to do, and it’s apparent in how uneven and disorganized the whole story is. The social critique is rice paper thin, and the humor is a sledgehammer busting open any opportunity for something thoughtful in favor of something shocking which eventually hits a profound level of fatigue in only 30 minutes of an 84-minute runtime. “Eating Miss Campbell” is a painful slog after the first act, with only a slight redemption near the end and with the most redeeming quality being the commitment to practical effects that, for all intents and purposes look quite good. It’s unfortunate, but ultimately unsurprising that a film so focused on offending misses the entire point of taking offense in the first place, but there is an audience for this film out there, it’s just not us.

HOW DOES IT LOOK?

“Eating Miss Campbell” is a relatively recent production having completed additional filming and releasing in 2022. Given this was shot digitally, it makes light work of transferring that image to Blu-ray in 1080p with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. While the film looks fine, it isn’t a perfect transfer and does contain some choppiness in parts that should be crystal clear and have decent color grading which makes the gorier moments stand out. Aside from various shades of blood, guts, and viscera, the film doesn’t rely heavily on a lot of vibrant color tones opting more for darker ones akin to the goth stylings of its lead character. Images from this release are used throughout this review.

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

The 5.1 surround sound mix included with “Eating Miss Campbell” is good, but somewhat underutilized. The music consists of distorted guitar riffs a la punk rock, and the sound effects sound quite good and have some depth. That said, it doesn’t take full use of the rear channels as much as is very center-focused so it isn’t going to be a new benchmark for your home theater system. The dialogue is balanced nicely against the rambunctious soundtrack and effects, and there are English subtitles included for those who prefer to watch with them as we do.

ANYTHING SPECIAL?

Perhaps the best aspect of this release is the dedication to supplemental features, something that is becoming a lost art in some cases. For fans of “Eating Miss Campbell,” there is a lot to feast on, including a 37-minute Making of Documentary which details the journey the film has had while filming during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial 70-page draft was shot but was rather short thus leading the team to reconvene and shoot additional coverage, not reshoots. This documentary follows that 7-day additional coverage shoot and is more of a series of BTS snippets pieced together with title cards to provide reference about time passing. It’s an interesting, but rather straightforward affair that gives an intimate look at a bootstrapped indie production and the kind of snags you can run into such as getting blood on the walls of a rented building and having to repaint it, and the delays that come from that. While we weren’t huge fans of the film itself, we hold no ill will against the filmmaker and the crew who are all doing their best to bring forward Liam’s vision and the kind of camaraderie that comes from working together in such an intensely packed shooting schedule. A full list of special features is listed below.

Special Features

Audio Commentary
Making Of Documentary
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Gore Reel
Raw B-Roll
Cast Interviews
Frightfest Premiere
Behind The Scenes Footage
VFX Reel
Introduction from Lloyd Kaufman
Trailers

LAST RITES

“Eating Miss Campbell” wants to offend you so badly that it eschews its interesting premise for shock value without subtext. The resulting film is certainly an acquired taste that will likely turn away more viewers than it brings in, but maybe that’s the point. The supplemental features are the star of the show here, so fans of this film will have a lot to devour unless they find themselves unfulfilled by the film’s main course.

THE GORY DETAILS

Thank you to the fine fiends at MVD Entertainment for providing a review copy for the crypt! Eating Miss Campbell is available now and can be purchased via MVD DIRECT!

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Nov 4, 2020

Matthew Orozco