Roadkill: The Last days of john Martin

 Starring: Mark Gillespie

Directed by: Jim Van Bebber

Running time: 14 minutes

Rating: NR - {graphic violence, gore, nudity, cannibalism}

Release date: 1994

                       Considering the complete running time of this film is only 14 minutes, it does manage to pack one helluva punch to the old nutsac.

   Director Jim Van Bebber has created a short film tour de force, packed with enough gut wrenching, nutsac shrinking, piss -your-pants intensity to make you feel almost relieved when the final credits roll.

But not quite.

  Filmed in 8mm, it has a hazy, grainy look to it that helps create the foreboding effect Tobe Hooper achieved in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film's lead character, John Martin, is a filthy, beer swilling, varmint scarfing spaz who depends solely on various types of roadkill for his daily diet.

Upon finding a derelict who's been hit by a semi, he immediately graduates from ''regular'' roadkill to human roadkill without ever looking back. Once he's aquired a taste for the ''good stuff,'' he goes all out; in one excruciatingly graphic scene, he cooks a naked female victim inside a chickenwire cage atop a wood stove, while he slowly decapitates her boyfriend in full view close by.

             TCM it's not, but, if Van Bebber's future endeavors prove to be as intense and gut wrenching as this, he could be a force to be reckoned with in the future of low budget film making.

Doc's grade: B+