Beth Conner (Lyndsey Craine) is a disaffected outsider goth kid trapped in a nightmare high school where the new principal brought in, Mr. Sawyer (Vito Trigo), is tasked with bringing the out-of-control students in line and comes up with the ludicrous idea of putting on an All You Can Eat Massacre where the winner will receive a loaded gun they can use to off themselves or go on a shooting spree. Meanwhile Beth falls for her charming seemingly like-minded cannibalistic teacher Miss Campbell (Lala Barlow), but young love introduces its own set of problems. To compound all this, Beth feels like she is trapped in a horror movie, fated to die and resurrect in gory schlock over and over again when all she wants is to come back into a romantic comedy instead. Maybe if she can win that gun and go out in a blaze of glory, she’ll get her “happily ever after”.

What the madmen at Troma and writer/director Liam Regan have delivered with Eating Miss Campbell is unfiltered mayhem and craziness on celluloid (or in a digital file on a server somewhere… you know what I mean, right?). This comes as no surprise coming from Troma and the director of the similarly ridiculous My Bloody Banjo but what is surprising is just how much fun it all is. To be frank, the plot is an absolute mess. It’s understandable after seeing some of the extras on the disc and finding out that one of their lead actors (Lala Barlow) had issues with her VISA and was unavailable for a chunk of the shooting which resulted in the introduction of two new antagonists to balance out the film a little more and account for Miss Campbell’s absence in the middle of the film. But let’s all be honest here. No one signs up for a Troma movie for the intricate plot details. The best of what Troma has produced channels a true sense of cinematic anarchy that manifests as pure entertainment in a gross, crass, offensive, fun package, and Eating Miss Campbell definitely fits the bill. Trigo’s Mr. Sawyer in particular is a delightfully unhinged character that steals the show whenever he’s on screen. Additionally Eating Miss Campbell is legitimately funny, unlike some other gross out horror comedies similarly pitched. Not everything lands (the meta element is nonsensical at best), but I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times for sure.

Troma has brought this twisted little film to disc in a very nice, clean digital transfer. While the film is clearly shot on a low budget, there’s no marring or distortion in the image to distract. The audio is provided in both 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. The sound in general is clear and discernible although a little echo-y at times, most likely due to the source material itself. Like I said, this is a pretty low budget movie so you have to expect some imperfections in the filmmaking process. In usual Troma fashion, the disc is absolutely PACKED with extras. First is a very informative audio commentary with director Liam Regan, editor Jack Hayes and sound artist Finn Brackett. It’s certainly jokey at times but is also full of useful info on the making of the movie. If audio commentaries aren’t your thing, we also have a 40-minute making-of featurette “7 Days of Hell” (as a side note, it’s damned impressive that this was filmed in 7 days). There’s also a ton of additional stuff to dig into like outtakes, deleted scenes, a gore reel highlighting the “juicier” bits, a 10-minute raw B-roll and a full hour of raw behind-the-scenes footage. And that’s not all! It also includes some short cast interviews, footage from the FrightFest Premiere, a VFX reel and several nutty Troma-oriented extras. If you come away from this disc wanting to know more about this production, then you weren’t paying attention.

Eating Miss Campbell was quite a surprise, a ridiculous, offensive, weird horror comedy with fun performances and some genuinely funny and clever dialogue. It doesn’t always make sense, but who cares? It’s a hell of a good time!