She soon gets inspiration for her next “short” when a girl talks a little too much on her cell phone before the movie. The unsuspecting movie-goer gets to be the star of Deb’s new film, A Tale of Two Severed Titties, featuring Deb as a British aristocrat and Mister Twigs as the executioner. It’s every bit as unpleasant as it sounds, but audiences start rolling in left and right to see Deborah’s new exploitation films.
It’s somewhere around this time that Deb starts doing the Debbie Gibson thing, demanding that she be called “Deborah”, pronounced De-BORE-ah. She more or less becomes a representation of every pretentious artist, insufferable but brilliant in her own special little way. She catches the eye of underground cinema drag queen Peaches Christ, who plays herself (Peaches Christ happens to be writer-director Joshua Grannell by the way), resulting in more media exposure.
Meanwhile, Steven brings a few friends to see A Tale of Two Severed Titties, though ultra-feminist Judy (Ariel Hart) doesn’t approve of the tone of the film and finds it degrading to women. Steven, nursing more than a little bit of a crush on Deborah, points out that there haven’t been any great female horror film directors and that Deb is making history – not to mention legitimate art — but it’s clear that Steven is really bothered by Judy’s issues with men liking horror movies and the fact that everyone in his school thinks he’s going to be the next school shooter. It doesn’t help either that his mother (Cassandra Peterson, better known to you as Elvira) doesn’t understand his taste for horror.
Deborah decides that the workload is getting a little too heavy for her and the absolutely ancient Mr. Twigs alone, so she decides to do a little recruiting. She scores the services of two archetypal creepy twins, Veda and Vera (Nikita and Jade Ramsey), and comes across an oral-hygiene-challenged mugger beating on an elderly woman for her fur coat. She’s all too eager to take Adrian (Noah Segan, Deadgirl) under her wing too. With a full cast and crew, Deb can now start filming even more shorts to keep her gore-hungry fans satisfied — and her newfound need to butcher anyone in her path sated.
The next victim of Deb’s art is Evelyn, who is chased by the gang after pounding too loudly on the theater doors as she looked for Deborah. Her mouth is sewn shut, but she’s not murdered because there are janitors nearby. Rather, she’s left in the theater attic amongst the dead bodies that are rapidly growing in number. Things get even more complicated when popular girl Claire asks Steven out to see The Maiming of the Shrew. The girl’s demeanor hints that she’ll be Deborah’s latest victim, especially when she calls the artiste ugly, and we can’t help but root for Deb’s ghastly gang. However, when her disappearance is pinned on troubled teen Steven, things go from bad to worse and back again.
All About Evil was an immensely satisfying film for me because it was one huge nod to forgotten horror classics and exploitation flicks. Like Shaun of the Dead, this is a fun, campy movie that mixes gore and laughs in equal measures via loads of blood and black humor. The movie is surprisingly deep to boot, exploring everything from gender equality in horror and graphic violence toward women to the persecution that we gorehounds frequently face for being a little too morbid. I suspect, though, that this extends to most people who have unusual interests and have at one point been ostracized for being different.
Joshua Grannell is a filmmaker to look out for. I look forward to his next offering, whether it be straight comedy, straight horror, or somewhere in between. His script for All about Evil hits all the right notes and his directing is spot on, matching the tone perfectly. Natasha Lyonne chews the scenery, vomits it back up, and then goes back for seconds (it’s not as bad as it sounds), and Thomas Dekker does an adequate job of Steven, the proverbial high school outcast with whom I still identify even as a twenty-something productive member of society. I also have to give major props to Cassandra Peterson, who is nigh unrecognizable as Steven’s mom (I saw her name in the credits and kept looking for her). The one weak spot in the cast is Ariel Hart as Judy. I couldn’t tell whether she’s a bad actress or her character is just that annoying, but all of her scenes got on my nerves.
The Verdict: 
All About Evil is an excellent prelude to the horror-comedies I hope to see in the future. If you’re interested in big laughs, good gore, and an exciting venture into campy throwbacks, I recommend this movie to you. But be warned: one viewing won’t be enough!
