Dear God No!

Dear God No! takes place over 24 hours with the nastiest biker gang in cinematic history. We begin with their breakfast at a drive-in (clever, huh?) which consists of mushrooms, cocaine, beer, pot and nun necrophilia. Yep, it's that kind of movie. We follow these scumbags on an adventure that just turns out to be one really bad day for them. Nothing is going right. Strip club shoot em' ups, cops, narcs, mad science, crazy women and Bigfoot! These Georgia boys pride themselves in being the most offensive killers in Dixie and pretty much stay true to their nature despite the supernatural shenanigans thrown their way. The best way to describe this minor masterpiece is imagine if Herschell Gordon Lewis, Russ Meyer and John Waters somehow tricked Roger Corman into bank rolling a collaborative picture. Than said picture was deemed so gory, nasty and offensive that it sat on a shelf collecting dust for 40 years. If the mentioned directors were also rednecks, that would be this film. Intestines get yanked out, heads constantly lobbed off, etc. It's done with real effects that aren't the best but they aren't cheesy either. They fit the time period of this film. There are some great laugh out loud moments. Most are supplied by the absurdity of the building conflicts. Actor Paul McComiskey is a real stand out as a lecherous old scientist having the worst day of his life. His interactions with the bikers are priceless and provide some of the most memorable lines in the film. But lead actor Jett Bryant steals this show. He is the essence of cool and you end up rooting for this killer because he is so damn scary cool. He twirls a gun like the greatest western antiheroes from Italy, slaps people around like Dirty Harry and delivers one liners like James Bond. There really isn't anyone other than Bigfoot to identify with because everyone in this thing is evil so I latched on to him. The Southern locations and authentic score really add some great tension. If you forgot about Deliverance, Dear God No! is sure to remind you that below the Mason Dixon line life is cheap. This movie has an enormous body count. Both with clothes and without. It's packed full of nudity old school grindhouse style. This does it right. Exploitation shouldn't be glossy and stylized. It should ooze creepy and be loads of fun. Dear God No! is a welcome break from the millions of ghost or serial killer torture films flooding cable and DVD shelves. Young fanboys raised on Resident Evil won't get it. If your over 30 than this is the one you have been waiting for since Evil Dead 2. When it comes to the new crop of faux grindhouse (Death Proof, Planet Terror, Hobo With A Shotgun, etc.) this very original film sets the bar high. Recommended.

This totally offencive piece of road rash is the best time I've ever had at the movies. Period. From the reaction of everyone in the theatre, I wasn't the only one. People went so squirrel crazy (you know how crazy they can be) I missed a large portion of the actors lines! Sneaking in alcohol is a must. It just goes perfect with this movie. We sent a buddy across the street to purchase some liquor and sneak it back in. We owe in one because he missed about 10 cool things in the 15 minutes he was gone. From the opening frame you are taken on the most bizarre action packed white trash adventure ever. This flick never let's up. The level of offensiveness keeps building until you just have to burst out into applause. I swear DEAR GOD NO! must of been made for drunken hobos. Bikers, drugs, booze, gore, incest, mad science, cop killing, child killing, baby killing, decapitations, Nazis,nuns, murder, mayhem, Richard Nixon, explosions, machine guns, monsters, taxidermy, acid and a nuclear explosion! The music by the 45s is frigging' incredible! Sometimes creepy, sometimes western, but most of the time old school rock! At the end of the time it goes into this crazy hippie Joan Baez type song called DEAR GOD NO! and then abruptly cuts into a cover of MC5 that totally rocked the house! The bikers are great, the nudity abundant and The Mad Doctor is brilliant! You will never look at another person named Todd the same way again. This I promise you. The last violent scene in the film involving the most annoyingly pathetic character had the entire crowd out of their seats cheering. It seems unfair to even call this a movie. It's a party.

Why did it take this long for someone to make a good grindhouse movie? Every single one that has been released over the last couple of years suffers from the same problems of being way to slick to be an accurate representation of grindhouse. DEAR GOD NO! proves you don't need a big budget, cgi, name actors and a giant technical crew to make a modern classic grindhouse film. You just need an understanding of why people cherish grindhouse cinema. I'm happy to report every review on IMDb is accurate. This is the love letter to grindhouse I thought Tarrantino and Rodriquez could deliver but didn't. If DEAR GOD NO! had come out before their GRINDHOUSE double feature we may of been looking at a full blown revival instead of the periodic grindhouse-esque films we get like Machete & HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN. I can not stress enough how authentic and original this film is. Instead of just lifting complete plots it takes hundreds of previous elements and creates something refreshingly new. Hopefully this will see a wider release and a franchise of DEAR GOD NO! movies.

