Watching an English-language splatter comedy, made in Sweden by a married British / Swedish couple, at a film festival in Helsinki, Finland, in a bar converted into a screening room, certainly ranks among my top 10 most unusual cross-cultural experiences in life so far.
Granted, splatter comedies are not my favorite form of horror movies; what strikes others as riotousy funny often makes me groan deep inside my aged body. To its advantage, however, American Burger does not pretend to be anything other than what it is. Filled with broad comedy, it's the story of a bus-load of dumb American kids on a summer trip in Europe who make the mistake of stopping at a burger processing center for a tour, only to discover that the American Burger company insists on making their burgers from fresh American humans.
Most of the young people are slaughtered immediately by mute, slow-moving men in white overalls and protective headgear. The few initial survivors run around, not displaying much, if any, survival instinct, as they keep running into sharp instruments, dying, and then being carted off into the processing center. Within a very loose framework, one slow-motion sequence stands out, in which two of the characters are chased through the woods and somehow escape by the skin of their teeth. It adds a bit of grace to the often-rudimentary affair. The movie is also benefited by the scenic beauty of its locations.
The characters have descriptors rather than names: Demented Butcher (Fredrik Hiller), is obviously, the insanely over-enthusiastic meat cutter; Nice Cheerleader (Aggy Kukawka) is a spunky and appealing young survivor; Preppy Nerd (Benjamin Brook) is dressed in prep clothes until he ends up naked; Adorable Cheerleader (Madeleine Borg) is stuck wandering around by herself, her wardrobe diminishing by the minute as various items of clothing get snagged by the woods; and Fat Nerd (Liam Macdonald) huffs and puffs in a winning manner as he tries to save the day. Teacher 1 (Lena Bengtson), the leader of the group, also gets to defy a few stereotypes about stuffy class instructors.
During the post-screening Q&A, Bonita Drake, who co-directed with her husband Johan Bromander, said that she had never seen a Troma comedy, which perhaps indicates how widely the aesthetic of super low-budget, self-consciously aware, grotty and bloody comedies has spread into the horror-movie culture at large. The movie feeds off that aesthetic, adding distinctive European flavors of its own to spice things up a bit.
American Burger is not exactly a stinging commentary on the way that American culture is rammed down the throats of our friends throughout the world. Still, even American fast food tastes pretty good with a cold beer and lots of ketchup, and so does this movie.
The film made its local premiere at the festival. A distribution deal for the U.S. is expected shortly.