PLOT: A disgraced scientist seeks revenge on the heads of a pharmaceutical company in a Troma movie inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
REVIEW: There’s a new Troma movie, and it’s called Shakespeare’s Shitstorm. If you’re familiar with the works of Troma, a company that has been pumping out very unique low budget films for almost fifty years now, you probably don’t need to hear anything more. You already know if you’re on board to watch their latest production. Whether you love Troma or can’t stand it, if you watch Shakespeare’s Shitstorm you’ll find that it’s exactly the sort of movie you’re expecting it to be. It’s frenetic, completely out of its mind, and coated in filth, with slime and feces pouring out all over the screen.
Somehow simultaneously low and high brow, this movie happens to be a Tromatized adaptation of the William Shakespeare play The Tempest, thus the title. And here’s where Troma gets educational: I have never read the works of Shakespeare, so I learned more about The Tempest simply by watching Shakespeare’s Shitstorm than I had in my decades of life before witnessing this movie. The script, crafted by multiple contributors (director/Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman, Brandon Bassham, Gabriel Friedman, Frazer Brown, Doug Sakmann, and Zac Amico), uses Shakespeare’s concept as a foundation for the story of a disgraced scientist named Prospero (Kaufman himself), who found a cure for opioid addiction, but big pharma had no interest in curing opioid addiction. That’s a fifty billion dollar industry. So they ruined Prospero’s life. Now he’s seeking revenge against the heads of a company called Avonbard Pharmacy: Big Al King (Abraham Sparrow), the hard-partying president, and his VP Antoinette Duke – who happens to be Prospero’s sister, and is also played by Kaufman.
Prospero carries out his revenge plot at a time when Avonbard has gathered their unscrupulous benefactors and associates together for a celebratory cruise. Their new product Safespacia, which helps people deal with their Entitlementia, has just made them the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world. In Shakespeare’s writing, Prospero was a sorcerer who conjured up a tempest to wreck a boat carrying his enemies. In the Troma version, Prospero is able to flood his enemies’ ship with whale feces. And I have to say, the special effects used to bring the sight of a series of whales leaping over the ship while spewing diarrhea were quite impressive for a modern day Troma movie.
The partiers make it to land in Tromaville, New Jersey and seek shelter in a place called Prospero’s Retreat, where their debaucherous celebration continues, and Prospero continues manipulating events so he can really ruin their day. There’s a “house special” drug at Prospero’s Retreat that’s called Tempest, and the partiers really should have declined to partake in that stuff. The party is raging for the majority of this movie’s 94 minutes, so there are some crazy sights to see all throughout the film. Amidst the madness, we meet Prospero’s blind daughter Miranda (Kate McGarrigle, turning in a great comedic performance), who falls in love with Big Al’s son Ferdinand (Erin Miller), who is actually a decent guy. And from time to time, a character will break out in song.
As in the source material, Prospero is aided in his endeavors by characters named Ariel and Caliban. Here those characters are played by Amanda Flowers and Monique Dupree, and Ariel is repaid with crack.
While entertaining viewers with feces, slime, and a goofball sense of humor, Troma movies also deal in social commentary, and Shakespeare’s Shitstorm is no different – as you probably gathered from Prospero’s back story and the villains being big pharma reps. This film also skewers cancel culture, political correctness, and social justice warriors (who are shown gathering together when a symbol of a snowflake shines in the sky like the Bat-Signal). Some viewers will be amused by this, others will be offended. The movie is quite aware that some will be offended, and is already making fun of them.
Personally, I respect Troma more than I actually enjoy their output. There are some Troma movies that I love, like Mother’s Day and The Toxic Avenger, movies I think are generally more widely accessible than the likes of Tromeo and Juliet, Terror Firmer, Poultrygeist, etc. The ones like Shakespeare’s Shitstorm are not the sort of movies I would choose to watch with any frequency. But I support Troma, I’m a fan of Lloyd Kaufman, I’m glad to see the company still doing things their own way after all these years. If you love Troma, you’ll love Shakespeare’s Shitstorm. The number score on this review reflects my personal rating, but Troma super-fans will probably find this to be at least a 9. It has pretty much all you want or expect from a Troma movie.
And yes, it includes that car crash stock footage from Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.
Kaufman is currently touring the country with Shakespeare’s Shitstorm. The movie is booked for a week-long run at Center Cinemas in Rutherford, New Jersey, beginning March 25th. From April 8th through the 14th, the film will be screening at Cinema Village in New York City, with Lloyd Kaufman in attendance on April 9th. Kaufman will also be in attendance for an April 8th screening at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.