Berzerker

Director - Jefferson Richard

Cast - Joseph Alan Johnson, Greg Dawson, Valerie Sheldon, George ‘Buck’ Flower
Country of Origin - USA

Distributor - Vinegar Syndrome

Number of Discs - 2

Reviewed by - Richard Glenn Schmidt

Date- 01/13/2020

A Level 6 Dickhead Bro named Josh (Mike Riley) and his much more likeable pals are headed out to party in the picturesque woods of Utah. Little do they know that a crazed killer is on the loose in the area. But this ain’t no run of the mill butcher knife, axe, or chainsaw-wielding killer, y’all. This killer is a freakin’ berserker, a legendary Viking madman tortured into madness and starved for bloodshed. Throw in a pair of chess-playing buddies: a creepy cop (John G. Goff) and an old coot named Pappy (George ‘Buck’ Flower), and you got yourself a veritable slasher film!

As Jefferson Richard, the director of Berserker, will tell you on the intro of the Vinegar Syndrome disc, this film is a “cult classic”. One thing’s for sure, this one turned out to be a really odd film. Veteran character actor George ‘Buck’ Flower is in this and honestly, he’s great. But he’s always great. Adding to this prestigious production is another “hey, it’s that guy” guy, John G. Goff, who was in amazing stuff like The Fog and The Possession of Nurse Sherri. Scream king Joseph Alan Johnson (of The Slumber Party Massacre and Iced) turns in one of his best performances as Mike, a guy who likes sleeveless shirts.

I will give Berserker one thing, it definitely corners the market on Viking-themed slasher movies. Hopefully there aren’t more, because I don’t like to be wrong (so don’t tell me). The worst thing I can say about this is that it takes the dreamy vibe a little too far and just gets dozy. There’s a couple of artistic moments that are probably just the editor stalling for time so the whole thing can reach feature length. This is not a deal breaker for Berserker but you might need a group of friends to endure those stretches. And isn’t that what slashers are all about? Togetherness?

The film builds tension nicely and there’s plenty of sex, drinking, doobie smoking, and goofing off from the loveable cast to qualify as someone’s favorite film of all time (maybe). There’s a gigantic bear, lots of smoke machines, and bonus: the music score by Gary Griffin and Chuck Francour is pretty darn good. Did I mention that this film is also gleefully stupid? Someday, I will. One fact left out of the trivia is that after the release of Berserker, sales of Miller Lite™ increased by like a million times.

The gorgeous VHS cover always stood out to me at the video store when I was a youngster but I never pulled the trigger and checked it out, until now. I kind of wish I had but there’s no way in hell that it looked this good. Vinegar Syndrome does a bang-up job on Berserker with great interviews with a few cast members, Joseph Alan Johnson, Mike Riley, and Shannon Engemann (who barely remembers working on the film). Director Richard gives lots of background info on the production during his interview. And I always love when folks from The Hysteria Continues! podcast are on hand to do an audio commentary on a film. This time around it’s just Justin Kerswell and Joseph Henson but they make up for their missing compatriots by dropping some great trivia and expressing their love for and sometimes bewilderment at all that is Berserker. There’s also a still gallery and reversable cover art. Most importantly, the movie looks and sounds fantastic.