I had not heard about "Body Melt" prior to stumbling upon it by sheer random luck. I decided to watch it solely because it was listed under the horror section.

Right, well I managed to endure 45 minutes of the ordeal that is known as "Body Melt" before I completely gave up from sheer and utter boredom. There was nothing interesting to the storyline, which actually seemed like they were just making up the story as they went along.

The characters in the movie were every bit as random and pointless as the storyline itself, which really didn't do much to improve on the overall movie experience.

It should be said that the special effects were adequate, taking into consideration the type of movie and the budget it was on.

All in all, this was not a particularly interesting or enjoyable movie. And I have absolutely no intention of returning to watch the rest of the movie.

Australian pharmaceutical corporation Vimuville tests a revolutionary cognition enhancing vitamin on the inhabitants of a suburban housing estate, unaware that their drug has been sabotaged by an ex-employee. When consumed, the vitamin— missing a vital ingredient—causes hallucinations before reducing the user to a gloopy mess of mucous and gore.

Being Antipodean and hailing from the early '90s, messy low-budget schlock horror Body Melt, directed by experimental musician Philip Brophy, automatically makes me think of Peter Jackson's splatter-fest Braindead, although it never quite matches that film in terms of sheer lunacy or creative bloodletting. Thematically, the film is much closer to Larry Cohen's deadly dessert cult classic The Stuff (1985),but is most similar in overall tone to Jim Muro's 1987 melt movie Street Trash, which featured a cast of colourful down and out characters dissolving or exploding after imbibing a toxic liquor.

As with Muro's film, the messy death scenes in Body Melt are the undisputed highlight, no two victims going the same way. The first to suffer is Vimuville employee Ryan (Robert Simper),whose neck opens up to reveal quivering tentacles. Radio station employee Paul has his face reduced to a gory mess, his lips peeled off and his eyes bulging from their sockets. Pregnant housewife Cheryl gives birth to her placenta a month early, the pulsating protein sac latching on to her husband's face while her belly opens up to reveal her innards.

Other fun stuff includes a family of kangaroo-killing out-back inbreds, an imploding head, an exploding penis, gratuitous nudity (both male and female),a roller-blading brat falling from a height onto his face, and Harold Bishop from Aussie soap Neighbours (Ian Smith) getting his ear pulled off.

The residents of the sleepy small suburban community of Pebbles Court find themselves the unwitting guinea pigs of a new experimental vitamin manufactured by the nefarious health spa Vimuville that causes them to mutate and eventually melt.

Director/co-writer Philip Brophy keeps the enjoyably off-the-wall story zipping along at a breakneck pace, pokes wicked fun at people's obsession with staying young, fit, and healthy, presents a colorful array of flaky and/or grotesque characters, delivers oodles of outrageous over-the-top splatter (several folks blow up real good),and further spices things up with an amusing sense of blithely twisted humor. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast, with especially lively contributions from Gerard Kennedy as the hard-nosed Detective Sam Phillips, Ian Smith as the shifty Dr. Carrera, Regina Gaigalas as the sultry Shaan, Vincent Gil as the surly Pud, Lisa McGune as the pregnant Cheryl Rand, and William McInnes as the unhinged Paul Matthews. Ray Argall's polished cinematography boasts a handful of wild visual flourishes (the inside the esophagus shots are amazing!). Brophy's funky syncopated score hits the boppin' spot. A weird, but really fun flick.