Houseboat Horror, The Burning-Lite

The Burning is one of my favorite slasher films, and if someone wants to rip it off....great! This is preferable than ripping off "Ordinary People" or "Silkwood." In 1989 the Aussies produced a straight to VHS effort called "Houseboat Horror" with plot elements straight out of The Burning and kills straight out of the "Friday the 13th" films.  Not entirely original, but still satisfying.  Death by spear-gun, a horribly burned maniac, and lots of great looking victims grace our feature today.

A lame rock band and a film crew head to Lake Infinity to film a music video.  Remember those days when MTV still showed music videos?  Of course the locals at Lake Infinity are hostile to city peeps and a creepy gas station attendant warns them of impending doom.  Our buffet line of musicians and crew ignore the warnings and rent a few houseboats on the lake.  Lots of drinking, burping, pre-marital sex, and skinny dipping will occur, sealing the fate of many of them.  Oh yes....an almost too good backstory. Many years ago a film crew arrived on Lake Infinity and lots of carnage and death occurred including the burning of a child.  Where is that child now? Yep...you got it.

One by one....sometimes two at a time, our annoying musicians and crew are butchered.  Some very imaginative murders include a babe having a horseshoe shoved into her eyes and a producer having his head sliced open in north-south fashion. Are these slashings at all related to the carnage of yesteryear? That's an easy one. Our geniuses never realize that they are becoming an endangered species as they are usually too drunk or stupid to miss their friends and colleagues.  As our burnt fiend makes an appearance, he raids the houseboats in bloody fury. Will anyone survive? Does anyone deserve to survive?

Filmed in Victoria and directed by Kendal Flanagan and Ollie Martin, this really low-budget effort is worth a look for the gory kills.  Also, if you want to see the silliest music video ever made....it's in this film. Available on YouTube, see "Houseboat Horror."