Over the past few years, and largely thanks to Tarantino/Rodriguez, there has been a welcome revival in Grindhouse. Movies like Planet Terror, Death Proof and Machete have reminded us just how much fun it was to recoil in horror and laugh out loud all in the same scene. Movie trends vary. We are coming to the end of the reign of the zombie flick but during its tenure we were treated to such gems as Zack Snyder's 'Dawn of the Dead', The Ford Brothers 'The Dead' and, to a lesser degree, the hugely successful Ruben Fleischer 'Zombieland'. With the revival of Grindhouse we are, once again, trawling the net for the next talking point of modern cinema. Well, look no further folks. 'Dear God No!' is 21st century Grindhouse at its most shocking and its insanely fun. James Bickert has managed, on no-doubt a very limited budget, to create a movie that is 'The Devils Rejects meets Doctor Moreau' with an originality that is stunning in itself. It is a movie that will stay with me and that is the hallmark of a fine film maker. It was a film that I expected to hate but, as the final credits rolled, I was struggling to pick out a moment that didn't work perfectly. The movie is over the top so far that I'd expect to find mist on the DVD cover. The central cast push their characters to the the limits of debauchery and there are moments in the movie where I almost felt guilty enjoying but this mix of Grindhouse and Powerhouse simply wont let you rest. A huge achievement and I trust that this gem of a film will have CULT stamped all over it when it hits the shelves. See it once, talk about it many many times. Congratulations to all involved.

Surprisingly, I have read nothing but good reviews on DEAR GOD NO! While they tend to be enthusiastic about the 1970 style, gore, nudity and surrealism, the reviewers are missing what makes this film work. It has a deep understanding of classic film elements and how they all work together to make a cohesive and satisfying viewing experience. The underlying theme of this film at first appears ambiguous but on closer inspection some serious ideas lie deep under the surface. DEAR GOD NO! involves a generational struggle sparked by nurture vs. nature issues. It's reflected in almost every line of dialog. The characters and their motivations are based on the adverse effects of childhood nurturing. Bigfoot seems to represent the only element of nature. It's very well thought out and reflected in almost every frame. Someone should write a thesis on this film. It's a huge leap to take for low budget horror and exploitation to incorporate these ideas into what would normally be a gross out sex filled party film. Dear God No! does an excellent job at keeping the right balance. This is precisely why it works and helps rise it above most genre film being made today. The motivations here may have been to encourage repeat viewings or maybe writer / director James Bickert is exploring his own personal demons. Either way, he unknowingly created the first Grindhouse art film and maybe even the first fun art film. Once you are aware of the underlying themes, it's astonishing how much more offensive and unsettling it becomes. DEAR GOD NO! constantly rips on every element of film. Even what might appear to the average person as strange edits are riffs on French New Wave cinema. I've seen it twice and really need to see it many more times. There is so much to pull out of it and absorb. It's unique and well worth seeking out.

I must admit that I was drug kicking and screaming to this movie. I hate being stuck in a low budget movie. This was shot on film and that makes a huge difference. I now realize it's not low budget film I despise but low budget video. This film brought back memories of the great B-movies of the 1970s. It was like watching the classics produced by Roger Corman and directed by famous directors before their big break. This movie is also blazingly fast with action, plot, wit and nasty bits. It's quite a welcome departure from the slow pacing that seems to be a current requirement for Independent films. The audience attending the screening was just as much fun as the movie. A normal looking group was turned quite rowdy by films end. The entertainment value within this picture is contagious. I have never seen until this experience a film receive a standing ovation. This is the next Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Room rolled up into one perfect piece of cinema. It won me over and I'm a huge fan.

This is the most authentic exploitation movie to come out since the 70's. This movie does not hold back with great over the top grindhouse gore and nudity, which is something always toned down in other modern day exploitation movies. This is the real deal! If you like Death Proof or Planet Terror you will without a doubt enjoy this. If you enjoy any exploitation movies from the 70's and wish the modern day knock offs were as much fun and pushed further, you should really see this. You can tell the cast enjoyed making this movie and deeply enjoy exploitation movies as it emanates from the screen and slaps you in the face!

This is a very good biker and monster mash up that I caught one night at the Clinton Theater in Portland. It only played for one week and then completely disappeared. I haven't been able to find it playing anywhere else which is a real shame. I've told people about it and they think I'm crazy. I am crazy but I'm not lying about this movie. The evil Impaler bike gang takes on a Nazi in one crazy over the top nudity filled killfest. It's a non-stop assault on good taste that even offended, well once, my jaded morality. Baby cannibalism usually does, I'm not all bad. According to the website it has won awards at festivals and sporadically played in a few cities. Hopefully it will be available on DVD soon. This would make the ultimate in-law repellent. Something I always crave.

You might get it. You might not. I'm not surprised this has low and divided ratings. You see, there are those hipsters who think they know grindhouse based on the more popular films available on DVD and then there are the rest of us bad cinema junkies who collect VHS and live for The Swinging Barmaids, Rape Squad, Ghetto Freaks and The Tomcats. If you fall in this category of trash lover,than this film is pure gold. It nails it. Bad acting, ridiculous dialog, convoluted plot, jump cuts, psychedelia, monster suits, blatant nudity, etc. Shot on beautiful film and full of head scratching moments. The closest I've run across to real 70s 42nd street crap. Very entertaining and not a dull moment.

This is not a glossy, over-stylized grindhouse homage like "Hobo With A Shotgun", "Machete", or "Planet Terror". This is the closest thing to an actual Grindhouse film made in this century... Though perhaps it is a little more extreme. It is shot on 16mm film, there are 31 breasts, all of the effects are practical (i.e. no CGI), and it is fun as hell. This flick definitely isn't for everybody (there is some extreme stuff in here), but for fans of authentic grindhouse features, bigfoot, bikers, sexploitation, gore, and drug movies; "Dear God No!" is the way to go.