The Coroner [1999] [DVD]

The movie opens in a seedy strip club where we're shown topless strippers and close ups of their boobs for 2 minutes, then as one of the strippers is walking to her car she is attacked by a man in a trench coat and hat. Shortly after we see the killer walking away from the crime scene, and then he does his best Tim Robbins impression from Shawshank Redemption, when he throws his arms to the air in the pouring rain for no reason whatsoever.

We then meet Emma, she's a lawyer who's being threatened with disbarment for her "bad attitude". One of her friends is a hooker, and when she is killed by the killer from earlier, she starts investigating the murders. Whilst out jogging, she is knocked unconscious by a blow dart (i'm not making this up). She wakes up in a basement where the killer reveals himself to be Leon, he claims that he is a god of sorts who is killing people who tried to kill themselves and failed, and now they owe him their lives. After some comical dialogue such as "I will escape, I will escape you ar**hole", she is tortured but the inept Leon falls for her ruse of being unconscious and she manages to escape the house but is hit by a car, the car clearly doesn't hit her but we're supposed to believe it does, and she wakes up in the hospital.

Emma wakes up and contacts the police about what happened to her, she leads two detectives to Leon's house and is shocked when they know who he is, it's the local coroner. Once inside the house, Leon claims his innocence and the detectives believe him without question and call her a crazy lady to her face. It is now up to her to bring this killer to justice herself, as the police don't believe a word she says.

Everything about the film is mediocre but hilarious and fun. Jane Longenecker is extremely one dimensional and very over the top, this along with the terrible Dinocroc is the highlight of her career. Dean St Louis was awesome as Leon, he looks like a cross between Judd Nelson and Cary Elwes. Everything he does is so funny, in the basement scene he has nothing on but an apron, goes upstairs, comes back and he's fully dressed in an American football kit including helmet. It's never explained why. Shockingly this is his only film. Every actor in this film is awful, but funny awful not annoying.

There's very little gore, but there's a fair bit of nudity coming from the opening scene at the strip club and later two terrible sex scenes that aren't erotic in the slightest. One of the sex scenes has Leon hid behind a bush in an office, but they never notice he's there. Whenever there's any action in the film such as fighting, the picture keeps jumping because different takes were put together and it's really obvious. At one point in the film, Emma tries to blow a hole in Leon's house, I don't know where this lawyer got explosives from as again it isn't explained. If the detectives were real, then they would be the worst detectives that ever lived. At no point do they take her claims seriously, they're convinced she was just hit by a car, despite the fact she has a finger that's been cut off and bandaged. The ending makes no sense at all, but none of the film does so it doesn't feel out of place.

The Coroner is absolutely terrible, but despite this it is definitely one of the "so bad it's good" movies. The acting, Sublime dialogue, terrible editing, incredibly dumb victim, killer and detectives, and things that make no sense all add up to unintentional brilliance. One of the directors chose to get his name taken off this, as Alan Smithee is credited as one of the directors. Alan Smithee was a pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, until it's use was formally discontinued in 2000. If you like serious horror/drama then the movie is worth 1 star, if you're a fan of these type of movies then it's a 5 star classic. I really enjoyed it so i'll give it 3 stars as I love serious and daft films.

The dvd has a trailer, and a very short cast information extra. Also the image on the front cover and menu page is not in the film, the killer in surgical clothes is never in the film and was either designed for the film just to look cool or is from a different film all together.