“Deranged” is the story of a souther mama’s boy named Ezra (Roberts Blossom) as his mom just died recently, but some how she just haunts him as he has no choice but to dig up her body and use it for conversations as he is going to the brink of insanity. He starts to murder off innocent women and keep their bodies, sometimes have sex with the bodies becoming a necrophiliac and even cook their flesh for dinner. “Motel Hell” is the story of Farmer Vincient Smith (Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) run a meat farm and motel called Motel Hello where some of the guests usually disappear and Vincient makes the finest smoked meats in town, his stuff sells like hotcakes and his motel is quite successful around travelers. It really does kind of takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincient’s Fritters as Vincient’s police officer brother (Paul Linke) is skeptical about what makes the meat taste sooo good, there’s a catch to it as there’s a secret garden with live humans caught for butchering to become what people will eat.

These are two well made and enjoyable cannibal based movies, first off “Deranged” is influenced by the horrific murders of Ed Gein and came out the same year that the masterpiece “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Not as memorable as that movie, “Deranaged” is still a very documentary-esque look at the mind of a serial killer long before there was “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”, it’s a nail-biting suspense shocker that will hit you in the stomach. “Motel Hell” is a very entertaining horror comedy that plays like a comical version of “Psycho”, “The Hills Have Eyes” and even “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” as it’s a lighthearted satire about cannibalism and motel based horror movies, the film does co-star Playmate Monique St. Pierre and an early appearence by John Ratzenberger. The film does have a cult following to this day and is one of the most satisfying cannibal/slasher/horror comedies around.

This double feature DVD offers both movies a decent transfer with good sound quality with only extras being the trailers to both movies.

Motel Hell (1980) Man, does that Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) make some tasty smoked meats out at that old Motel Hello he runs with his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons)! And they are such friendly people! Too bad the “o” on their sign keeps burning out…After a terrible motorcycle accident claims the life of her much older boyfriend Bo, young Terry (Nina Axelrod) is rescued by and ends up staying with Vincent and Ida. Soon, the aging but handsome Vincent has charmed Terry into another May/December romance, though Ida doesn’t seem too happy about it. Neither does their little brother Bruce (Paul Linke), the local sheriff. Eventually Terry finds out Vincent and Ida have some secrets, stuff even Bruce doesn’t know. Stuff that involves all the auto accidents that happen around the motel that go unreported. Stuff involving a secret garden out in the back of the motel. And definitely stuff that goes on in the smokehouse right beside the motel. In fact, it might even be true that Vincent caused the accident that claimed Bo’s life. Bruce also starts to catch on to just what everybody’s been eating in those Farmer Vincent fritters, and he goes to rescue Terry, leading to a rather strange climax involving a chainsaw duel in the smokehouse with Vincent who for some reason has put a pig head on like a mask. (?) Reportedly this movie’s script started out as a serious and grim horror entry, but for some reason what ended up on film is a very weird flick with silly bits undermining nearly all the scares. Calhoun and Parsons are both very good, Linke is playing a very goofy part as best he can, and Axelrod is pretty much nondescript which is probably why she is now a casting agent instead of an actress. To add to the Freaky Factor, Wolfman Jack turns up in two cameos, one as a vocal only radio DJ, the other as a local televangelist. (?) Everything that goes on in the secret garden is just a bit silly, and the whole “pig head/mask” thing , featured so strongly in the ads and the copious coverage in Fangoria magazine is really just a throwaway bit in the climactic scenes used more to hide Calhoun’s stunt double than to be as evocative as it actually is. In fact, I’d guess more people remember the movie for that image (Pig head man wielding chainsaw) than for the movie itself. There are rumors of a remake in the works, and I guarantee you there will be lots more made of the pig head mask in it, with the new Farmer Vincent wearing it throughout the movie as he goes about his nefarious pursuits instead of it popping up in the last five minutes. In the end, the movie is worth a look for Calhoun and Parsons, but otherwise not very recommendable.