Dir. Liam Regan (2022)
Beth Conner is a vegan-goth high school student who falls in love with her teacher. She also develops a taste for human flesh.
Set in the same universe and serving as a pseudo-sequel to director Liam Regan’s first feature My Bloody Banjo, Eating Miss Campbell takes aim at the unfortunately-American phenomenon of school shootings to create an incredibly offensive film that is also laugh-out-loud hilarious and a joy of an indie film to watch. I don’t know that I’ve seen a film that takes more potshots at America since Fahrenheit 9/11, and after the last several years I am here for it. Granted, you have to turn off your victim glasses a bit, because the movie is brutal and nasty, pulling absolutely no punches and aiming the punches they throw as below-the-belt as possible.
Henenlotter High School is going to be hosting an eating competition, the winner of which gets to determine whether they want to commit suicide or go on a school shooting. Beth Conner, the resident goth girl who also happens to be the worst vegan on the planet on account of her taste for human meat. She is also suicidal, having spent a good portion of her life trying to off herself in various ways. She’s certainly in the right place, and after falling in love with her new teacher Miss Campbell, she devises a plan to win the contest and go out with a literal bang. She’s also contending with date rapists, the local mean girls clique, and a new American principal who wants to make money by broadcasting the next school shooting around the world.
Eating Miss Campbell is a Troma film, and by that I mean that it isn’t just produced and released by Troma but that it fits every single expectation that you could have from one of their films. It’s hilarious, tasteless, and just an absolute blast, an indie film from one of the most entertaining indie production companies on the planet. To be fair, everything that makes the film great falls entirely within Regan’s scope, but the cameo by Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman certainly doesn’t hurt. The script is bonkers, paying irreverent tribute to some of the greatest scandals of the last several decades with references to Columbine, Kurt Cobain, and even Harvey Weinstein and 9/11, a skewering of the American culture of violence and cancel culture all in one.
Lyndsey Craine (Beth Conner) and Lala Barlow (Miss Campbell) are excellent as complete sociopaths in a torrid love affair with more than a few casualties. The effects are pretty good as well, better than your average indie flick and on par with some of the better low-budget horror films around. By basing his film within the “horror universe,” Regan is able to throw horror fans plenty of bones, like the aforementioned Henenlotter High School named after legendary director Frank Henenlotter and numerous references to various horror movies throughout. With numerous third-wall breaks, the film serves as a meta commentary on culture as well as horror culture, done very well especially by indie film standards. The soundtrack is awesome as well, with lots of bangers that I went immediately looking for on Spotify.
I’m a big fan of Liam Regan. His movies are entertaining in that “80’s Troma” kinda way, which is perfect for someone who cut his teeth on exactly that. It’s brutal, disgusting, and ridiculously offensive, paying no deference at all to good taste or upstanding behavior. It’s exactly the type of off-the-wall movie that we need in 2022, when people are so afraid to offend their audience that you can hardly make a joke anymore without being cancelled. Regan says fuck absolutely all of that in delivering Eating Miss Campbell, without a doubt the most offensive movie I’ve seen in a while, and he does so with a genuinely funny panache that more indie filmmakers would do well to copy. While the plot can get a little convoluted at times and doesn’t always follow a linear progression that makes sense, it’s a wildly entertaining and uproarious horror comedy that is well worth a watch.
Who this movie is for: Horror comedy lovers, Offensive humor fans,
Bottom line: If you can manage to find it and you’re a fan of Troma, this is one that will be right up your alley and I can’t recommend it enough. Director Liam Regan is 2/2 in my book, and this one is far and away better than his first outing My Bloody Banjo (which I previously reviewed but somehow got lost to history in our site changeover.) That’s saying a lot, because even though Banjo was amateur at times and had an even more juvenile sense of humor, that one wasn’t half bad either, and the two films would be a helluva double feature played back-to-back. Highly recommend that you check this one out whenever it’s available to you, it’s a great throwback horror comedy that hits you right in the funny bone. Bring your barf bag but leave your sense of modesty at home.
