MonstersMarriageandMurder

Monsters, Marriage, and Murder in Manchvegas (2009)

This is a very strange, but fun independent movie. Basically you have a couple of guys and a girl who call themselves M.O.S., which is short for Manchvegas Outlaw Society. They spend most of their days pulling around a red wagon delivering papers, lemonade, and used books to their neighbors. When not doing that they play basketball and swim in the river. When a local girl comes up missing and then a couple more young women are found murdered M.O.S. sets out to solve the case. But is it as simple as tracking down a crazed serial killer or is something more complicated going on?

Before I start this part of the review I need to let everyone know that I’m going to have some spoilers here. If you don’t dig that sort of thing then you might want to skip this paragraph and go to the next one. You have been warned. This is a crazy, quirky, and really fun movie to watch. Now guys be warned if you are looking for a low budget horror film then you might want to avoid this one. This isn’t a horror movie, in spite of the killings (mostly off screen and bloodless). In fact I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to describe Monsters, Marriage, and Murder in Manchvegas for a couple of hours now. Imagine an old Little Rascals short with adults playing the roles that would normally be played by children and you have the whole M.O.S. part of the story covered. Then add in a goofy story about Bigfoot like creatures called Gospercaps and top it all off with an actual set of murders involving brides to be. This gets you your monsters, marriage, and murders from the title. Now as hard the plot was for me to explain I have to say it works beautifully and is entertaining. I’ve never seen anything quite like this movie, which given how many movies I’ve seen is saying a lot. There isn’t a single moment that I wasn’t interested and involved in what I was watching on the screen.

In addition to a great story the other thing that made this movie stick out to me is the fact that it was shot on film! I can’t tell you the last time I saw a low budget independent movie that was shot on film. But shooting on film itself isn’t enough. The camera work, lighting, and sound are all top notch. Everyone responsible for the technical parts of the movie really knows what the hell they are doing. I have a ton of respect for them deciding to shoot on film and even more after seeing the final results.

Whenever I get to watch a cool movie like this I’m so glad that I decided to run a website. I don’t want to sound mean, but I do sit thru so many bad movies, both new and old, independent and studio stuff. Finding something like Monsters Marriage and Murders in Manchvegas makes sitting thru all the crap worth it. I recommend that everyone take a break from the normal diet of slashers, zombies, and other such things and check out this one. It really is worth your time.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer