"The Backlot Murders" review

The Back Lot Murders (2002)

Directed by David DeFalco





Priscilla Barnes.... Stephanie
Corey Haim.... Tony
Lisa Brucker.... Arlene
Jaime Anstead.... Janey Colfax
LoriDawn Messuri.... Wendy

A rock band is filming their video on the "Back Lot" of a certain famous movie studio. I see the "Psycho" House and the set from the "Lost World", (mentioned twice), hmmm...I wonder which studio it could be? It turns out that someone is stalking this "Back Lot" and is looking to commit "Murders". Hence the title "The Back Lot Murders". This is all sponsored by the makers of little brown cigarettes which are smoked constantly throughout the flick.

First, let me say how disappointed I was that the hottest girl in the cast was the first to get killed. We are introduced to a redhead in the first 15 minutes and then she is promptly killed in the next ten minutes. This made me very sad. While the other women had larger breasts and got naked, I felt the redhead was the most interesting (and hottest). I think her name was LoriDawn Messuri although I can't be certain. She's listed as "Wendy" on the IMDb but she'll always be the Redheaded Fog Girl to me. Sorry to see her go. Oh well.

I enjoyed "The Back Lot Murders" but not because I thought it was a well made movie. Let me point out two obvious goofs. When one of the dancing girls gets strangled by the killer with her own bra, you can clearly see she is wearing some sort of white emergency strap underneath. We had already seen a two second glimpse of her naked breasts in one shot and in the next her breasts are reined in by this evil white strap. The other goof has the killer using an ax and hitting a victim in the stomach. The next scene has the ax in the killer's hands again but it's supposed to still be wedged in the victim's stomach! That ax is all over the place. These goofs can probably be overlooked though.

"The Back Lot Murders" was a fun movie. As a horror movie, it's pretty weak. But I did enjoy watching the rock star manager and the director of the video. They were amusing, especially the director. The manager was kind of a turn-on too, (Priscilla Barnes). The blue streak in her hair was working for me. I'm not sure why. Also, there were two short topless scenes with the dancing girls. These scenes never fail to bring a smile to my face. "The Back Lot Murders" works a lot better as a comedic take on Hollywood egos than as a horror flick.

One last thing, speaking of egos, check out the documentary at the end of the movie. The director has the nerve to say this is an intellectual movie (!!!). Now that's comedy. I laughed. He also says that if you look really hard at his flick, you'll see what they were trying to do. Of course, he doesn't bother to tell you what they were trying to do. You'll just have to look hard. Real hard.