The Revenge of Billy the Kid (1991)

Plot Outline: Farmer McDonald gets a little too drunk and horny and proceeds to have his wicked way with one of the goats on the farm. The goat gives birth to a mutant offspring, named Billy by McDonald's daughter, and is tormented by McDonald and his two sons. Throwing Billy into the river, McDonald thinks that's the last of it. But Billy survives, grows and plots his horrible revenge.

The Review: Dear me, I thought we Brits were a little bit reserved when it came to making gross-out horror but I was clearly wrong - be prepared to go beyond bad taste in this exercise in how to offend someone easily. Mixing gross-out comedy with splatter (albeit it pretty weakly mixing the two), The Revenge of Billy the Kid is certainly going to be a unique experience. It's not pretty: the McDonalds are introduced as dim-witted, possibly inbred sub-human forms of life who live on their own little island away from everyone else. They're a horrible lot except for the daughter (there always has to be 1 decent member of these crazy families) and vile, detestable creatures. Farting, drinking, stinking and just generally reverting back to pre-Medieval ways of life, we're not exactly going to sympathise with them in any shape of form. Reel out the book of inbred clans/families and the picture of the McDonalds is painted for you. It's funny for a few minutes but no enough for about the first 30 minutes before Billy actually gets big enough to kill someone. I got bored with seeing old men farting and drinking a lot. If you've seen the werewolves from Dog Soldiers then you're probably not too far away from being to imagine a giant goat-man! Looking like one of the early prototypes for that film, Billy is actually a pretty big, scary and nasty thing and when he starts killing people, it's extremely believable. The suit looks a little stupid in the light but in the dark woods, I wouldn't want to come across him. The film does have a few splashes of the red stuff but there's not as much as I thought there would be. And on a final note, this was to be Michael Ripper's last film. The Hammer character actor, a staple of most of their films right from the start and the man to appear in the most Hammer films, makes a small cameo appearance as a pub local.

Final Verdict: I was hoping for more having read some of the glowing reviews but what I did get was a completely unique British horror film unlike anything you've ever seen. The closest I can think of is some of Peter Jackson's early work like Bad Taste. Turn off your taste sensors, sit back and watch because you won't forget The Revenge of Billy the Kid in a hurry. And that's not a good thing either.

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