Search - Beauty Queen Butcher on DVD

It's so bad, it's good...

Eva Hamilton | 11/03/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Beauty Queen Butcher is a campy spoof of an 80's teen horror movie. It has all the classic characters: the overweight, lonely, outcast girl who is the object of pranks by the popular girls; the awkward, bumbling, best guy friend who has the secret crush on the overweight, lonely, outcast girl; the clique of popular attractive girls; and the guy who is going to be the boyfriend of the winner of the Miss Slough competition. Phyllis (the overweight, lonely, outcast girl) is entered into the Miss Slough by the clique of popular attractive girls because none of them want to come in last in the competition. Phyllis inadvertently causes problems for most of the girls in the competition, but still does not win. After the girls kill Phyllis's cat, she snaps and becomes the Beauty Queen Butcher. The movie has poor quality audio in some spots, and it takes about an hour to get to the point where Phyllis snaps. There are some clever cameos in the movie as well. If you love campy spoofs, this is just bad enough to be good."

There's so much that's wrong here

P. Mann | Los Angeles | 12/02/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This 1991 film has so much wrong with it that it's hard to know where to begin. Rather than begin with the bad, though, I'll star with what's right about it: Jim Boggess, who plays Betty Prunish, the director of the beauty pageant. Yes, it's a man playing a woman, and he does a good job. He is the only thing consistently funny in the movie. That's unfortunate since the film clearly does not take itself too seriously and could have been funnier--or, I should say, consistently funny rather than having a moment here and there.

"Beauty Queen Butcher" is, it seems, an attempt to combine Carrie with Kentucky Fried Movie. The problem is that the horror, such as it is, is never remotely horrific, and the writing is not even close to being on a par with that of the Zuckers and Jim Abrahams. There are moments, but they are too few and far between.

The worst aspect of this film is its length. At right around two hours, the film just seems to drag on and on. In fact, it is about an hour into the film before the horror aspect even begins to kick in. Until that, it's simply the tale of a beauty pageant with one girl who doesn't belong.

In short, there is very little to recommend this film. The cast seems to try hard, but the editing and the length just sink the film. I'm giving it two stars--the first because that's the minimum and the other for Jim Boggess."