A film that does precisely what it says on the tin, here’s another low budget, low-rent comedy horror with well...Orcs (!).
I seem to be riding this strange film wave at the moment, avoiding all that seems notable or what reviewers would term ‘good’ (whatever that really means), instead making a b-line towards what many would term ‘awful’. Well Orcs! (because plainly Orcs wouldn’t be as impactful) certainly falls into this low-budget-straight-to-DVD-awfulness category, but that doesn’t mean it is without its charm. Actually, I had a good time with it, take that film media! (but also, you are probably right). At least it isn’t zombies again. Right?
The film is set in a small national park where Cal Roberts, played by Adam Johnson, is the local disillusioned and laid back Park Ranger in charge of policing it. After being joined by a new partner, rookie Hobart Moss (Maclain Nelson) and facing off against his disgruntled colleague ranger Marge (against which he certainly comes off worse), one of his other colleagues is found dead. Soon there are a number of other unexplained events and Cal and Hobart (or Hobbie), set out to find what they think is a bear, or what Hobbie thinks is Bigfoot. I think you can guess what had actually caused the disturbances: Cue orc high jinks! From this point on there is a lot of running and screaming, as well as the odd witty comment and silly situation until the finale, which sees Cal and Hobbie, as well as the local anti-government activist, Katie (Renny Richmond) and another surviver, face off against a horde of the green skinned devils in what can really only be described as Helm’s deep, but with guns, and a much lower standard for special effects.
In fact, the Lord of the Rings parodies are rife throughout the film, especially in the last half. Being that recreating of the action from Helm’s Deep (like when one of the Rohanians [??] accidently lets an arrow fly and kills one of the Uruk Hai who then falls slowly to the ground, or when the defenders of the walls have to take down that dude with the torch, yeah you know the one) to simply stating ‘They are coming’, all the Lord of the Ring’s cliché’s that you know and love are present here. In fact, some of these (I won’t ruin the best ones), are actually rather funny, with the actors bringing them into a modern context, though perhaps by the end they are ringing them a little dry.
In fact, I found myself laughing a little bit more than I expected from this low budget horror, and the writers and actors certainly seem to have aimed to tint all the action and dialogue with a bumbling comedic quality which I quite enjoyed. Mostly it was the relationship between Hobbie and Cal which was most enjoyable, and produced the most laughs. These two, in the initial stages of the film at least, fill the roles of your traditional buddy cop movie, with Cal the disgruntled veteran and Hobbie the naive and inexperienced rookie. If it wasn’t for the interaction between these two, the film probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as enjoyable.
That is not to say though, that the majority of the acting can be considered good. Sure there are some good moments, but much of the character interaction outside of this pairing was mostly wooden, especially those that concerned Katie, who didn’t really seem necessary at all.
Nor can much of the action be classed as great either. This is especially demonstrated in the final sequence, where the weakness of the special effects, costuming and acting comes into starkest relief. Before this most of the action was quick and hence little time could be spent really inspecting it, but during this final sequence there was what seemed like a full 10-15 minutes of the characters simply shoot orcs, with little real excitement apart from the comedic value of the sheer awfulness of the explosions and acting. The fact that the orcs themselves look like a bunch of LARPers on a Saturday afternoon didn’t really help much.
Despite the definite weakness of the final scenes compared to the rest of the film, I actually enjoyed my time with Orcs! more than I thought I would. It was certainly funny enough, and stupid enough, to keep me interested for the whole of its running time, even if much of the acting was wooden and the effects cheap. I’d say it’s entertaining enough that fans of stupidity should probably take a look.
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