Directed By: Wayne Berwick
Starring: Jackie Vernon, Loren Schein, Al Troupe
Tag line: "They Came For Dinner ... To Find They Were It!!"
Trivia: Rodney Dangerfield was considered for the role of Donald, but his asking salary was too high
Most people know comedian Jackie Vernon as the voice of Frosty the Snowman in the Christmas special of the same name. So to see him… or maybe I should say hear him… in Microwave Massacre, an ‘80s exploitation comedy about an everyman who kills his wife and cooks her for dinner, will surely come as a shock to those who love the classic Rankin-Bass holiday cartoon.
Donald (Vernon) is a regular guy, a construction worker who frequents the neighborhood bar and enjoys the occasional baloney and cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, his shrew of a wife May (Claire Ginsberg) fancies herself a gourmet chef, and with the help of her trusty new microwave concocts a variety of near-inedible dishes that poor Donald can barely even pronounce.
One night, when he’s pushed too far, Donald beats May to death with a wooden salt dispenser, then chops her up, wraps the pieces in aluminum foil, and puts her in the freezer.
Time passes, and an absolutely famished Donald decides to cook May’s hand for dinner. To his surprise, he finds he enjoys the taste of human flesh!
After he’s worked his way through May’s tastier remains, Donald begins to lure young girls to his house, where, after having sex with them, he kills them, carves them up, and stores their bodies for later consumption.
The whole time I was watching Microwave Massacre, I couldn’t get Frosty out of my head. Whenever Donald cracks a joke about his wife’s cooking or sweet-talks a hooker into going home with him, he sounds exactly like the famous snowman! It was a distraction at first, but eventually I found myself laughing and genuinely enjoying the film.
Microwave Massacre is about as dark a comedy as you can get, and features both nudity (in the opening scene, a curvaceous blonde played by Marla Simon “accidentally” shoves her bare breasts through an enormous hole in a plywood wall) and gore (though, to be honest, neither the blood nor the severed body parts are the least bit convincing). But it’s also a lot of fun, and Jackie Vernon is a big reason why (the jokes he makes while choking down May’s gourmet meals are damn funny).
Directed by Wayne Berwick, Microwave Massacre is an ultra-low budget film, and it shows; aside from the special effects (or lack thereof), the movie looks as if it was shot in someone’s house, and I’m fairly certain none of the actors (Vernon included) won any awards for their work here. But as dark comedies that center on cannibalism go, Microwave Massacre ranks right up there with Eating Raoul as one of the most entertaining.
The whole time I was watching Microwave Massacre, I couldn’t get Frosty out of my head. Whenever Donald cracks a joke about his wife’s cooking or sweet-talks a hooker into going home with him, he sounds exactly like the famous snowman! It was a distraction at first, but eventually I found myself laughing and genuinely enjoying the film.
Microwave Massacre is about as dark a comedy as you can get, and features both nudity (in the opening scene, a curvaceous blonde played by Marla Simon “accidentally” shoves her bare breasts through an enormous hole in a plywood wall) and gore (though, to be honest, neither the blood nor the severed body parts are the least bit convincing). But it’s also a lot of fun, and Jackie Vernon is a big reason why (the jokes he makes while choking down May’s gourmet meals are damn funny).
Directed by Wayne Berwick, Microwave Massacre is an ultra-low budget film, and it shows; aside from the special effects (or lack thereof), the movie looks as if it was shot in someone’s house, and I’m fairly certain none of the actors (Vernon included) won any awards for their work here. But as dark comedies that center on cannibalism go, Microwave Massacre ranks right up there with Eating Raoul as one of the most entertaining.
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