This is an impressive amateur effort from the directing to the writing to the acting to the production. It feels like a good college theater troupe pooled their money to prove their chops because its so much sharper than the usual indie horror comedy. Its even historic in its premise as this is the first self-referential/meta slasher film. It will surprise you how much it predicts (or inspires) both "Scream" and "Cabin in the Woods".

TNOT is dated in some of its jokes and fashion but its a charming and high spirited film that has aged very well and deserves a lot of credit for being so ahead of its time and making the most of its small budget.

THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE! is a fun and cheesy low rent slasher spoof with a deliberately retro 1980s feel. It's about a bunch of teenagers who head out into the woods for some fun, including pool partying and skinny dipping, only to find themselves assailed by a mildly cute little puppet monster that plans to kill them all.

This is obviously a copy of the Friday the 13th film series and its ilk but for a Troma film it isn't so bad. The acting is deliberately over the top and cheesy and the effects are poor, although there is one stand-out gore scene involving a guy having his face melted off which is surprisingly good. It's not the worst film ever and it's okay if you're in the right silly mood.

This is a fun little spoof of the crappy 80's style horror flicks we grew up with... the twist (the same kinda hook that Scream used about five years later) is that the hero is a guy who's seen so many of said crappy horror flicks that he realizes that he might actually be IN a crappy horror flick, then uses it to his advantage.

The best news tho is that the new DVD edition of "There's Nothing.." not only has a MUCH better transfer than the earlier video release (and is letterboxed), but also a bunch of fun extras and commentary. The movie is a hoot, and the extras make it even more worthwhile.

Sometimes it's fun to kick back with a b-movie that knows it's a b-movie and has fun with that. Low budget and cheesy, but far more fun than most of the Hollywood horror flicks released in the past decade.

*** = movie ***** = DVD

Enjoy!