From director Bret McCormick (Repligator, Ozone: Attack of the Redneck Mutants) comes this delirious lo-fi special effects-on-the-cheap romp. A grown ass man named Cody lives with his religious nut mother who is obsessed with a specific televangelist. When his mom vomits up a carnivorous, sentient tumor, Cody is dismayed to find that the tumor has crawled its way into his body during the night while he was sleeping and has taken over his mind. Cody is then compelled to kill on command in order to feed the tumor or face its wrath. Unfortunately for Cody’s friends and family, the abomination isn’t picky about who it eats and Cody is powerless to stop it.

The Abomination is the kind of low budget flick that I tend to dig that really strives to give you your money’s worth. Like a cross between The Deadly Spawn and Little Shop of Horrors, the surprisingly decent practical effects are the stars of the show. Deliriously gory in an early Peter Jackson kind of way with big chomping tumor monsters and lots of murder scenes, The Abomination is not shy about putting its effects at the forefront and reveling in them. The acting from the lead Cody (played by Scott Davis) is actually a bit of a step up from the usual amateur hour these productions typical showcase. The supporting cast (probably mostly friends and family) is as low-rent as one would expect but they do show a kind of enthusiasm for the gleeful carnage not often seen in these kinds of productions. The obvious non-professional actor playing the televangelist especially seems to be having a lot of fun, with all the farting and being eaten on the toilet, Ghoulies-style. The film comes across even more impressive when, after going through the extras, Weng’s Chop Magazine maestro Tony Strauss mentions that it was shot in ten days with no detailed script and little to no actual film crew. Basically the actors and family members on set would do whatever was needed when they weren’t in a scene. You gotta love this kind of run-and-gun filmmaking, especially when it creates something this fun to watch.

Given that we’re dealing with a film shot on Super 8 and edited on tape, this movie will never look good. As such, the transfer is full of scratches and scan lines that show its low quality origins. Still, it isn’t going to look any better. I don’t see McCormick going back and re-editing the whole film from the original Super 8 footage any time soon. The audio is also a little muffled but fares better in general compared to the transfer with the groovy, ’80s pulsing synth score coming across pretty well.

Like with most of Visual Vengeance’s releases, the extras are where they truly shine. First we have two audio commentaries: one with director McCormick moderated by the Visual Vengeance guys and one from Weng’s Chop Magazine guru Tony Strauss. Tony’s is definitely the better of the two. He’s animated and chock full of useful information and fun observations that make the commentary a joy to listen to. We also get a director interview that spans an hour+. Some of the material here overlaps with his commentary but if you aren’t into commentaries, this format works too. Plus he also talks much more extensively about his previous film Tabloid and how it led to The Abomination. We also have interviews with two of the actresses in the film, one of whom also happens to be Bret McCormick’s mom apparently. Personally the most interesting to me of the interviews was with Michael Jack Shoel of Donna Michelle Productions, the company that was the primary distributor of The Abomination on VHS back when it was first released. I rarely see the distribution side of the film business being shared, particularly in the realm of low budget, direct-to-video releases. So this was actually pretty interesting to hear about to me personally. We also have some brief behind-the-scenes and location tour featurettes, a bunch of outtakes and raw footage, a collection of trailers for other Bret McCormick films, an image gallery and a compilation of some early Super 8 films that McCormick shot with friends when he was younger. Also on disc is a text-only interview with “The Abomination” itself. I mean… I guess that’s cute, huh? On the physical side, this also happens to be one of the more packed releases Visual Vengeance has put out. It includes the usual slipcover, mini-poster and old school-style VHS stickers, but it also has a booklet with an essay written by Tony Strauss too. This is a nice little supplement if you aren’t in the mood to consume the hours of extras on the disc but still want some insight into the film. Plus it also includes a neat 12-page comic book that basically re-creates a few scenes from the film in an EC Comics-esque style. Definitely a fun extra to have!

Any movie that has the confidence to start with a 3-minute highlight reel of all the gory scenes from it has to be admired for sheer audacity. I frankly had a ball with this nutty, weird flick, and you will too!