When I went to Pittsburgh to meet Lloyd Kaufman back in June 2003, I was first introduced to the Kiss of Death Productions crew and Meat For Satan's Icebox. During Lloyd's introduction at Incredibly Strange Video, he told us all about Meat For Satan's Icebox and that the trailer would be premiering later that night during screenings of Terror Firmer and Citizen Toxie. Unfortunately, I didn't know about the screenings so I had to miss out, but on my way out, I spoke to Diana Silvio about doing an interview for the site and whether Troma would be distributing the film or not. About 11 months or so later, Troma announced that they had indeed picked up the film, so I immediately hit them up for a review screener. So, with that backstory behind us, lets get on to the review.

In a town called Satan Place lives a young girl named Cindy Cavatelli. One year after witnessing the brutal murder of her mother, Cindy's life isn't going very well. Her father uses her as a replacement for her deceased mother, she's addicted to drugs and has sex with old men for her drug money, and her boyfriend dumped for the aforementioned reasons to get with her best-friend Jessica. About this time, a new boy named Christian moves into Satan Place, who desperately wants Cindy's affection. However, Cindy ignores him, as his abusive father has been telling everyone in town that his son is gay. After murdering the headmistress of her Catholic school, Cindy tries to flee, with Christian following her, and is kidnapped by the owners of Satan's Icebox, the local deli. What she then learns is that the inhabitants of Satan Place aren't just buying meat from the slaughterhouse, they're buying the flesh of runaways and mislead teenagers like a deli from Hell! Lloyd Kaufman even pops up for a quick cameo as a gynacologist whose purchases are based on how the girls' urine tastes.

You got all of that? Because trust me, a whole hell of a lot more goes on with Meat For Satan's Icebox. At first, I was a bit worried about what I was getting into, as expected from watching a film titled Meat For Satan's Icebox, but about the time the opening scene, where a megaconglomorate corporation buys a young girl to feast on in celebration of their latest takeover, I could tell that this was definately something that fit the Troma stable. It's like what would happen if John Waters directed Bloodsucking Freaks on a public access budget. In a lot of cases, that could be a bad thing, but Meat For Satan's Icebox is just gleefully twisted enough to be entertaining.

However, there are flaws, including the usual ones you'd expect from a film with this kind of budget. Production values are low, but that never stopped the filmmakers that have obviously influenced the film. It was shot on SVHS, which is surprising in the time when everyone has flocked to MiniDV. However, it does give the film a bit of the artifacting that would be expected from the format. One major problem I had with the film was the large amount of dissolves to show transition. Also, toward the end of the film, there's a dream sequence that could've been cut, as it doesn't add anything to the film other than confusion.

Sure, there's flaws to be found in Meat For Satan's Icebox, but it's still a fun little blood-drenched romp with enough twisted charm to be entertaining. Definately worth checking out when Troma releases it on DVD.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars