Given the title, & knowing director Trey Parker quite well from his & Matt Stone's riotously vulgar & imaginative Southpark cartoons, I had expected a spoofy horror film with funny songs, but it's really a spoofy musical western, originally titled Alfred Packer: The Movie.
It was released by Troma who intentionally misled people into believing it was a cannibal horror film, given Troma's usual lowly product. Though it's a 1996 release, it was filmed three years earlier while Parker was in college; he was expelled because he was always working on this film instead of attending classes.
As a comedy western it ain't half bad. And a couple of the western tunes are pretty straightforward & not spoofy at all. It was like Paint Your Wagon or Oklahoma performed by a junior-college cast, which is not a condemnation as it can be quite enjoyable to see a college troupe put on Oklahoma.
It did finally get 'round to the Donnor Party theme, then meandered toward a slow finale & a final funny tune. There were times when it seemed like there was only an hour's worth of movie here, dragged out to a tedious length, but I laughed out loud often enough to say the humor is definitely effective. It's not the riotous thing South Park usually is, but you can tell the same sick genius is engaged.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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